Saturday 10/7/2010 Lake Ballard to Bowanoo Rock Hole past Wiluna

(Lake Ballard to Bowanoo Rock Hole past Wiluna)
Overnight the wind had dried the lake and it was once again a salt pan.

It was a mild night comparitively speaking. The sun is shining and the sky blue once again and we were heading north again by 0900hrs.
Jordan plans to do her geography assignment today on Wiluna.
We finally looked up your emails on the HFoz site. Thanks guys.
I don't think I'll have any internet signal for a while ....
Our stop for morning tea was at Granite Creek, deeply cut into the rock with beautiful rock and sand waterholes and gum trees that are home to many native budgerigars. Apparently they can go for a few days without water, can survive with slightly saline water, and breed any time of year straight after it rains.

This extra detour left of Leonora was a fabulous bonus.
We passed through the Aboriginal town of Leonora (the gateway to the Great Central Highway) at midday. I posted possibly my last blog for a while, and headed north to Wiluna. There were two wedgetailed eagles at the side of the road. Col puled over for some great photos.

Got to Wiluna at about 1615hrs and were lucky the servo was open. He said they had been closing at 1300hrs until last week when 175 4WDs came through for the ExplorOz meet.

The guy pumping our fuel was a good sport and stood there for about 15 minutes being interviewed by Jordan for her geography assignment.
Wiluna has.....50 anglosaxons
300 indiginous
65% male, 35% female
all age ranges except college age (they go to Perth)
the town is just surviving on mining and 4WD tourism
spiritually, catholic and dreamtime.
Fuel was $1.69/L here (from $1.35 elsewhere). We put in 106 L at $174.
We found Bowanoo Rock Hole off a mud map I found on the internet! It was superb. Got us to the right spot, 27km along the Gunbarrel then 6km to the north. WOW! we arrived at sunset for a fabulous nature show.
Some locals (caucasian) had just dropped in behind us to show their kids the water hole and couldn't believe we had found it. They were totally shocked when I explained it was on the internet.

"..Starry starry night, painted colours seem so bright...."
Another fun poker night next to a camp fire with a family block of chocolate for dessert. Yum!

Friday 9/7/2010 Norseman to Lake Ballard

(Norseman to Lake Ballard)
After cereal and toast at the pub we filled the car. So far we've used 482L and driven 3600km.
We also topped up the water which we've used 50L in 7 days.
Heading north through wind and rain, we arrived at Kalgoorlie and got out in the freezing wind to look at the Super Pit. The largest open cut mine in Australia. Kalgoorlie is a town built on gold!

The clothes washing was already done and we did the grocery shopping in Kalgoorlie, so our extra sight seeing at Lake Ballard and the Gormley Statues became our new camp site.
We seemed to drive out of the storms heading NW out to this beautiful Lake. Usually a salt pan, but because of the recent rain the salt crystals had dissolved. We hiked in slushy, slippery mud out to a small steep island which was calling to us to climb it.

Such a perfect camp site. All alone. Lucky we made a huge fire (well contained) as the wind picked up in the evening.