Norseman is right where the Eyre Highway starts. This is the highway across the Nullarbor Plain into South Australia. Before I hit the Eyre Highway though I wanted to make a detour 188 kilometres north to the gold mining town of Kalgoorlie-Boulder to have a look at the Super Pit. Before that though I went to have a look at the Beacon Lookout at Norseman. This is a hill on the edge of the town that gives a great view and there are a load of interesting boards providing the history of the place. In the late 1800’s Norseman was known as the Goldfields. The town drew many prospectors all with the dream of striking it rich and making a fortune. One of these was Laurie Sinclair who began searching around Coolgardie about 200 kilometres from Norseman. Coolgardie along with Kalgoorlie-Boulder was a major find of gold but not much prospecting had been done further south. Laurie had decided to go back to Esperance but on the way stopped to search in the hills just around what is now Norseman. Legend has it that whilst tethered his horse ‘Norseman’ pawed the ground causing a piece of gold bearing quartz to lodge in his hoof. That is how the town got it’s name. It took just over two hours to get up to Kalgoorlie-Boulder. It is a big mining town and is the biggest place I’ve been to since leaving Perth. In fact, Kalgoorlie is the first place with traffic lights since leaving Perth. The edge of town is very industrial and it is dominated by the super pit. I went to the viewing area and the scene before my eyes was just awesome. It is simply staggering. It is vast, 500 metres deep, 3.8 kilometres long and 1.35 kilometres wide. There are these trucks coming up from the bottom which are as big as houses but look like matchbox toys at the bottom. It’s like I imagine the grand canyon to be but with big diggers. Louis would be completely transfixed by it, he’d love it! There is obviously still a lot of gold to be found in this mine. After that I went into the centre which is all big streets. It’s a bit of a cowboy town really. I went to Woolworths for supplies and then found a camp site on the edge of town for the night. It was about 35 degrees today and it didn’t cool down much at night. Found it a bit difficult getting to sleep tonight because of the heat, but I’ll soon get used to it I’m sure. There’s lots of driving to do for the next few days as I’m heading back to Norseman tomorrow and across the Nullarbor. Nite nite my excited emus!
PS I’ve got to amend the best shower chart as the shower here at Kalgoorlie-Boulder was pretty damn good and the one at Norseman well it goes straight to the top of the chart! This was one hell of a fierce shower, the water pressure was just incredible. You had to be careful not to blast parts of your body off. It literally took your skin off and possibly should have come with a danger warning. This one’ll take some beating!


NEW SHOWER TOP 5

1. GATEWAY CARAVAN PARK, NORSEMAN (the most incredible shower of my life so far!)
2. MIDDLETON BEACH, ALBANY
3. PORONGURUP RANGE
4. DISCOVERY HOLIDAY PARK, KALGOORLIE-BOULDER (wide blast area and skin tingingly good, like a massage, sublime!)
5. PEACEFUL BAY




PPS I’ve just finished reading Charlotte Street by Danny Wallace. It was genius. This was his first novel and he should be very proud of it. It’s a fantastic story, very funny and very well written. As well as the main story there are loads of sub plots going on and he brings them all together brilliantly at the end.

RIVETING READ, VERY CLEVER AND VERY FUNNY. MOST ORIGINAL WRITING STYLE. VERY DANNY WALLACE. SHOULD BE MADE INTO A FILM.

10/10 KANGAROG HAPPINESS IS THE ROAD REVIEWS

“It all starts with a girl… (because yes , there’s always a girl…) Jason Priestley (not that one) has just seen her. They shared an incredible, brief, fleeting moment of deep possibility, somewhere halfway down Charlotte Street. And then, just like that, she was gone - accidentally leaving him holding her old fashioned, disposable camera, chock full of undeveloped photos… And now Jason - ex-teacher, ex-boyfriend, part-time writer and reluctant hero - faces a dilemma. Should he try and track The Girl down? What if she’s the one? But that would mean using the only clues he has, which lie untouched in this tatty disposable… It’s funny how things can develop…’


I’m now reading Scary Monsters and Super Creeps by Dom Joly. He is one hell of a funny guy. His sketch with the backpackers on his new tv show, Fool Britannis was hysterically, table slappingly, eyes wateringly funny!!!!!