Perth to Kalgoorlie, Western Australia
Getting up early, we left Perth, and headed east through the Western Australian Wheatbelt, making Kalgoorlie about 1:30pm. We spent the day walking around town, looking at the old buildings, the Goldfields Museum, and a few gardens of native plants. And we're very annoyed by the Australian Police State again.
It was 5:45am--the alarm went off, and we quickly got on the road. In just 40 minutes, we were up and over the Darling Hills, and heading through the rural districts east of Perth. It's a public holiday, the Queen's Birthday, and not many people were out and about at 7am.
Ray of Light
But the police sure were, and about 60 kilometers east of Perth I noticed a strange flash from the side of the road, from some curious device on a short tripod. Uh oh. I know what that was--a speed camera. Was it for us, or the car next to us that we were passing on the four lane road? We don't know if we were traveling faster than the speed limit, either, which had been varying from 110 km/h in open countryside to 90 km/h through some of the hills to as low as 60km/h in towns and settlements, and seemed to change every other kilometer as well.
It's also one of those annoying Special Weekends for Police. Australian media goes into a tizzy over traffic fatalities on long weekends like this one with the road toll number splashed across the news channels and newspaper front pages. And the police get in on the fun by going on a ticket issuing spree, made all the more effective by giving double demerits for any violations. It annoys us greatly--why should speeding on the Queen's Birthday cost twice as much? If it's bad, it's bad whatever day of the week it is. Chris wonders if they also have Triple Demerit Tuesdays, or Half Price Special Sundays.
So we'll see if we get a ticket. Might be amusing, as we don't have Australian licenses... and the car is registered in our name as well. I'd be pissed if the demerits went on our California licenses, though.
Kalgoorlie
There isn't anything to see otherwise, so we just headed straight to Kalgoorlie. Kalgoorlie was founded in the 1890's when gold was found nearby, and today gold mining is still the primary industry. The town has 30,000 residents, and is pleasingly rough around the edges. Lots of liquor stores, lots of watering holes, and even a few brothels on the side streets. (Nope, we didn't go... this time.)
Kalgoorlie is also pleasing to look at, with wide streets and ornate old turn-of-the-20th-century buildings. We wandered around Hannah Street, looking at buildings, and ended up at the Western Australia Museum, where we gawked at exhibits. Downstairs, they have a secure gold vault, with some huge gold nuggets about the size of a man's spread hand. Very cool.
We visited a couple of natural areas around town, too. To fuel the gold smelters, most of the timber around Kalgoorlie was cut for a hundred miles in every direction for many years until natural gas supplanted timber. Surprisingly, now, the landscape has regenerated pretty well. Kalgoorlie's in the desert, and gets about six inches of rain a year, but supports a fairly lush growth of large eucalypts and undergrowth. It's probably the best forested desert I've seen.
After that, we just went back to the hotel, read a bit, and went to bed by nine. We've got a big day ahead of us tomorrow, turning the corner and heading east towards Adelaide and Sydney. Getting excited about wrapping this trip up and getting on with things!
Weird Wildlife Sighting
Nothing much. More emus on the side of the road. Silly animals.