21/03/2013

We moved into Silver Gimlet Street Kambalda with the Bovalinos for a few days, Kambalda wasn’t what we expected it had loads of trees to keep things nice and cool and it had lots of red dirt, that part we expected. Adam works for Mincor and drills for Nickel in an underground mine just south of Kambalda. We slept on a mattress on the lounge room floor, this resulted in an early wake up.

We spent some time in Kalgoorlie getting things we needed to improve our setup then made some shelves before Chris and Adam went to footy training (still watched much of the Bombers game). With only 10 people at training and a match 300 ks away back near Esperance the following day low numbers allowed a 45 year old to debut for the Kambalda Eagles. We may have had a big game the next day but it didn’t stop us from enjoying pizza and beer Bovalino style watching the end of the Mighty Bombers roll the Crows. As the boys drove for 7 hours to play 80 minutes of football the girls took the kids to the pool before heading home for some Kanga Bangers and Cider.

24/03/2013 The Broad Arrow Tavern

On the Sunday we  drove 100ks north of Kambalda (because 600ks wasn’t  enough yesterday) to the Broad Arrow Tavern, its an old gold mine area with a very old pub thats become a bit of a legend around here, not unlike the Silverton Hotel near Broken Hill.

This pub allows and looks to encourage everyone to write on the walls, it actually looks ok and you can spend/waste a lot of time trying to find names you know. About the only things without graffiti all over it was the bar staff and pool table.

On the way to Broad Arrow we stopped for fuel, I (Chris) was washing the windsreen and a guy pulled up beside me and yelled out ” hey brother, which way to Melbourne” I was supprised by the question and had to ask back “where” to make sure I heard him correct, he repeated “which way to Melbourne” I responded… “down that way 20ks and turn left” he headed of happy with my directions. Not sure if he knew it was over 2000ks once he turned left?

25/03/2013 Kalgoorlie

We packed up and relocated to the Prospectors Caravan Park in Kalgoorlie on Monday morning to plan our attack on the local gold resources, it was a super hot day with wind gusting over 50ks at times. It made for an uncomfortable day in the heat and dust that blasted us. Today (26/03) was much cooler so we rode our bikes to the WA Mines Department to get our miners licence and some maps on where to go gold hunting around Kalgoorlie.

We had to sit out some rain in the mines office for a bit before making the dash home in a break in the weather, I made it home but Chris had to walk the last 2.5 ks because he got a flat and wasn’t carrying a spare!

We spent a couple of hours wondering the streets of Kalgoorlie this afternoon and are rugged up under our awning now getting ready for a cold windy night. We will be heading out into the gold fields tomorrow or the next day to hunt for it and will report back then from the best restaurant in town and order a second Mongolian Hot Pot…