16/4/24 Quarading Pink Lake

    Leaving Menzies , we head back to Kalgoorlie , then onward to Coolgardie , Southern Cross and onwards to Merredin for the night , staying at the free camp again . 

   Next morning we were off again , leaving Merredin heading to Bruce Rock , Quairading , Shackleton , Beverley and back to Pinjarra . Near Quairading is Pink Lake and the road goes straight through the middle of the lake . it's a salt lake , so has some interesting features - lots of salt deposits on the fence posts , tree trunks and anything else that ends up in there .

    There's even an old telegraph pole with the telegraph wire still attached on the insulators .

    My wife waiting patiently as i take some photos .

   Getting closer to Beverley we were surprised to see smoke , it was coming from the wheat stubble that was being burnt off . Given how desperately dry the country is ,  we were surprised they were burning off . Driving was interesting as we went into the smoke , fortunately it didn't last long and we were through it reasonably quickly .

    The farmers do have it under control , with water trucks and a few vehicles keeping an eye on it . Fire breaks work effectively on the small height of the flames around the edges of the fields .

    The days following we will be getting ready for our next trip , stay tuned .

8/4/24 Menzies

     Time to leave Leonora and head back toward Kalgoorlie again . We stopped at Menzies for an overnighter , but stayed for another 2 nights as well . We found a few small pieces of gold to keep us interested , but we had to keep moving back to Perth . We got a few really nice sunsets while there , here's a few shots of them .

   Not bad for 3 nights . Back on the road tomorrow .

28/3/24 Gwalia , Malcolm Dam & Leonora

    We left Menzies and headed to Leonora , staying at the free camp at Gwalia . This photo is also a strange one - this definitely is not the normal sight that you would see - a sea of green instead of a sea of red dirt .

   Malcolm Dam was a place we had to have a look at , the dam was nearly full , there wouldn't be many people who've seen the dam this full before .

   This is the spillway of the dam , about 200mm below overflowing , which it definitely had been doing .

    We left Gwalia and went out onto a pending lease for a week of detecting , managing to find some small pieces and more rubbish , as well as a good sunset or 2 .

 Here's a map link :- https://www.google.com/maps/d/edit?mid=1Mg3BQQym1cdtDaxYtRjpGBDaiWhd2gQ&usp=sharing

27/3/24 Lake Ballard

     Friends had arrived for a few days , so we went for a drive out to Lake Ballard . We've been here before but 7 years ago and it was a lot drier then too . Here's the view from the camping area out onto the lake .

    There's plenty of water in the lake - mightn't be very deep but it does stretch for 50 odd kilometres . The statues are standing in the water , so you have to be very keen to go and look at the outlying ones - some are over 10 klms away !

   Some aerial shots reveal an interesting colour of water .

 Nearly the same colour as the surrounding dirt & sand .

    Here's a map link :- https://www.google.com/maps/d/edit?mid=1pb6kypPDYnhvEGm1_8CJi5EHuZbThMk&usp=sharing

21/3/24 Menzies

   

     We were happy to be leaving Kalgoorlie so we could do some more detecting in more familiar surrounds  . We still had to make a trip back to attend an appointment , but we combined that with some shopping as well . 

   A drive around town was done , and due to all the rain we decided to stay off the gravel roads , all except one - the road to the cemetery . Strangely enough it was dry , so we went down past the airstrip and stopped near the gates , to a well presented entrance . Laser steel cutouts beside the gate described one young mans troubles with the world - he took his own life when the gold wasn't working for him . Many graves in  the cemetery had a similar year of death - apparently Typhoid Fever was running rampant here in the early 1900's , indiscriminantly killing men , women & children .

    Some of the graves had decorations made of tin - some very ornate , even small flowers that were painted . All very intricate work .

   Normally this next photo is of a dusty , dirty section of town - not this year however .

     A few days away from the full moon , but couldn't resist a photo .

    A walking tour of the main street , this is the old post office building and had 14 staff in the early 1900's.

    The town hall doubles as the shire office as well as the Anzac memorial .

    The memorial mural .

   Greens Store , which is now the Post Office , Tourist Info Centre and caravan park office .

   Menzies Hotel and general store - but not for too much longer , it will only be the hotel . The general store will move up the road to the diner .

    Here's the front windows of the Menzies Produce Store

   Across the road are the ruins of the old bakery - the oven to be precise .

     And here we have all the 303 bullets , .22 shells , some shotgun pellets , rusty tin , wire and some aluminium foil from one detecting walk !!

 

   Here's a map link :- https://www.google.com/maps/d/edit?mid=1lCqXpe_6n9f5i94oS6jXbMbWkatTH6o&usp=sharing