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| BMWMCCWA morning tea, Credit: Chris Fitzhardinge |
I was only
a mile from home when I found myself musing over whether our two litre cask of
wine would last for two nights or three. I was soon snapped back to reality
when we found ourselves in the thick of Wednesday morning peak hour traffic. We
still had options, so we decided to go the back way to Mundaring where we were
meeting a bunch of BMW bike club dudes for a cuppa before starting a two week
ride through goldfield country.
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| Red Devil and Red Dwarf |
We spent
the first night in Dalwallinu, and we had to wait well into the morning for the
fog to clear before heading northwards to Cue. We stopped at the Jibberding Nature
Reserve, to drink brewed coffee and admire the stunning display of wildflowers
and it felt good to be alive. We fuelled up in Paynes Find and were delighted
to find the museum open. It was a treat to listen to some stories, from a
Paynes Find long time local, and I bought a packet of rocks to remember having
been there.
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| Cue, Western Australia |
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| Old Masonic Lodge, Cue |
The birds
could not be relied upon to waken us at dawn, as they could be heard tweeting
anytime after 2am. But Steve heard a rooster on our first morning in Cue and we
both knew that the rooster could be relied upon to tell the time. We were only
two days down the road when we had to live through "the case of the missing
cereal measuring cup," which, like gold dust, turned up at the bottom of
the cereal packet.
In Cue we
learnt about folklore legend, Russian Jack. The story goes that when Jack was
making his way to Cue, during the gold rush, and pushing his wheel barrow 30
miles each day, he came across another miner who was on his last legs. Instead
of leaving him by the wayside, he piled his mates belongings, and his new found
mate, onto his wheelbarrow and carried on to Cue, still making 30 miles each
day.
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| Aboriginal Art, Walga Rock |
We trundled
out along the well graded gravel roads to beautiful Walga Rock. We ambled all
over the rock, watching the little creatures enjoying their last few days
before the rock pools ran dry. We gazed upon the rock paintings without hoards
of other folk around. "Who painted the ship?" was cause for much
discussion back at our camp that night. I'm going with the theory that it was a
mariner, from a faraway land, because of the writing underneath the ship.
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| Walga Rock |
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| Milly Soak |
We took the
bikes for a run to Nallan Lake and found the lake full of water and bird life.
On our circumnavigation we saw mallard duck, egret and an abundance of small water
birds that we were unable to identify. Then we followed in the bicycle tracks
of the 1930's girls and boys and went for a picnic to Milly Soak. Milly Soak is
home to the most beautiful stand of ghost guns I have ever seen. It is as if a
great artist hand painted each one a pale shade of grey. Back in the gold rush
days water was so scarce it is said that you were lucky to wash your finger
tips before making a loaf of damper. The Cue townsfolk managed to contaminate
their own water supply and not far from the soak are three graves, whose
inhabitants were struck down with typhoid fever.
I enjoy
listening to the yarns around the bbq at the end of the day. One prospector
said his great uncle use to run the bicycle shop out at Big Bell, and another
said his great grandfather was a miner at Day Dawn. They burnt their sausages
while they told us their stories and I listened, wide eyed, to everything they
had to say.
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| Hospital ruins, Cue |
While we
were checking out the ruins of the old hospital in Cue, an old local prospector
pulled up on his quad bike. He lamented that he had "spent most of his
life in jail." He laughed a lot and I said, "you seem to have found
some happiness here." He gave me the pick of the rocks in his tray. In my
excitement to chose a treasured souvenir, I forgot to ask him his name. When we
looked around he was nowhere to be seen. This beautiful piece of jasper will have
a special place on my patio at home.
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| Prospectors in Sandstone |
We moved
our camp to Sandstone and enjoyed sitting around the fire pit and listening to
the prospectors yarn. There were some good stories going around, like the guy
who found a gold sovereign, the size of a $2 coin, and the kids spent it in a
slot machine. But the one I liked the most was the guy who stops to relieve
himself on the side of the road and finds himself peeing on a few ounces of
gold ~ one prospector added "this is the kind of story that keeps the dream
alive."
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| London Bridge |
From
Sandstone there is a well worn tourist trail that takes in the ruins of a state
built well, dug to 100m deep. You can peer inside and appreciate the technique
of shoring up the walls with timbers, in the same way the mine shafts were
constructed years ago. The old brewery was amazing. Here they used a cave to
keep the grog at a suitable temperature for drinking. They call this land
around Sandstone, Breakaway Country. The Basalt rock is eroded by wind and rain
leaving outcrops to ramble over and enjoy the view.
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| Intersection of the Canning Stock Route and Gunbarrel Highway, Wiluna |
When we
heard we could dine at the BHP mine mess in Leinster for $20 a head, Leinster
became our home for a couple of nights. From Leinster we took Devil (F650GS)
and Dwarf (R1200GS) on a day ride to Wiluna ~ Weeloona - place of the winds. I
will always remember the pack of outback dogs, waiting patiently at the general
store door for their masters to appear. They weren't tied up, they didn't bark,
they knew they couldn't go in.
The discovery
centre in the old hospital is very engaging and we learnt about the Martu
People and the tragedies when building The Canning Stock Route. Wiluna is quiet
at the moment with the "covid" closure of The Canning Stock Route. If
you get chance, take yourself to Wiluna, you could spend all day in The
Discovery Centre, where there is free tea and coffee, and tables and chairs to
enjoy a BYO picnic lunch. The Tjukurba Art Gallery is wonderful, too, and if
you are looking for a reasonably priced Aboriginal art work to take home with
you, you might find one there.
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| Ooops! |
The place
of the winds rustled up a savage cross wind to hound us the entire 170km ride home
to Leinster. As we rode away from town, a copper took to our wheel, but we were
on the speed limit so no worries there. Then all of a sudden the lights and
siren were on and we thought we were in for a RBT. The cops hurried on by and
we hunkered down and prepared for the next gust of wind. We didn't get to ride
much further when we came across a nickel ore road train, who had "lost
it" on a left hand bend. The third and fourth trailers were on their sides
and a thick layer of nickel ore lay all over the road. We arrived not long
after the accident had happened and were surprised to see people putting out
spot fires in the bush. Steve had the camera out straight away but I was more concerned
about picking my way through the carpet of sharp rocks that covered the road. The
police said we could pass, at our own risk. Steve got Devil through "the
thick stuff" and then we were on our way. That night we heard that traffic
control were on the scene and we suspect caravaners were held up for hours.
When we see the ore trucks thundering by we always thought they were taking it
pretty easy, we are a little more cautious now.
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| Early morning coffee and a good old yarn. |
We moved
our camp to Leonora and hung out around the fire pit with a bunch of full time
prospectors. You could hear the miners stoking the fire from 4am. The billy was
always on and everyone was made most welcome. We were even invited to join the
communal dinner; it was a pleasure to enjoy the company of these outback dudes.
Of course our 2lt cask of wine was long since empty. We had tried to replenish
our supply in Cue but an indigenous funeral had capped the per person wine
quota at one bottle. The same thing happened in Leonora; we are happy with these
curfews as it helps vulnerable people cope with difficult life events.
With the
gold price nearing $2500 AUD per ounce, gold fever is in the air, and the
atmosphere is electric. One guy was seen going to work at the crack of dawn,
brushing his teeth as he selected first gear. When we were in Kalgoorlie, a
couple of days later, Mozzie walked into a Hannan St jewellery store to cash in
his finds. It was like catching up with an old friend we hadn't seen for years
even though we had only met a few days before.
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| Next town Alice Springs |
From
Leonora we went on a day ride to Laverton and back. I will always remember this
ride as "the ride of the wedge tailed eagle" as we saw five eagles,
all taking their turn on one road kill. Sadly, on the return journey, one of
the eagles had taken its last breath and lay dead on the side of the road, his
mates were nowhere to be seen.
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| Police cells, Laverton Caretaker wanted me inside for the real experience, I wasn't falling for that. |
You can
take a tour of the old Police Sergeant's house and jail. I was surprised to
learn how "well to do" the house was appointed. Apparently, back in
the day, the sergeant sat at the "top of the town" and was the one
who entertained all of the town's important guests.
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| State Hotel, Gwalia |
Reserve a
day for a good look at the ghost town of Gwalia. Sitting on the colonial
veranda at Hoover House, enjoying a Devonshire Tea, and overlooking St
Barbara's active gold mine will live in my mind for a long time. As you make
you way down the hill you will notice the derelict swimming pool, now on the
edge of the pit and ready to fall in. Amongst the museum dwellings and restored
sly grog houses, some folks still call Gwalia home; we didn't get chased by a mining
town dog or a guy with a gun but there was potential.
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| Kookynie two beemers & a Ford |
From
Leonora we planned to stay in Menzies, so we could take a run out to see the
beautiful statues at Lake Ballard. On the way we enjoyed a good walk around the
breakaways at Niagara Dam and then we rode on to Kookynie. Kookynie has been
reduced to mostly rubble with a few building still standing and a few folks
still living in town. The pub is open with a fuel bowser outside. We looked at
the bowser and thought "dirty fuel? who would fill up with unleaded
here." This turned out to be our undoing as when we arrived in Menzies the
unleaded pump was out of order ~ woops. Even a last desperate effort to buy
five litres of fuel from the local RAC guy (of which we are both members) was
met with "sorry, I don't carry any fuel." This meant that we didn't
have the fuel to ride out to the lake and then make it to Kalgoorlie. So we
rode on to Kalgoorlie, 130km away, in the sure knowledge that there was going
to be a "next time around."
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| York Hotel, Kalgoorlie |
I have
always been in love with Kalgoorlie and it made me sad to think that I had not
visited the town for twelve years. We settled in for four nights and took our
time to enjoy the stunning Federation Free Style architecture, jewellery
stores, hotels and bars. Pizza on the balcony at The York Hotel and a steak and
a pint of Guinness at Hannan's bar were memorable moments.
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| Kalgoorlie Town Hall |
The tour of
the Kalgoorlie Town Hall, by historian, and born and bred Coolgardie local, was
very engaging. It was enlightening to learn, contrary to what we had been led
to believe, that engineer, C.Y. O'Connor, did not take his own life when the
water in the Perth to Kalgoorlie pipeline did not arrive on time. The truth is
that one year before the pipeline was complete O'Connor had had enough and committed
suicide. He left behind all the drawings and details required to complete the
project that he fully believed would be successful. I was very pleased to learn
the truth about O'Connor because every time I have ridden east from Perth, I
have thought of him with great sadness, taking his own life only hours before
the water arrived in Kalgoorlie.
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| Super pit, Kalgoorlie |
We had enjoyed
so many experiences that our two weeks away seemed like two months. But when
you are ready to go home, nothing can make you wait a day or two for more
suitable weather for an enjoyable ride. On Friday 3rd September 2021 we packed
up the tent and made Devil and Dwarf ready for the 600km ride home to Perth. The
tent was covered in frost and the temperature was 2⁰C. It didn't get above 14⁰C
all day, and when the clouds rolled in, not even the sun appeared to warm us
through. Steve and I can never remember being so cold for so long on the bikes.
We wore everything we had, and still the cold seeped into our bones. As Steve
said when we pulled into our driveway "that was an achievement;"
until next time...
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| Dawn of our last day |
