Tuesday, April 6, 2010

Homeward bound, it starts today ...

Tuesday … Perth to Kalgoorlie


Slipping out of Mosman Park by 7.15 (on time for a change!) we easily negotiate our way out of Perth (without making a single wrong turn, for a change!) with a stop at Midlands for fuel before kicking on to Cunderdin for a rest stop and stock up of Red Bull ;-)

Lunch and fuel at exciting (!!!) Merredin (more I could say but won't) and onwards to Southern Cross - a top up of fuel here made rather more interesting by a ‘young’ fella and adult son who took an interest in the Beasts and stopped to have a chat … Geelong lads I found out (Meredith to be precise) had to be back home by Friday, had bought a new car, thought they’d run it in with a trip to Perth to visit a brother over Easter … and so the conversation sort of went on from there … then as we blasted through Coolgardie (oooh, but so many gorgeous old buildings! Can we stop, pleeeeese?), spotted the lads fueling up, cheery waves exchanged.

Not much further down the road, the Overland Motel on the outskirts of Kalgoorlie … young girl at reception is looking a little flustered … one of the mines has been “shut down” for routine maintenance checks, which will take a month – this means there’s a huge influx of mine-associated personnel into Kalgoorlie currently, and she tells us it’s a very good thing we booked well in advance!

“Signs” of the times on/in our room at our over-night stay at the Overland Motel, Kalgoorlie …



We take a lonnnnnng walk down mainstreet – “Hannan Street” – in search of a suitable place to consume the evening’s first beer: PINTS!!

Something that has had the kilometers very quickly pass by today, are the endlessly beautiful trees - if nothing else, I've really developed a 'thing' for trees, especially since our visit to Walpoll's "Tree Top Walk"!


The first two or three blocks contain barricaded decrepit miner’s shacks or light industrial, until the main roundabout announces Hannan Street proper … THEN the street gets interesting, from my point of view! ;-)


Fabulous historic buildings, intermingled with the ‘modern’ … even though at street level the businesses within are of the times, the lovely old facades above don’t go unnoticed! ;-)



Any idea how hard it is to take pics of fabulous historic buildings without modern day impediments like cars street lighting and traffic lights getting in the way??? :-/

Not going to bore you all with endless pics of buildings – just a few favs ;-)




Below - we find a great window seat at “Paddy’s Ale House” (within the “Exchange Hotel”, bottom right of pic is "Paddy's") to street watch from, and decide the rib-eye with peppercorn sauce is the dinner to have! Steak on a bed of slimline chips arrive smothered in peppercorn sauce with a side salad … not as ‘disgusting’ as it sounds – we both scoff the lot! Yummm!! :-)~


Taxeeeeeeeee!

3 comments:

  1. We both enjoy architecture and I always enjoy looking above the shop windows for further interest.
    Finally the sun is shining here and I had a great ride on the road then converted the fixie to track mode for a training session on the Paris velodrome. When do you get home.
    Ride safely.

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  2. I love the old old buildings, because they have so much character, and were/are REAL buildings made by REAL craftsmen :-)

    Both Chris and I are getting back on the pedals when we get home, which will be around April 14th ... while I'm certainly not in a hurry to get home, I am looking fwd to getting home, does that make sense? ;-)

    Hugs to you both :-)

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  3. Totally understand the feeling, home is HOME.
    Looking forward to having you join us on the pedals. Might even have a goal for you.

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