Entry 4 – 2026 – March – Travelling north from Kalgoorlie, Western Australia
Our days targeted drive was to travel from Esperance to Kalgoorlie, a distance of about 400 kilometres. Midway we stopped at the town of Norseman for a change of drivers and some exercise with a walk around. We visited some public toilets and saw there were hot showers available, operated by a token machine. We had one of those “light bulb,” moments. We did have a token in the caravan, gifted by another fellow traveller when we were last at Norseman about a month previous. It was the middle of the day and a nice warm shower sounded appealing. We shared a shower together and were delighted the single token lasted the distance.
Feeling nicely refreshed we were back on the road again after an unplanned hot shower.
We set camp late afternoon at the Kalgoorlie R.V. campground. We were inland away from the ocean cooling effects. It was 36 C degrees when we arrived at Kalgoorlie. Our bodies were in need to adjust to warmer environments.
Previously we had spent several days exploring Kalgoorlie. On this occasion we decided to visit “Hannans North,” tourist mine. It was a pleasurable 2 hours wandering about, viewing lots of mining equipment. We did have some good timing arriving on the day of a live gold pouring demonstration.
Continuing north, we stopped at the much-publicized pub of Arrow Head. The building looked like a tin shanty. There was some certain looking motor bikes parked out front indicating the possibility of outlaw bikes. When we entered it did have a rough appearance and there were some leather dressed, tattooed patrons. There were other normal looking people around and it was quietish. Mary said I’ve seen enough and we continued on up the road.
The road north of Kalgoorlie, titled “The Goldfields Highway,” was busy with mining vehicles. There were many different mine site entrances along the road.
We arrived at the small town of Menzies. It was a Sunday and the only thing open was the local pub with three vehicles parked out front. We turned off the main road heading inland. 50 kilometres down the road was our next target destination of Lake Ballard. The road surface was of good quality bitumen and we didn’t encounter any other vehicles for the 50-kilometre drive. It was a much-appreciated relaxing drive to Lake Ballard.
Admittedly we were a bit nervous about what to expect after reading some mixed reviews about Lake Ballard. As it turned out, it was an absolutely fabulous setting for us. Our eyes were immediately tantalised by the white salt encrusted lake surface with statues scattered all over the lake.
Though when we stepped out of the car we were greeted by an oppressive heat of 38 degrees. Adding to the uncomfortable heat we were swamped by 100’s possibly 1000’s of annoying flies. Welcome to out back Australia.
Around dusk, with the outside temperature around 36 degrees, Steve wondered out onto the lake, hopeful to obtain a nice sunset photograph. He ended up walking about a kilometre out towards the middle of the lake, viewing some of the 53 statues spread over the lake.
Early the following morning Steve was out on the lake bed to obtain a sunrise photograph. He wondered about viewing around a couple of dozen of the statues. Most were similar with some minor differences.
He decided to climb the nearby lake peak. It was still quite early, around 5 30 am. When he got to the top, he could see Mary on the lake doing some of her own, up-close viewing. She didn’t stay for long as the flies were already accumulating in large numbers.
It was extremely hot temperatures. Night one at Lake Ballard, we had continued to run the caravan air-conditioner for a few hours after the sun had set. The following morning the temperature was into the low 30’s by 7 am and climbing.
The technology within our two-year-old caravan was greatly advanced from previous times. For us it was luxurious camping. This included a battery system capable of running an air-conditioner off grid. It was a delightful pleasure.
Unfortunately, as we found out, technology within a caravan to supply enough power for a prolonged period, to operate a power thirsty air-conditioner is yet to be developed.
There are 8 solar panels covering our caravan roof, capable of providing 1275 watts of power. We had two portable solar panels plugged in providing an additional 600 watts of power.
After three continuous days of temperatures hovering around the 40 C degrees, the available power within our batteries had been greatly diminished.
Our thoughts; the solar power output needed to be 2-3 times greater than current output. Or air-conditioners needed to be considerably less power hungry?
With another day of 41 C temperatures forecast we decided to seek out a caravan park to obtain a mains power supply hit.
Interestingly at around 9 pm the night prior our departure from Lake Ballard we decided to have a shower to cool off. Our hot water element hadn’t been turned on for many days. We were drawing water directly from our water storage tanks which normally is too cold to stand under the shower head. The water temperature must have been close to 40 C degrees. Any hotter and it would have been too hot, even under cold weather conditions. We missed out on a cool shower, though in a way it did feel refreshing.
At first light we moved on from Lake Ballard.
Around 100 kilometres down the road was the town of Leonora. We stopped at the Gwalia Ghost Town and Museum. There was a large structured area to free camp with views overlooking a large open cut mine pit, in operation. It looked like a different, interesting camp location.
We toured the museum with a lookout to the bottom of the pit. It was enjoyable viewing. There was an impressive mine managers house called Hoover House. The mines first manager was Herbert Hoover who later became the 31st President of the USA.
The setting where you could watch the mine activities from your caravan window provided tempting thoughts. Unfortunately, our batteries state of charge was not good enough to provide enough power to run the air-conditioner for a protracted period, with the early morning hot temperature already feeling uncomfortable.
We continued up the road a bit, stopping at the caravan park in the town of Leinster. It was around 1 pm and the caravan inside thermometer was displaying 43 C.
Accessing mains power was appreciated. The outside temperature felt quite debilitating on the body. It was pleasing to have a nicely cooled caravan interior and our caravan batteries would have also felt good, powering up to full charge. We utilized the caravan parks washing machines to freshen up all our linen. First thing in the morning with a more comfortable outside temperature, Steve cleaned all our solar panels, hoping to maximise the available sun’s energy while we had access to water.
The caravan lifestyle provides a lot of pleasure. Though there is still the required element of work duties that come with it.
We decided to head west from Leinster with a night stop at a roadside stop called Peter Denny Lookout.
Down the road a bit was the much publised town of Sandstone. We generally stop at visitor centres we come across during our travels. It is quite helpful accessing local information and points of interest. Over the last few hundreds of kilometres, we had obtained several pamphlets promoting Sandstone. It sounded like an interesting location. We arrived at Sandstone to deserted streets. Just about everything seemed closed including the much publised information centre. It seems the local council had done a good job promoting the town. Unfortunately, the once bustling mine town of Sandstone was no more. With its sort after minerals all gone, it was now doomed to be another ghost town.
The constant intense heat was taking its toll on our bodies. And that included the additional pressure placed on our caravan power supply. We considered available options to see if we could lessen the impact, created by the heat issues.
Ironically prior leaving for this trip, our primary consideration for power issues was for cloudy periods, hindering obtainable solar energy. Australia can be hot at times, but it is rare to encounter protracted extreme heat.
Our next targeted/booked location up the road a bit at about 1100 kilometres was Karijini National Park. It had several water holes where you could immerse your bodies into its cool waters.
We checked the available Bureau of Meteorology weather prediction for Karijini N.P. for the following 7-day forecast, 38, 39, 38, 39, 38, 39, 38 with night time minimums of 25 C degrees.
After much deliberation we decided to bring our arrival time at Karijini N.P. forward by several days. Hopefully during the day, we would spend an extended period at one of the pools, keeping our bodies in a cool condition. Optimistically during this time our caravan batteries would obtain the required recharge complements of the sunshine, without demands from us to provide ongoing cool air-conditioned comfort.
We did a couple of big days driving. It was a beautiful cool environment, within our tow tug’s air-conditioned environment, set at 22 degrees. Both days the outside temperature reaching 41 degrees.
There was an overnight camp near the town of Meekatharra at Peace Gorge. We were well into the region of Western Australia called the ‘Pilbara.” The earth is a red rusty colour. Peace Gorge show cased the region. It was delightful viewing, with similarities to the popular “Devils Marbles,” located near the middle of the Northern Territory.
It’s a grand feeling when you spot a rare Australian Eagle. We saw our first Eagles after travelling about 5,000 kilometres through outback Australia on this trip. It is difficult to obtain a “sort after,” photograph of an Eagle in the wild as they are quite flighty. At least we got some evidence.
After another big day of driving, we stopped for the night at a roadside gravel pit about 30 kilometres short of the large mining town of Newman. Gravel pits are generally left over piles of gravel used to repair/upgrade road surfaces. They are noted for being a flat area to park on. Gravel pits are a boring environment. Often you can find a track near the back of a gravel pit leading to a more scenic location. Steve found one such track when he went on a bit of a walkabout. It was a bit of a rugged track, travelling over a crest to a much more scenic location, with a bonus of no noise from the passing traffic. And there was a glorious sunrise.
Early morning we travelled to Newman. It is the world’s largest single pit iron ore mine. Everything was big at Newman.
Arriving early at Newman, we did as much as possible during the morning. We started at the Information Centre, drove up to the lookout where we could view the township and in the other direction you could see some of the mining operations. We refuelled the tow tug, restocked our fridge and pantry. By mid-day the ambient temperature was becoming uncomfortable. We booked into the caravan park, cranked up the caravan air-conditioner and utilized the laundry to freshen up our clothing.
It had been a big drive since leaving Esperance. From Kalgoorlie we had travelled about 400 kilometres north on the Goldfields Highway. West about 300 kilometres to Mount Magnet and north on the Great Northern Highway for about 700 kilometres. The area is crowded with mining operations and consequently the roads are full of mining related equipment in transport. It can be anxious driving at times. There was a requirement for an elevated level of concentration whilst driving. We had a two-way radio in the tow tug and it was advantageous listening to the truckies communicating with one another, advising one another of road hazards we also would encounter.
It had been interesting scenery. Fabulous at times and quite an enjoyable experience.
Another interesting scenario of the day. It had been about 3 weeks since America had bombed Iran, starting another war. It was creating many world-wide problems, one having quite an impact on us.
We had obtained diesel fuel at Esperance a couple of weeks prior at $1.85 per litre. Two weeks later the price of fuel was rising constantly mostly due to price gauging by the fuel companies.
The price of diesel at Newman was $2.99 per litre. We had obtained 150 litres of fuel when at Newman, equating to an additional $150 for fuel from two weeks prior. It did add another level to our ongoing costs.
We had witnessed panic buying with people filling lots of portable fuel containers. This in turn was creating fuel shortages and the Australian government were releasing emergency fuel supplies.
We even had some random person knock on our caravan door informing us the nearby fuel station was going to start rationing. This person had worked themselves up into such a lather they were talking about cancelling their holiday and going home.
Our holiday was to continue as planned. The only change to our itinerary was adjustments to combat the heat wave we were experiencing. As the saying goes, “we will carry on!”
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