The starting point

The starting point

Sunday, 24 March 2024

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

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