Winning Station {Visiting/Working}

Back again and again it was like we had never left.

We arrived and hit the ground running.  J got right into work and the kids & I got right into schoolwork.  Well for four days we did school work, then Aggie and I disappeared for an epic shopping trip to Geraldton {honest it was just for bathroom supplies}.  We took off before the sun rose on the Thursday, leaving the two smalls in the capable hands of their Dad, Kim and four lovely Italian WOOFERS.

I honestly never thought I would say it but there is such a thing as too much shopping. We had three nights in Geraldton and after arriving early evening Thursday we hit the ground running Friday morning with our many page list.  We visited more places than I can even name and had filled the trailer.  Saturday saw much of the same with a few trips back to empty the car into the trailer and I am pleased to say that at just after 5pm we had an early dinner and then treated ourselves too ‘The Great Gatsby’ at the cinemas {along with everyone in Geraldton it would appear}. Sunday was another sun rise started and we got home Sunday just as it started raining right on 6pm.

Four every long but productive days and Monday was a day of rain!  I honestly though while the smalls and I did school work that we would have to do a quick move of the camper as the creek that has always been empty was quickly rising.

 

It was lovely to see Winning finally during/after some rain.  And thankfully come Wednesday the road in was open again which timed well as my folks popped up for the night to see us all. We had a lovely afternoon pottering, chatting and exploring and then listening to the great debate over who would be the new Prime Minister {I had no idea until I saw everyone standing around listening to the radio at the hanger}.  We ended up with Kevin Rudd AGAIN!

Thursday Mum & Dad took off at about lunchtime and we spend the afternoon pottering again.  The smalls annoying the Italians and J working.

Saturday was the busy bee at Winning Bush Gymkarna so we all piled into the cars to clean up and repair everything ready for the big event in a few weeks.  After getting covered in dust from head to toe we had some lunch and then left Justin and Nicola to head home again.

The next few days passed in a blur that was bib making for WBG {don’t ask safer not too} and thankfully we had 50 bibs {front and back so 100 squares} cut, painting and sewn together with sometime to spare.  Nana & Pop arrived somewhere here too {terrible but I can’t remember exactly when}.

The bathroom was finished {along with the other things that J did} and after a wonder feast for Kyle’s 17^th Birthday we hit the road with a solar hot water system on the car/camper and made our way to Lyndon

Kalgoorlie Park II {Caravan Park - Work}

So much has happened since my last Kalgoorlie update, the biggest being WE ARE STILL HERE {and will be till mid April}.

We've had Birthday's, Easter, catch-ups with family, catch-ups with friends, meet new people and more exploring around Kalgoorlie & surrounds.

 Finally much to the excitement of the two men in the family there was a blast scheduled at the Super Pit that they could watch {it was around 5pm from memory} and whilst it was right down the bottom of the pit, which is over 500mtrs deep it was enough to see some action & hear it.

Sunset coming home looked lovely up the main street of Boulder.

Given J has been working we have only had Sunday's for our exploring or for things to do but it has worked well.  The Easter long weekend was really just another weekend for us, with the exception that there was people everywhere in the caravan park.  Was great for the smalls they had some kids to play with and even good for us as we meet a lovely family traveling in, you guessed it a Complete Campsite camper who have actually left their home state of NSW.  We shared experiences, favourite locations so far & some pictures.  Hopefully given the amount of time they are spending in our wonderful state we might run into them again up north.

It was like looking in a mirror
{well except that theirs was much MUCH cleaner than ours}

We spent Easter Sunday doing a little more of the discovery trail.  It really is still quiet mind blowing everything that has changed in the last century in this area. Place discovered that are now lost, mines dug and now abandoned, mine shafts once used and now just left everywhere you turn. We headed out past the old townsite of Kanowna which is simply now a mine.  Drove through some stations {not sure which are actually still used for running stock}Gindalbie, Menangina and Yerilla. 

Next we stopped and had a look around Kookynie which is really all but a ghost town. They still have a pub and a few occupied houses and signs everywhere showing what was where & when. The hotel was built around 1900 and is still standing, although I am fairly confident that it is nowhere near as well used as it was back then! There was even a train line built from Menzies out to the town in 1901. From what we read/saw by 1933 the town had 2,320 people living it it {the sign even showed a breakdown of men, women & children}

From Kookynie we headed to Niagara Dam, which is a great rock network that has had a dam wall installed into it. It was started in the 1890's and ended up being a pointless project as they couldn't get the dammed water from here to the town site.  That said it is amazing it actually was still holding water & a fair amount at that.  We had a walk around the dam, taking in all of the informational signs that where placed around it and then found a lovely rock to site for a bite of lunch.

Finally on the way home we decided to take a better look around Menzies, and I am glad that we did.  Did you know that even though the town hall was built in1898s they never installed a clock into it until the 1990's?  Well neither did we till we stopped at the town hall, it did give us all a little bit of a laugh that they went to that much of an effort and then simply never had a clock installed, although one was ordered and was lost in a ship that sank near Fremantle, after that they just never organised another one! The town apart from being part of the rain network also had an estimated 10,000 people in 1905 with 13 hotels and 3 breweries. Now it doesn't even have a corner store or a fuel station with people. Hard to believe my Mum & her family lived here for a time.

It was a lovely way to spend then day.







J decided to take on two of the units that needed renovating here and is actually motoring along with
them.  They look totally different to when we arrived {must tell him to get some pictures of the next one before he starts pulling it apart}, amazing what even a coat of white paint to a ceiling can do! One more to go and then to workout where to next......

Peaceful Bay {Lawn Squatting}

After all this time you would think we would have some idea on when public holidays are in WA?  Apparently NOT! We planned to leave Windy on Friday and had it not been for a wonderful woman there asking me, we would have forgotten it was a public holiday and been stuck no doubt as we planned to do some free camping after leaving.

Thankfully after a quick, cheeky SMS to a friend we landed a lovely spot on the front lawn of his holiday house in Peaceful Bay.  It was peaceful when we arrived just after lunch but by 8pm all of the surrounding houses {alright most} had people and there where cars everywhere.  The caravan park was PACKED.

It worked well for us, we had power, a shady spot and got to do some real exploring that we missed out on doing in November {because we spent so much time eating, talking & drinking}.

We went down the the river mouth a few times, took a drive though Denmark looking at a few different spots and much to J's pleasure we even did some 4WDing in Peaceful Bay {although it didn't go so well to start when we discovered our wonderful tyre gauge was lying about our pressure, cue embarrassed husband when he got stuck and caused a traffic jam}.

Everyone cleared out on the Monday so we got to spend a day in a truly peaceful Peaceful Bay before we packed up and headed to our next spot, a real free camp.