Wed 24th September – Day 137: Baladjie Rock - Kalgoorlie (295km)

The wind picked up overnight and this morning the tent sections of the camper threaten to collapse.
Breakfast done we wander around and over the rock which affords a spectacular view over the salt lake system, marvelling at the colourful wildflowers carpeting the area. A relaxing start to the day we head off for Kalgoorlie by 10am
At Southern Cross we join the Eastern Highway which follows the Golden Pipeline as it transports life giving water from Mundaring Weir (on the outskirts of Perth) to the parched goldfields of Kalgoorlie.
The kids play games using cards about Australian Wildlife and Pete keeps everyone entertained with his ridiculous answers.
Today we passed through some absolute derelict towns Bullfinch and Coolgardie were particularly decrepit and obviously never going to enter the ‘tidy town’ competitions.
1:30pm and we enter ‘GOLD’ Kalgoorlie, marvelling at the brand new brick houses, wide well kept streets, traffic lights (wow haven’t seen them since Darwin!) & green grass everywhere (obviously that water pipe is still going strong). The local info centre gives us an armful of brochures of ‘must see’ sites in Kalgoorlie and we pile them in the car along with all the other brochures we already have (courtesy of the Sydney Caravan and Camping show back in April!)
We pull into the Prospector Holiday Park which claims to be a 4 star Premier tourist park, pay our $ and get to our site to find it is a concrete jungle with little shade and bitumen everywhere. I get a bad feeling about the place (it looks so run down) and we head back to reception to get our money back. The manager gives Pete a really hard time about not liking her premises and we take our money and run.
Further up the road we come to a Top Tourist park which although only marginally better (it has a keyed entry pad to keep out the riff raff) seems more friendly and we set up camp on their dirt overflow section next to the ablutions and BBQ area. With no playground and a pool way up the other end, the kids resort to riding their bikes around and making shelters out of any available gear (blankets, folding chairs, rope, lanterns etc).
A few quiet ones over dinner at the BBQ and we get talking to our neighbours and attempt to solve all Australia’s problems in an evening..
Kalgoorlie Accommodation Village (Powered $30.60)