Travelling Oz

12th May
The discovery of gold by Paddy Hannan in 1893 led to one of Australia's great gold rushes. Kalgoorlie-Boulder has since developed into Australia's largest gold producer. Situated just 596 kms from Perth, it has many tourist attractions including Australia's largest open pit mine, the Two Up school and the infamous brothel strip.

Kalgoorlie:

We caught up with friends (Sally, Carol and Greg) and enjoyed a few wonderfull evenings.

We've seen photos of the open pit mine and seen tv news clips etc, but nothing can prepare you for the experience of actually being there and experiencing it... It is humungous.

The largest open pit mine in the southern hemisphere and the 3rd largest in the world.
It's like another world with it's road and safety rules, ore trucks that are three stories high costing $4.2 million each, tyres costing $30,000 each and carrying 225 tonnes of ore at 55km/ph. Fuel bill for the Open Pit mine is in excess of $3 million a week.......................

We also did the underground mine tour which was a real eye opener of the hardships the early miners faced and the mortality rate in the early days. We now understand why miners earn such huge salaries nowadays.

A short trip out of town took us to The Broad Arrow pub, which was another highlight.
The pub, originally built in 1896 is a must see. As we pulled up in front of it, we thought the grafitti vandals had paid a visit. Once we walked inside, it looked like the place had been totally trashed as there was writting and scribling everywhere. The barmaid soon explained that since 1982, just about every visitor had been writting there names and messages wherever they could find space and it's what gives the place it's unique character. All the walls, doors, shelves and even the rafters are covered with scribling. A nice cold beer and one of their renowned burgers finished off the experience.

It was chilly in Kalgoorlie with temperatures dropping to 8 degrees some evenings, park facilities were good and we really had an enjoyable time.

Norseman:

Stopped for lunch on the way to Esperance and toured the town and sites.
Another mining town full of history, good views and an enjoyable stop. Continued onto Esperance.

Life On The Road:

Been on the road now for a little over two weeks and what a learning curve it's been.

We've done a load of changes and modifications to both the 4WD and Caravan to make life easier and a bit more organised and we're gradually settling into our travelling routine.Everything is going well and Marlene has amazed me with her progress. She's already a different person and has done every walk I've done, so really good news that her back and athritis are improving and she's now even enjoying every minute of the trip and even admitting it :)

Getting to grips with all the new cameras and video gear has been a big task and we're now getting there. As you know, Wave Rock was the first stop. It was only when we got to Kalgoorlie that I downloaded and reviewed all the footage from all the cameras that I realised it wasn't what up to scratch. "NOT HAPPY JAN". I wasn't happy with the quality of what I'd shot there and decided it needed re-doing. So a round trip from Kalgoorlie all the way back to Wave Rock consisting of 725 kms, $195.00 of diesel and a very, very long day eventually produced a result I was happy with.

I now review all footage before moving on, so it was a good lesson to learn before we got too far into the trip.Just have to get used to carrying all the camera gear everywhere we go. I was a bit self conscious about walking around with all the gear and standing out in the crowd, so tried to take the minimum and hand hold the camera. Just didn't work.
The new Sony XDcam video camera at just on 5 kgs, is just too heavy to shoot freehand without a shoulder mount, so will be making one as soon as the opportunity presents, meantime, the tripod plus all the other gear is still a necessity.

I took all the gear on the Woody Island trip and did a lot of shooting on the tripod, plus the other cameras.
People looked at me funny at the start of the day bogged down with all my gear, but soon started talking to me and as soon as I explained the "travelling oz" thing, everyone was cool. In fact, lots of them had thought of doing the same thing for the same reasons, but didn't have the expertise or gear to do it, but all thought it was a good idea, so now I don't worry to much about taking everything.

The only down side of doing the documentary, is that it's really hard work carrying all the gear and every stop means setting up all the gear and doing all the shooting etc, then reviewing it before carrying on, but I'm enjoying the challenge and Marlene is starting to gain an interest and get involved, but still refuses to get in front of the the camera............ bummer.
but I'm working on it though :)

Most importantly, we're having an absoulte ball and the experience is exceeding our expectations.