We decide to take a spontaneous side-trip to Kalgoorlie-Boulder, the mining mecca where everything is super-sized… the mines, the machinery, the blokiness of the blokes and, alas, the flies. Parts of the place are still recovering from the earthquake that struck a year ago. Nonetheless it stands as an impressive monument to the scale of industry that can be created when man sniffs gold in the ground… and sits in stark contast to the quaint outpost of Coolgardie which we pass through on our way back. (Coolgardie is the site of WA’s first goldmine, which proved to be far less "fertile" than Kalgoorlie’s Golden Mile).
The trip gives us the chance to pull off the highway and camp out for another Shabbat ‘neath the stars, where our toilet tent makes it's debut, Jack makes his first campfire from scratch, and Sam and Rikki make their first challot using wholemeal flour - clear winners all round!
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| Peering down at the enormous Super Pit in Kalgoorlie, so big that it can be seen by astronauts in space. |
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| In Kalgoorlie we meet another member of the “Australia’s largest…” family – this time it’s the giant Scoop. (Muck, Dizzy, Rollee and the rest of Bob’s gang are nowhere to be found). |
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| Budge en route to the entrance of Australia’s oldest-and-still-operational brothel in Boulder, leaving Sam back in the car to explain to the kids "what's a brothel...?" |
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No sooner have we set up camp before Rikki's hitched up her home-made tree swing. Meanwhile Benji's turning the rocky terrain into a BMX wonderland and Jack's busy building his own mini-golf course using twigs and leaves. City slickers? Hardly…!
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