We were up early today and underway by 8am. With 400km to go we were not in a huge hurry, but still needed to break the back of the trip to Kalgoorlie before lunch.
Puma hummed along at a steady rate, pulling hard up the long shallow hills headed north towards Norseman. We returned through the small hamlet of Grass Patch. You’ll never guess what we saw there. We wondered however, why the town came to have such a name. Surely even in a drunken state the local councillors could come up with something more imaginative.
At about 11am we rolled into Norseman being the pivot point for all roads leading to the south of WA. We said gidday to Norseman, being a statue of the horse that gave the town its name. The story goes that a miner many years agon tied up his horse, ‘Norseman’, overnight. Being a bit bored Norseman scratched the ground with his hoof a few times and by morning had revealed the biggest gold nugget anyone had ever seen the area. So they named a town after him. Maybe a horse further south peed on a Grass Patch?
We sped north though Higginsville and Widgiemooltha before deciding to take the slightly longer detour to Coolgardie. Coolgardie is a delight. Stunning old buildings line the street giving it a good feel. As we have come to learn in many WA towns, people were hard to spot. They are a species that just don’t seem to come out in the daylight.
Half an hour later we were in Kalgoorlie catching up with Trevor and Sue again. We set up in the best free camp area we had been in so far. Provided by council, on the edge of town, it had everything. The afternoon passed doing chores, chatting and beginning to freeze. It was cold. Not the windy, wet, blow the icicles off your nose cold; just pure bone shattering, get under your toenails cold, from which there is no respite.
As usual, after dinner activity saw Peter studying, G watching Real Idiots of Beverly Hills on the i-pad and hoons cutting loose.
The night was filled with a constant V8 roar and screeching tyres. This place was out of control. Peter wondered when in the evolution of the human species, people replaced Friday night sex with burnouts. Ah the good old days!