Our departure from Esperance was again a fairly early one with Luke, Megan and family leaving from the same park as us, we met Carol and Kev on the north side of town to form up into our Kalgoorlie convoy crew. Kylie also had reason to be pretty excited as she was born in Kalgoorlie and this was to be her first trip back. We won't say how long ago that was, but it was lots! Enjoying our group travels we made a short smoko stop just out of Norseman. Moving north we were grateful for the warmer weather but with it came the flies! We were all forced to eat our smoko inside the vans or be prepared to share it with the millions of tiny intruders. On arrival in Kalgoorlie and after arranging ourselves we found we had been positioned with our very own beer garden shelter right beside our three vans. Being a warm day we were all ready for an afternoon drink. The kids all travel pretty well by this stage of the year but they were all keen to get out and have a look around as well.

Before tea time, and before we all had one too many, we were loaded up and headed to the Kalgoorlie Super Pit Lookout. Being just on dusk we were really treated to a spectacular view of the huge open cut operation just on the outskirts of town. Watching from a very well positioned and built lookout area we were able to see the changes as the sunlight disappeared and the strong work lights and lighting plants illuminated the workings below us. Everyone was amazed and in awe of the size and scale of the operation. Even after spending a few years around mining, I found myself impressed at the enormity of the Super Pit. I managed to answer a few questions for our group and hopefully helped them to understand the goings on a shade clearer!?

The lookout has plenty of huge sign boards that are covered in pictures, new and old, and information. Unfortunately we were unable to be present for a blast as that would have been really something for us to see. We all made a couple of trips to the lookout and all agreed it was well worth the time. The ability for locals and tourists to the area to be able to have a ringside seat to one of the biggest open cut mines in the world is an awesome achievement in these days of ridiculous health and safety regulations that make these things out of reach in other places. Making such a fantastic attraction out of what is seen by many as an ugly and dirty industry is quite an achievement for Kalgoorlie, and as we travelled more through the town we found many more places doing much the same thing.

Now Kalgoorlie is also famous for another "service" industry that prospered alongside the mines from the boom days and even in a smaller scale to this current day. Kalgoorlie's Hay Street is home to the towns legally run brothels. Having always heard the tales of these places no trip to Kalgoorlie would have been complete without a tour of the area. Luke and Megan were the first of us to take the tour and as we babysat for them they returned the favour for us the next day. Carol and Kev joined us for our tour and after sharing some laughs with the others of their tour we were pretty sure we would have an interesting arvo!?

The tour was excellent and also pretty confronting at times as well being very informative. The actual facts and figures and ins and outs, so to speak!?, I will leave to you and Google, but some of the tales were more hysterical than harmful to most people's sense of humour and good taste. Stories of time, length, bizarre dealings and even near death were all offset by a very real insight into the actual lives of the girls who worked in this more often than not, very lucrative trade. Anyone expecting the full red leather and silk curtains experience is not really thinking "Kalgoorlie" enough! The photos show the laughs we had and some of the Madame's attention to detail in her dialogue left me wondering if I would have to pay extra!!? Once back at the van park we were all able to share some laughs and a few sly smiles about each other's tour.

That day also saw our friends Greg and Kate catch us up again. We also met and shared a beer with one of Kylz Dads friends who we had gotten hold of earlier. Les shared a few tales of Kalgoorlie's past with us and also a few about Kylz Dad. Les still lives in the house built for him by Don. Yes that's right it is still standing! Not bad looking brickwork either old timer!? After sharing a few beers with Les, we knew we still had plenty left to see in WA's Golden City.

The next day we were off to the Mining and Prospectors Museum. We made a short stop at the water reservoir lookout and read all the info on the boards that tells the tale of how much the supply of water had influenced Kalgoorlie's history. Many of the stories tell tales of blokes who made more money from water than gold in those early days. The water supply was stabilised eventually by a pipeline from Perth and a constant supply was ensured for the future of Kalgoorlie. As a small sidebar, the great day arrived when the water was due to flow out through the new pipeline to the town and not a drop showed up! Fearing failure and humiliation the engineer in charge of the project topped himself! However the water arrived only 24hrs late and with no other problems the very well designed and rewarded project was a roaring success.

Arriving at the museum we were all very impressed with the quality of the displays that were on show. Everything from current day, large scale mining equipment, to the tools of the original scratchers and prospectors. Many of the large mines still running today in OZ were started from small claims found by ringers or water borers that were constantly on the lookout for signs of mineral or oxides as they passed through the hard rocky country in the course of their day. We were even lucky enough to see a real gold pour. The bloke running the pour was a wealth of knowledge and all our eyes lit up as he passed an $80K ingot of pure gold around the room for all to hold. His comments to us that the museum was struggling a bit with ailing support from the big miners was a real shock to us as the place provided the best experience as far as the mining industry goes that we had all seen. Luke and Megan were even able to take an underground tour to one of the operating shafts lower levels. It would be a shame if the place was forced to scale back too far or even close.

As we were leaving the mining museum we took a short detour to the Two-Up rings north of town. Kylz grabbed a tourist version of the famous game with a couple of new gold pennies and a flash looking flat pine "Kip". There is not much left of the place these days, however "when in Rome", we spun the coins a few times and shared a tin or two. The girls all had a spin and we even managed to get one of our first group photos. Now as you browse through the photos you will see a few of these group shots so spare a thought for the effort required to organise us all into some form of shape to allow a quick snap to be taken.

Our last day in Kalgoorlie started with a trip to Hammond Park. This really is a small oasis in the middle of nowhere and it is really well looked after. With heaps of shade trees and BBQ tables as well as acres of green grass it made a welcome change from the dust and dirt around the rest of town. Huge cages with many different parrots and some beautiful water features cap off a top little spot. The four girls all took off like rockets when we let them loose on the grass and it took about a good half hour for them to settle back down. Our park had a pool in it and they all love swimming but there is nothing like running amuck in fresh green grass is there. We took another run up the main street and even a tour through the town museum after which we thought we would find ourselves a nice pub and have a counter lunch. The earthquakes of last year unfortunately did a fair bit of damage to this part of town and after finding a pub with a mine shaft in the floor we were directed to another pub down the road for a meal.

While in our caravan park we met up again with Phil and Joe. Remember from a few blogs ago? Told you we would meet them again. While talking to them we found our travel plans were very similar and it was decided that they would also join our little convoy. It was then that Team Nullarbor was at full strength!?