Uncategorised – me & my monkey

August 7, 2023

Quick Tour of Kalgoorlie

The Big Pit Kalgoorlie, same hole just getting bigger

We booked in for a quick tour around Kalgoorlie this morning. Had a great bus driver who took us to several spots around the city for a “taste” of some attractions including Hanson’s Tourist Mine, Boulder Town Hall, the Big Pit, the Museum and the School of Rocks. Generally it was an interesting trip, we had been to the Tourist Mine before and we could spend more time in the centre of the city but Turtle needed some minor repairs done. We had lunch in a very nice cafe, then did some shopping for bits and pieces we needed for repairs to one door handle.

The interior of the Boulder Town Hall with its ornate pressed metal ceilings

After lunch we stayed in camp enjoying the warm weather and catching up on a few jobs. Bob returned with the news that Turtle still needed a wheel alignment done but it cannot be done until tomorrow at 10 o’clock.

We then had a few quiet drinks for our final night in Kalgoorlie. We intend to go to Menzies to stay in the Caravan Park there to catch up on washing and showering. We have been free camping for a week and things are getting a bit crusty. The solar power has worked a treat, last night was the first night we had dropped below 13.0 volts since we left Ceduna and we haven’t been driving anywhere for the last three days to top up the power.

The grand exterior of the Boulder Town Hall with our blue clad fellow travellers

August 4, 2023

Almost to Norseman

We set out from our camp around nine o’clock after some light rain overnight. The changing time zones makes for interesting travel arrangements as we generally don’t want to travel to late into the afternoon (we are grey gonads after all) so we can have a coffee before starting to hit the grog.

The wind had largely subsided but we started hitting some patches of heavy rain. The traffic was relatively light so it was generally easy going. We bought fuel at Cocklebiddy Roadhouse at $2.47 per litre (at least they had the decency not to add the .9 of a cent on to pretend it was cheap) and then made our way onto Newmans Rock to camp amid the bush. we can have a fire here so it should be a good night.

July 20, 2021July 23, 2021

It’s Lonesome Away from the Kinfolk and All

Rose to a rather pleasant morning, a little wind but an ascending sun in a cloudy sky. As we cooked breakfast our travelling companions let us know that they had decided to head back south today (we knew this was going to happen just not sure when) so with a heavy heart we parted ways at the Stuart Highway turnoff – they headed back toward Coober Pedy while we turned north toward Marla. We have our Cross Border permit to head into the Northern Territory tomorrow so we decided on a short day, grab a shower and do some laundry. So we camped at the Marla Caravan Park (on the traditional lands of the Antakarinja people) which was an experience in its self. Power poles not working, find yourself a spot and cram yourself in. The showers were very clean with plenty of hot water so can’t complain to much.

Our mobile phone service using Belong has been pretty shabby this trip. We have used them on previous trips with no problems but now it appears we are effectively barred from parts of the Telstra Network which meant no service at Leigh Creek, Copley, Kingoonya, Glendambo and Marla. At this time with the need to keep up with what is happening in the COVID world and the ability to lodge permit applications and receive emails relating to them severely hampered we’re never sure when we will have service again. Hope the NT Police don’t expect us to have service. I’m thinking there will be a fair bit of correspondence between us, Belong, the Telecommunications Ombudsman and the ACCC. NOT HAPPY JAN!

July 31, 2019

Broome At Last

Arrived in Broome around nine thirty and headed straight for fuel (Turtle was running on empty for the last 40 kms). Restocked we went to the Information Centre to organise our trips etcetera. This was just as well as we got the last four tickets for our town tour to be done on Friday. Jenny and Debbie booked in for the camel rides this afternoon at three so we went to our caravan park (Taurangau Caravan Park in Cable Beach) and set ourselves up before heading out to Cable beach to wait for the camel rides. Bob and I provided the moral support. Half an hour later the rides all over and we headed up the sand to have a cold drink before heading back to camp.

July 19, 2017

Its Curtains at Curtin Springs

We had discovered that we couldn’t get into the campground at Yulara (Uluru) so we decided to set up camp at Curtin Spring Station which is 101 kms from Uluru. We got into camp at around 1.00 pm so had a restful afternoon. The wind died down today so we had a great run into the Curtin Springs, back to our usual fuel economy. We intend heading into Uluru tomorrow so that Debbie gets her first taste of the Rock.