4/10/23 Goongarrie

 

     Time is on our side , so we headed off south toward Kalgoorlie , but decided that we'd have a stopover on the way . We've stayed at Goongarrie Railway cottages before , but this time we chose the lake instead . Goongarrie Lake is only about 40 kms from Menzies . Set up , we went for a walk across the lake and over the red dunes for some exercise .

     An Emu had been for a walk across the lake sometime before us , leaving a good track .

      Tracks from all sorts of vehicles have left tracks across the lake surface , off into the mirage / heat haze  in the distance .

    There was some timber and the odd stump stuck in the salt & mud , showing that at some stage this lake does have water in it .

    Time for some aerial shots , here's the lake , we're parked down there somewhere - just to the right of middle .

   Did some circle work before we parked up hahaha , not likely .

    There's some interesting colours in the lakes .

Here's a map link :- https://www.google.com/maps/d/edit?mid=1z3T_qEbBlZAv9zz0N8Fb6Fm9rkTNVfQ&usp=sharing

2/10/23 Menzies

 

    Well , we finally left Leonora after spending five and a half months wondering around the bush . Didn't get too far down the road though , stopping at Menzies for a few nights . 

   Pre poll voting for the referendum was at the shire council chambers , but only for 3 hours . Voting done we headed out to a pending lease to have a detect . 

    There's a great Anzac mural painted on the wall near the memorial plaques .

   

    Luck was with us , we managed to find a couple of small pieces not far from where we found our others earlier in the year .

    This is the view not far from town , up on a hill above where we found them .

    Caution has to be taken when walking around here , there are lots of open mine shafts that aren't barricaded off , it wouldn't be hard to fall in . This one's about 8m deep !

      A few days searching around various leases , picking up lots of rubbish , but no more gold .  

  Some cleaning up done , it was time to move again . Here's map link :- https://www.google.com/maps/d/edit?mid=1djSy8DbeohJr34iKuya5f-zOqIO0Qes&usp=sharing

5/9/23 Near Leonora

 

    Back to Leonora again , we still had a couple of weeks access to the leases we first went onto 5 months ago - where did that time go !!! We decided to go back out there again , and got it organised - couldn't be any worse than where we've been right ??? We found a campsite & setup , had some lunch and went for a drive around to find some good ground to detect on . No luck there , so day one was a bit of a washout - no result . 

  Next day we headed over to where we'd found a small nugget when we were here before . After about 15mins we'd found 3 small pieces - we were happy !! Before lunch we'd found another couple , then more afterwards - all small , but they add up . This is where we found them .

    A nice sunset .

             A small lizard joined us , very well camouflaged .

                               Also found this flying insect about the size of a 20 cent piece .

                Something we weren't really expecting , an emu egg about 130mm long and 100mm across - it had been out in the weather for some time .

    Another storm came through , bringing with it lots of wind and red dust , before it rained and sort of washed the dust away .

    Another day we headed out to Malcolm Dam for a look , and what better way to have a look than from above .

    The dam does fill up occasionally , but not this year so far . The yellow tinge on the ground is tiny yellow flowers .

     Here's our campsite .

     Here's map link :- https://www.google.com/maps/d/edit?mid=1Wo4CVTWvL2FyUwFxv0dpJRvPqPuvkjc&usp=sharing

3/9/23 Murrin Murrin

 

     Camping at Gwalia for a couple of days while we decide where to go next . Here's some of the old buildings where the miners lived .

    The old garage is a classic , as well as the Royal Hotel in the background .

    Decision made , we headed out to Murrin Murrin for a week , to some pending leases that we could get onto . More different ground to look at  and again lot's of it . 

    The gold was hiding well , we didn't find any in the week we were there , fortunately there were some wildflowers to checkout .

    When the flowers come , they are usually en masse .

      These ones are tiny .

     They're only about 10 - 20mm high , but there's thousands of them carpeting sections of the ground .

     The ground is colourful when viewed from above , whites , reds , oranges and green .

     Not far away as the crow flies is Murrin Murrin Nickel Mine which has spread itself across the landscape here , it makes the King of the Hills gold mine look small !! Check it out on the map link .

    After a week of not finding , we headed back to Leonora again to decide our next step .

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

1/9/23 White Well

 

   Back into the big smoke of Leonora for a day , before going to our next destination - a place called White Well . It was named after the white dirt that's below the tank near the well . We picked our spot and set up camp for another month . Here we are in the stoney desert again , with several thousand acres to go detecting on - a daunting task in itself , just trying to find some gold !! 

   There's all sorts of different ground out here , we checked here , we detected there , and there , and over here and over there , but couldn't find anything .  Here's some of the scenery .

   Sunsets were worth looking at , it was the only gold we were getting !

    Another day and some different ground , but still no gold , Hmmmm.

     Storms came and went , dumping some rain on the parched ground .

     A few days were spent on some other leases that we also had access to , but still none of the precious yellow !

     Walking around is sometimes harder than other times due to the rocks .

    Here's some aerial shots of where we are - we found a small nugget in this area - finally !! It was across the highway and on some crown land - not on the leases we had access to !

    There's a large gold mine about 5klms away " King of The Hills " - it's huge , going from one side of the photo to the other - that's about 10klms across .

     Here's where we're parked up , no neighbours anywhere near us .

    We finally found a section that had some small specimens in it ( gold in rock ) , so that relieved the pressure of not finding anything . Gold detecting can be very emotional , if you're finding some , all is good . If you're not finding any , it gets a bit depressing - an emotional roller coaster !! 

    After a month here , we headed back to town again , to decide on our next step .

 Here's a map link :- https://www.google.com/maps/d/edit?mid=1oblgsM1qrujxxhPDQ2sfFkivoc9jct8&usp=sharing