6/3/24 Kalgoorlie Boulder

 

   Booked into Kalgoorlie for 2 weeks , to get some things taken care of . Cruised up the highway to the turnoff to Kambalda , seemed like a good spot to have lunch before going the next bit up to Kalgoorlie . Arriving at Boulder , we get set up in the caravan park before the rain starts , everything here is wet , there's been plenty of rain over the last week or 2 around the goldfields and it causes chaos with all the gravel/dirt roads . That doesn't help us either , it means we can't get out onto the leases where we can detect . So we do a bit of sightseeing around town , here's one of the murals on the side of a hotel in Hannan St Kalgoorlie .

    With all the rain falling , the flood water catchments are full , we've not seen Kalgoorlie like this , so it's a bit of a novelty for us .

   Makes for some good photos .

    After a day or 2 of semi dry weather , we manage to get out in the bush for some detecting .

 

  This tree amused us , it was blown over , but still kept on growing . The detecting still hasn't gotten us any gold - getting frustrating !

    Thought it would be good for a change to get some night shots of Hannan St , here's how we went .

    Here's a shot of the Recreation Hotel in Boulder .

    Time for a visit to the Superpit Lookout to see the changes . This view to the north has changed a bit , they've taken more out just to the right of centre in the photo . There's a road going from the top down in that area - it will come up better in a later photo .

    Here's the covered lookout area and an old excavator bucket - if you zoom in you can see 2 people on the left of the bucket near a black tyre . This thing is huge and will dig out 80 tonnes of material each time it's filled , but more on that later .

    Next day we headed out into the bush again . The spot we'd chosen was across a train line , unfortunately we couldn't get across the train line - there was a train parked on it !! It was stationary there for days due to the closure of the rail line across the Nullabor , caused by rain & flooding . 

   Plans had to change , so we found another spot a bit further out . The ground looked like there should be gold there , all the signs were looking good - shame about the gold though . We did get a visit from a couple of owls - they looked like Tawny Frog Mouth Owls - it kept an eye on me while I was taken photo's .

    Back to town again , stopping at an old rail bridge - or what was a rail bridge some years ago . The stockpile in the background is from the Superpit .

    Back to the Superpit again , it's an interesting spot to sit and watch the vehicles go back & forth - bit like an ant's nest really . The level is being dug up and cleared out .

     This photo shows the haul trucks , a loader , and the little bulldozer - which is the largest bulldozer Caterpillar makes , it's a D11 !! The haul trucks can carry 240tonne !! The scoop at the lookout holds 80 tonne , so it only takes 3 scoop fulls to fill the haul truck!

    Back to that track leading down into the pit . If you look closely , at the end of the track are 2 holes , one for ventilation and the other for vehicles to go underground . The small dark object is a smaller haul truck that takes material from the underground mine up for processing .

    One of the bigger haul trucks had blown a tyre or got a puncture ??? but it had to be changed on site - they had to dump it's load on the ground so they could jack it up to remove the front wheel . The vehicle to the left is a tyre removal / installation machine , there's also a white ute and people in hivis gear that can be seen . 

    There's a fleet of 40 of these haul trucks , and we could only see a maximum of 23 at any one time .

  Just down from the lookout is this old hotel being restored .

   This is Burt St Boulder - the main street . It has a great streetscape with old shop fronts & verandahs .

          More of Burt St .

     Another magnificent old building is Boulder Town Hall .

     Things are drying out a bit and we managed to get out to some salt lakes and other spots for detecting .

Also managed some aerial shots as well .

     Colours and shapes are more spectacular from above .

    The white areas are more salt making it's way to the surface .

    That's it for this blog , here's a map link :- https://www.google.com/maps/d/edit?mid=1XXTSJRCUa1S_QfTuWq-07l7KOqqUC-4&usp=sharing

5/3/24 Higginsville

 

    Leaving Norseman we headed up to Higginsville to another free camp that was also beside more detecting area . Found an area that was nice and solid to setup on , and had some lunch before going detecting .

   Hope you don't mind trees , because there's lots here that took our eye . These trees have sections that have died back , but the tree continues to grow around it .

   The detecting is not going great , can't seem to find anything at the moment , hence pictures of the trees .

    We're only here overnight , so another opportunity in the morning before we head up the road a bit further .

    The bark leaves different patterns on the tree trunks .

   Given these gums are the colour that they are , it only seems logical that the sap of the tree is a similar colour . When these trees bleed , they bleed deep red , it then goes hard , forming long red tendrils .

    After a good night , we got out again after packing up , detecting in another spot across the road - had the same amount of success as yesterday though . Ah well , better luck next time .

   Here's a map link :- https://www.google.com/maps/d/edit?mid=1axdOysTlAxf5RdAYk7V7jzpoasPOBhM&usp=sharing

1/2/24 Norseman

 

  We left Esperance and headed up to Dundas for a night in the bush , we also did a bit of detecting as well. The sunset was as close to gold as we got unfortunately . Everything up this way was damp , there's been plenty of rain in the Goldfields area over the last month , and it doesn't take much rain here to make things impassable , so we took it very carefully when bringing the van in . 

   Next day after some more detecting , we moved into Norseman to the free camp for a few nights . More rain in the form of thunder storms were happening each afternoon .

  Off detecting again , we found some areas to detect , it was also on a tourist route as well . The road took us down toward Dundas again , one stop was here at an old mine with a home made Poppit head . With a closer look , you can see it was home made as well .

 This is the mine shaft it was mounted above , it goes down over 20m and has a steel mesh cover over it .

   We detected a couple of more spots without luck , before finding another track to drive out on . The track took us through quite a few mining tenements that had been worked over , and some that are still being worked . Back to the van and another afternoon storm , the day was pretty overcast and battery charging wasn't exactly brilliant , but we had enough to cover us for the night . Given the weather forecast we decided to move to the caravan park for the next night . Before the move however , we went across Lake Cowan to a lookout . Lake Cowan is a salt lake that stretches 55klms to the north , the lookout is towards the southern end . Here's part of the view .

   Some aerial shots seemed to be in order to show some of the colours of the lake . This is looking across towards Norseman .

   This small crescent shaped island wasn't too far away from the lookout , the locals seem to like driving out onto the lakebed , judging by some of the tracks they may have been very bogged as well .

   Heading back across the lake , we stopped at some small dunes for a look . They seemed to shimmer in the sunlight .

   On closer inspection the reason was revealed , the sand dunes were in fact made up of salt crystals !!

  Up in town there are some interesting murals , this one grabbed our attention - a thorny dragon - excellent !

    Up to Beacon Hill Lookout for a look over town & the salt lakes . There's a walk around the summit , so off we went . Finding out a bit about some of the trees around this area - this one is a Coral Gum , that only grows in this area .

    Storm clouds developed as we walked , dumping rain over near the lookout we were at on the other side of the lake .

     Another wet afternoon & evening , we went out to the lake again , this time where the highway & railway cross over the lake . Some more aerial shots were needed . Highway on the left , railway on the right , as well as a water main and powerlines running beside the railway .

    This is the highway and railway heading toward Norseman .

    And there you have it , time for a map link :- https://www.google.com/maps/d/edit?mid=1XClwc5-LAPxCtnInzgx0DzJazvqk2ho&usp=sharing

29/2/24 Cape Le Grande NP

 

    Time for a visit to Cape Le Grande NP , we haven't been out here for about 6 years . The ute was serviced the other day , so it was good to give it a run . The weather was great for a day out as well . Fires have taken their toll on some of the forestry on the way out to the NP . The gum trees have been grown for wood chip , which is a pretty large export here in Esperance  , but even more so in Albany . Some survived , whilst there's plenty of dead trees still standing . 

    Onwards and into the NP , first stop Le Grande Beach . You can drive your 4wd from Esperance all the way along the beach - about 30klm , we opted not to , you usually can't get bogged on bitumen !! This photo is looking back along the beach toward Esperance .

   It's hard to call this a headland , when it's closer to it's own mountain !

   On our way around to Hellfire Bay we had to go past Frenchman Peak . We have climbed it when we were here last , an impressive view from the top .

   One of the best views in Australia , a beautiful curve of white sand and crystal clear blue water .

    I went for a walk along the beach to the other end , and checked out the fresh water creek running into the ocean . Looks pretty good from above also .

   There's a large cave just around from Little Hellfire Beach , that's probably bigger then Little Hellfire - certainly a large chunk of rock missing !!

   From here we had to go round to Lucky Bay for a look . It was only a short drive , and we arrived at the large carpark with views over the bay & beach . What we saw was disappointing - almost like Cable Beach in Broome , there were cars , motorhomes & campers all parked along the beach - there would have been 30-40 vehicles on the beach . They market the beach with the local kangaroos , not a car to be seen - the reality is completely different . Rangers now have to patrol the beach to keep an eye on everyone .

    It's still a beautiful place , but it's own natural beauty is killing it , with so many tourists wanting to see it .

 

    After some lunch , we headed around to Thistle Cove , another special piece of the coast .

    The granite mountains just roll down into the deep blue ocean . There's many pieces of granite weathering away - part of a large section of rock that has been eroding away for many a year .

    Surprise , surprise - crocs on the rocks 😂

   Stunning views from above , there's also a fresh water lagoon just behind the beach .

    This is Lucky Bay .

    After another walk along the beach and rocks , we headed back to town to fuel up and get ready for our departure tomorrow . Here's map link :- https://www.google.com/maps/d/edit?mid=1-tVUWgOtDU1GgbV5NN8wdAK1sccnyHo&usp=sharing