We woke to it pouring with rain, so we weren't in any hurry to hit the road. The morning was spent doing computer work, updating the blog before heading into Kalgoorlie for lunch. We certainly are rugged up, it is still pouring with rain, 16 degrees and with the wind going right through our bodies. To cross the road to get to the supermarket we had to jump over fast flowing rivers of water, so we found another supermarket out of town, which was much easier and accessible to shop at.

We decided not to stay at the 24hour stopover in town, as last time we were here we had the Ranger knocking on our door at 8am. He kindly, after waking us up, informed us that our bucket under our waste outlet didn't comply with their regulations. The campsite just north of town was too close to the highway, so we went in search for another site. Heading down to the 'Two Up' area we found the old highway, here we thought we could set up for the night. We stopped to check out our options, when we heard a loud bang, which we both thought was a branch had landed on the roof, then to discover once we started to drive off, DABUS was limping down the road. b*****…..we thought we've got a flat tyre but no it was another rock stuck in between the dual tyres.

So, here we are stuck on the side of a road, pissing down with rain. Alan is lying on our green ground mat, Lorelle standing over him with our large golf umbrella (first time we have travelled with an umbrella) and Alan trying to smash this bloody rock. He let down the outer tyre and finally got the rock out, but he had concerns about damage to the inside tyre. Its still pouring, Alan's dripping wet, cold and not happy, so we crept back into Kalgoorlie. It took some time to finally find a place to pump up the tyre and get the inner checked out, so it's now getting dark and we end up at the 24hour stopover back in town. Right where we didn't want to be, so we didn't put a bucket out and had a goodnights sleep without the Ranger trying to introduce himself in the morning.

In the morning Alan wanted to find an Auto Electrician, as he was still not happy with the poor performance of our house batteries. We found one, Seeley Auto Electricians, they were very obliging to have a look and load test the three house batteries, only to find they were failing under load. Across the road was a Supercheap Auto, who stocked our batteries, the staff there weren't to helpful in regards to a change over of the batteries. Back to Seeley's and after numerous calls to Keith in Darwin and Century Batteries we went back to Supercheap to explain that the batteries were under warranty, ok….they are happy to assist and we walked out with three new batteries. We were back on the road after 2pm, then off to laundromat, fuel, water, dump point we headed out of town and stopped the night just north of Kalgoorlie. Alan was certainly happy with the battery performance overnight, so lets just hope we have no more issues.

The roads we travel on; north of Kalgoorlie are unchartered roads for us. It's interesting seeing so many mines, production areas etc as we are travelling along. We have downloaded the 'Golden Quest' app, which is a discovery trail for towns, ghost towns etc north of Kalgoorlie. The first stop for the day was Broad Arrow, which once was a thriving gold town with 8 pubs. Today only one pub remains, The Broad Arrow Tavern, which was built in 1896. Opposite the pub is the Broad Arrow's Railway Water Tower, a 25,000 gallon cast iron water tank, that was heritage-listed back in 2002. It is one of few such water towers built during the gold rush era to have survived. At Goongarrie, we stopped for lunch before checking out the old railway cottages.

Our next destination was Menzies, which is a very neat and tidy town. Menzies in its gold mining hay days of 1900s boasted 13 hotels, three banks, its own breweries and cordial factories, a Post Office with 26 staff, a school with 205 students, and public library and four churches. Today there is a pub with a general store within it, café, servo, information centre, a stunning Shire office and caravan park. We walked the town and explored the rusty steel figures that reflect some of the people who lived here long ago.

Lake Ballard

After a visit to the Information Centre to find out the condition of the road out to Lake Ballard, we were informed the road was in great condition. The road heads west from Menzies, with the first 25km being bitumen and last 26km of good dirt road. DABUS could easily sit on a comfortable 75km on the dirt road.

We drove past the turn off to Lake Ballard for another 1km and arrived at Snake Hill Lookout. What a stunning view overlooking the salt lake of Lake Ballard.

After setting up camp at the free camping area, which provides toilets, tables, fire pits etc we went on our first walk, across the salt lake, to check out some of the magnificent sculptures.

This incredible display of 51 sculptures by artist Antony Gormley are set in this eerie setting of Lake Ballard. They look like aliens scattered across the lake, just watching you. The feeling of walking across this salt lake was quite surreal, with the salt crunching under our feet and some areas were quite wet and slippery due to the recent rains. It felt like we were walking on an iced up lake and you got the feeling that the ground could just give way.

Here we spent two wonderful days, hiked the hill the following morning and weren't disappointed with the stunning views.

Stories have been told that it is known that some people have got butt naked with these sculptures, maybe for a photo shoot or two.

We both loved this part of our wonderful country and highly recommend a visit to anyone who is up this way.

The Milk Story

Back in Menzies, we needed to buy some milk. The general store is part of the pub and out the back. So Lorelle goes in to purchase 2lts of milk, no milk to be seen in the fridge, so she asked the guy if he had any low fat milk. 'Sure, it's in the other fridge' and off he goes into a different room and to return with a couple of 1ltrs & 2 lts. Asked which she would prefer. The 2lts…….cost of $6.80…..the dearest milk we have ever purchased, plus the paper. Not much change was given back from $10.

Anyhow the next morning, breaky and coffee time, the dearest milk container is pulled out of the fridge, only to find it was full cream milk and not the low fat milk we thought we had purchased. Lorelle then inspected the best before date…21/6/18 we purchased it on the 23/6/18…b*****…. Yes it was still ok but the dilemma is what to do with 2lts of full cream milk past it's best before.

Alan comes up with the idea…..Sweets......Kahlua and milk….Problem solved.

Niagara Dam & Kookynie.

Our journey continued onto Niagara Dam, when arrived after 3pm, all the prime spots were taken, so our camp for the night was below the dam wall. It was a great spot as we had sand and not rock under our feet. Niagara Dam was built by the Railways Department in 1897-98 with the intention it would provide plenty of fresh water for the locomotives. It cost 62,000 pounds and the biggest challenge was getting the cement from Coolgardie, 137 miles away. Camels were loaded with two wooden half barrels of cement, a total weight of about half a ton each camel. The dam is noted as being a 'White Elephant' as by the time the dam was completed very little water had accumulated due to lack of rain. To make matters worse, good underground water had been located at nearby Kookynie.

Kookynie is 9kms up the road, this town is called 'A Living Ghost Town'. Not much there except a pub with fuel and some ruins. Signpost are scattered throughout the town, showing where building once stood, in days gone by, but looking beyond the signs you were looking a vacant bits of land. Now the pubs a different story, Willie the local horse comes to the front door looking for food and a coldie. Willie didn't disappoint as he was out the front when we arrived.

From Kookynie up to Malcolm the dirt road was closed to vehicles over 3 tonnes, so we had to detour back to the Goldfields Hwy. Onto Leonora to fuel up then went to check out the Historical Town of Gwalia, we went to the museum, which sits right beside the open cut gold mine. Very interesting history. Our night was then spent beside the Malcolm Dam, 12k east of Leonora, not much water but stunning all the same.