Today started off quite early, we had intended to start earlier in the day but almost over slept due to watching some episodes of How I met your mother last night lol. Today we are on a road trip because I want Damian to see some things in WA before he goes home.

After filling up the car on both gas and petrol we set off with a couple bottles of water in the back in high spirits of reaching Gwalia. The journey up the Goldfields highway is not the most exciting but I guess it helped to have some company. We almost ran over some Emu which ran into the road and all Damian could say was did in get it on camera...no actually I didn't lol.

The scenery is wonderful but after a while it does get a little bit samey. I think I managed to get a sneaky couple of minutes sleep in without him noticing and I'll deny it if he asks lol. We were cruising along quite nicely till we got stopped by the police for speeding...tut tut tut Damian. Afterwards he told me he would have slowed down if he thought those cars could get you coming the other way lol. We made it to Gwalia in good time although almost missing the turn off due to a last minute sign. We went into the museum and took a walk round the old cars, buildings and into Herbert Hoovers house which has since been renovated a little and turned into a guest house. Damian remarked on how modern the place was having a TV before it was even invented! *smile*.

We left our comments and names in the guest book, Damian decided that he would write 'it's hot here' and 'I'm with stupid' drawing an arrow at my name...

We took a look at the pit which had a goat in the bottom of it but someone was being blind and couldn't see it for 10 minutes! *nudge nudge Damian*

Afterwards the lady in the museum told us we could go and look at the old town and walk round some of the houses down there so off we went. I somehow think Damian was a little bit disappointed when we got down there as he was expecting a ghost town with tumbleweeds similar to the Wild West I guess lol. We did walk round some of the houses and saw some of the 1960's things left behind. It was more fun than it sounds though but we had a good laugh pretending we should of have seen a house before buying it and I commented on how rubbish one of the cookers was and how he wasn't getting dinner from me tonight lol. There were some pretty cool old cars outside though, a bit rusted through as I almost put my foot through the bottom of one! But Damian managed too sit behind the wheel so I took a photo...got to be better than his Lexus back in Ireland anyway lol.

We left Gwalia and went into Leonora. All we saw was the inside of the petrol station and that was a complete rip off! On the way back we went to Kookynie which is another ghost town. This one is dubbed the living ghost town. It was basically a few brick ruins not much to see really. We took a bet on how to get there and of course I lost on a punt. Damnit. We then went to Niagara Dam which I thought was lovely. The weather was just perfect. Not for swimming in though but walking around for a while it was a really nice site to visit. Apparently you can camp there too which is something for people to know if you're in the area. I dared Damian to go inside a little hole and out the other side and he was all up for the challenge till he discovered a dead Gallah in there lol.

We left Niagara and went back to Menzies and went for a drink in the local pub. They had a really nice pub garden there so we stopped for a drink before he let me drive to Lake Ballard. The road is all gravel and I shat myself a little bit at slipping and sliding across the road for the 50km to the lake. Damian kept asking me why I was weaving across the road and I was like stop asking me I don't know! Lol. We made it to the lake and it is another beautiful place you had to take time to see in WA. The lake is a massive salt flat and contains 51 Aboriginal statues of men, women and children on it. The only thing we never thought about was that it had rained the night before so the lake was like an ice rink! I did have to laugh though, Damian was slipping around and moaning that his good DC runners were getting covered in mud! I tried to make him chase me but knew full well that he'd damn well pull me over on the mud! I thought it would be a good idea to race each other to the top of a hill but about half way up we were both really tired and just walked up. The view was amazing, I think I could have walked round that lake all day but it was too slippery. So after taking some slapstick photos and some serious ones on the lake we headed back to the car. Both of us wet (it started to rain) and a little burnt due to neither of us putting on sun cream!

On the way back through Menzies we spotted Geoffs car and it turns out Chris and Kai were in the pub so we stopped there for a bit. We got on the road again and no sooner than we started than was Damian asleep in the passenger seat! We had intended to go into The Broad Arrow pub but when we got there it was closed. I knew this might be his last chance to see a proper sunset in WA so I was racing down the Goldfields highway to try and get to Bushlands park on the edge of Kalgoorlie. We never made it but raced to the top of Mount Charlotte to just see the last glow of the sun over Kalgoorlie. It had been an epic day and I am glad I got to show Damian how it could have been if he had said yes to coming travelling with me around Australia instead of going home to Ireland. There are so many things I wanted to show him, how travelling really could be if you went with the right people. At least I got this one day and I am glad he had (in his words) an amazing balls day with me. *smile*

The picture is of me and Damian at the top of that hill at Lake Ballard.