How humiliating to be carried into Kalgoorlie on a tow truck! And after two days in a Hyundai workshop the mechanics could find nothing wrong with her, even tho her battery flattened out a second time while she was there. So I consulted an auto electrician and spent an hour watching him do exhaustive tests. He felt that something was wrong but couldn’t quite put his finger on it. So I was easily persuaded to buy an expensive set of lithium jumper leads. From now on I will be a self-starter when things go wrong!
Meanwhile I enjoyed two nights renting the artist’s flat above the Black Crow Gallery and looking around Kalgoorlie. Once Bertha was restored to me I visited Boulder (the often forgotten sister city), the Super Pit (open cut goldmine over many old underground mines), the end of the Goldfields water pipeline (see entry Almost to Perth) at the Mount Charlotte Reservoir, and Lake Lefroy, a really huge salt lake. Pictures are in the Kalgoorlie to Norseman video here on YouTube. I was in Norseman just long enough to refuel and to make a left hand turn onto the Eyre Highway heading east towards the Nullarbor Plain. I spent the night just beyond Norseman and the next day visited the Balladonia Roadhouse. It has a small historical museum of the usual dubious quality, but which also has a genuine piece of space junk: a bit of Sky Lab that fell from the sky onto nearby land in 1979 (picture above). Then I set out back across the Nullarbor. Nights 203-204 - BIG4 Caravan Park, Kalgoorlie. This was a dusty place with an assortment of miners, grey nomads, and prospectors who towed interesting bits of equipment or off road vehicles behind them. Night 205 - RV Park beside Centennial Park Kalgoorlie. Convenient and friendly. Night 206 - beside an old railway siding on Lake Lefroy, a bit before the Widgiemooltha Roadhouse. Night 207 - Jimberlana Hill rest area, just east of Norseman.
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The area is littered with large granite rocks, seriously large ones. Wave Rock (height 14m, length 110m) is very well known, and while I also visited Mount Walker, Bruce’s Rock, Baladjie Rock, and Boondi Rock l passed by signs to as many more. It’s amazing how granite can weather into interesting or boring shapes! One of the most interesting, The Hippo’s Yawn is at the back of Wave Rock seldom gets a mention! Rainwater doesn’t sink into granite as it does into soil, so various means get deployed to catch and hold the runoff: a concrete pond at Mount Walker, wells at Bruce’s Rock and a large tank at Boondi Rock that was constructed to service passing steam trains.
After Pingrup I stopped for lunch in Lake Grace, an isolated agricultural town. When I crossed the Wheatbelt from east to west back in June, the young canola fields, green and yellow, were patterned against the red or brown wheat fields. Now in September the canola is the brightest yellow and the wheat crop is the brightest bright green. As I moved west along Great Eastern Highway and cropping gave way to open woodland, the Great Western Woodlands. I woke at Boondi Rock to the unpleasant experience of finding the battery flat and being out of phone range. Fortunately friendly campers had the gear and soon got me on my way; at least I thought so. But quite soon Berta lost power, and I had to roll her off the road. I was able to call the RAC road service from beside the highway, but since it was a sunny Sunday afternoon I opted to camp there overnight and to face the rigours of being towed right through Coolgardie into Kalgoorlie on Monday morning. YouTube video: The Wheatbelt and its Rocks. Nights 196-197 - Wave Rock Short Stay (A). Night 198 - Burracoppin, beside the highway (D). Night 199 - Baladjie Rock, Baladjie Nature Reserve (E). Night 200 - Southern Cross, at the Overnight Stopover (G). Night 201 - Boondi Rock Campground (H). Night 202 - beside the highway, broken down 25km west of Coolgardie (I). I should love to have seen a greater length of the South Coast; however the Stirling Range was magical in a different way, perhaps the more so because I knew so little about it and had no expectations. Additionally, a friend in Albany gave me house space to sort my possessions and abandon some of them, so I was travelling with a bit more space to move in. Then another friend was able to restore Bertha’s awning to its rightful place, and after that I have a lot more space!
YouTube videos: Across the Stirling Range, Wildflowers long version, Wildflowers shorter version. Night 191 - Mount Trio walking track car park. Nights 192-194 - Kylebub Crossing Camp. Night 195 - Pingrup Caravan Park. I decided to skip Margaret River in favour of seeing the great trees of the inland forests. Not being able to hike far I found these to be fairly touristed but was grateful for the ease of access. See this video; it has three sections: the tram on the old railway at Pemberton, the Understory sculpture park at Northcliffe, and the Valley of the Giants near Walpole. The second video focuses on the spots where I hit the southern ocean; I’m not sure why it looks a bit washed out.
Nights 182-183 ~ Pemberton Caravan Park. Great park situated between the town and the forest. Night 184 ~ Sid’s Campground near Northcliffe. Night 185 ~ Mandalay Beach car park. Night 186 ~Beside A1 highway, before Denmark. Nights 187-190 ~ Spencer Park, suburb of Albany. |
AuthorIn mid 2018 I started recording each night I sleep in Bertha: sometimes just for myself, sometimes to share with friends and other travellers. Archives
February 2024
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