Getting colder as we head down the coast and inland

As much as we both were enjoying being sun bunnies - the trip must go on.  We sort of followed the coast and did some drop-ins to see the sea - we have left the Coral Cast and moved into what is called the Batavia Coast.  Named after one of the more famous ship wrecks along this coastline in 1629.  Yes! the Dutch had been hitting the West Australian coast long before the Brits.

A big change happened along this road - farmland!! Miles and miles of what looks like wheat, but there is an even bigger shock ahead for us - Geraldton is the biggest town//city we have been to since Toowoomba on day one.   Not sure whether we liked being in the city or not - I did enjoy going to Spotlight and buying some wool for a new project.  And Jim could get gear for some minor repairs that needed doing.  But it probably says something when I tell you we headed east (very strange saying headed east and not west) from Geraldton and on our third night out we were the only people in the camp spot.

We spent some days and nights investigating the northern goldfields and then headed into Kalgoorlie - Kalgoorlie is pretty big but it was not so much of a shock as Geraldton so we think we are nearly ready for Perth.  Kalgoorlie was fun - I don't know how many pubs there are but every corner in town seems to have one.  We only visited a couple.  We tried our hand at prospecting but no luck!

By the way we have passed a kind of half way mark - Brisbane sits a bit north of the 28th parallel and Geraldton sits a bit south of it.


The Batavia Coast - lots of early shipwrecks along this coast.  I found this groovy setting on my phone where I can be in all the photos - maybe not.

Farmland - bit different to what we have been travelling through.

Geraldton -  a beautiful memorial to the lives lost when the HMAS Sydney II was sunk during the Second World War

We are starting to see some wildflowers - can't wait till August when they really shine.

Great camp site - we were the only ones here.  Jim built a fantastic fire and the we had a spectacular night of stars. 

This is the superpit in Kalgoorlie - expand the photo to get an idea of how far down it goes. 

Sam could see the trucks and loaders down in the pit and was growlling at them if only he knew how big they really were. 

4 of this buckets fit on the back of one loader - they fill them with earth and only 1 in 7 truckloads gets gold 

We tried to find our own gold but when you look at the maths above you are pretty dam lucky to find some. 

Another thing for Jim to fix - bearing on the trialer wheel.  He is pretty good at this stuff but it must be a pain for him.