Blog 4 - a day discovering Menzies tourist spots

Day 3 Friday  3^rd July 2015

Menzies – Kookynie – Niagara Dam – Lake Ballard - Menzies

This post should have been included in the last update but it deserved a post all of it’s own.

Moose was up at the crack of dawn trying to solve his inverter problem. He was under the van, in the boot of the van and anywhere else he could find a wire. I rolled over and went back to sleep.  Once up, the Nespresso machine pumped out a decent coffee while I listened to the committee meeting out the front of the van. Another camper had come across to add some advice on the problem. There was much humming and aahing. Meanwhile I was being a Domestic goddess with the aid of my trusty crock pot I was making a red wine casserole. Well that was til I realised there was no red wine in our supplies so I ditched that particular sauce sachet and made a sausage casserole without sausages. In preparing the dinner I managed to slice across the end of my thumb. Brilliant now typing is a little painful.

While practising my goddess skills I flicked on the TV only to find my recording of “Coronation Street” had failed. Disappointment for a minute until I realised it was playing on another channel. It feels good to stop in one place for a couple of nights. At about ten Moose had, had enough hunting down wires so we headed out to a few tourist hot spots. The sun was shining and it was a pleasant 28 degrees.

The first destination was Kookynie – the sign said it is a working ghost town. The road seemed to be never ending

On finally reaching the turn off into town we found a Pub with fuel pumps outside, that was the working part. The rest were ruins. Kookynie had been a huge town with four pubs, a main street full of shops. For now there were plaques to tell the story, some ruins and a group of shops renovated into a home. Moose checked out a rusted ute and I took photos of him. He looked up and said “there’s a horse”. I had no idea why he would say that, until he pointed and sure enough there was a horse, walking towards me. I guess you could call it a “one horse town”!  

  


One of four Pubs

 

 

 


Old vs New

I found a horse - can I keep it?



Apple anyone?

 This horse was so tame I thought he was going to get into the car with us. Once we had fed our apples to
him and had a bit of a look around we headed off to Niagara dam.

 

 
This is at the end of another couple of very long roads. It’s a free camping spot which is very scenic though the flies were a little too friendly. There are fire places but it’s BYO firewood. We had a little picnic minus the apples and headed back towards the main road to Menzies and Lake Ballard.



Selfie at the dam








 Lake Ballard is actually a huge salt lake about 50km long and 20 wide, more mud than water. I have wanted to see the sculptures by Antony Gormley for years. He did them as part of the Perth International Arts Festival in 2003. They were supposed to removed at the end of the festival but were so popular they  were allowed to stay. There’s 51 in all, placed over 10 sq kilometres of the lake. We didn’t do the full tour – that requires at least 2 hours and we had arrived an hour before sunset. It’s a huge installation and the changing light gave the sculptures yet another dimension. I was glad Moose took a 120 km (return) shortcut for me to see them.

  

Bonnie & Moose at the top of the mountain

Bonnie wasn't sure about this person

 

Did you see something???

Saturday – Menzies to Kalgoorlie
Rooster crowed at dawn and the sun came up so it was up early and packing the van up. Bonnie had found some kids to plays with kids. They have conversations re freckles and how much she loves each of them. The little girl is convinced Bonnie loves her more!

Moose was fiddling around with wires and things so Bonnie and I took a walk up the main street to check out buildings and sculptures.  These had story boards next to them. I couldn’t help taking photos as they were so well done.

 
The story with this sculpture was how the children had after school jobs. One being collecting wool off dead sheep they found and how it was a very smelly job



  

First motorcycle

 


Pub across the road from the caravan park

Moose eventually came to find us. Bonnie did her usual act of jumping in the car and promptly falling asleep while I enjoyed the comedy of errors of Moose using the automated fuel tanks. Thought his excuse was brilliant: “I don’t want to face a learning curve every time I go out!”

I am fighting with a new crochet stitch, an instruction book and a couple of balls of wool as we travel along towards Kalgoorlie and hear strange huffing noises beside me. I slowly raise my eyes and look sideways towards Moose. Half expecting to see hid having some sort of fit - "fucking flies" he angrily growls. One had  flown up his nose. I laughed so hard that I didn’t make a sound. He's an angry man
Kalgoorlie Electrical supplied the switches and wires he needed so next was the hunt for a caravan park. One was next door to a prison but didn’t accept dogs, another was right in town also didn’t accept dogs but a third neat tidy and friendly park welcomed Bonnie. We parked up, popped into town for a camera lead which we had no luck finding and lunch. I did find an art shop which had a lovely set of “copic” markers – well not that brand but same style. Now I need to get my art journal out to play. Moose got stuck into fixing the inverter while Bonnie and I went for a long walk. I’d spied a empty field next door and planned to let her run. We got about 1/3 way across it only to discover it was covered in Prickles. Bonnie would walk a metre and hold which ever foot in the air that needed de-prickled. It got to the point I had to carry her hulking 22 kilos out of a bad patch which has left me with a sore back and shoulder but a happier dog. Once I put her down she stuck to any clear of weeds path or sniffed around plants that had the thorns. It took us an hour to get to the other side but at least I didn’t have to carry her again.

I started to write this blog but discovered photos were on my “no lead cameral” , plus Mooses camera and my phone so to get the photos across I had to transfer from camera to lap top, then Transfer photos from  lap top to stick to final transfer to small notebook . That and cooking a roast took up most of the afternoon. Bonnie caught up on her sleep.

After dinner just as I am ready to relax, Moose discovers “Dire Straits Concert” on Foxtel. He flicks it on and the speakers blast from one end of the van to the other. There is no getting away from it. I quite like them but not when I just want to sit and watch a movie or something. So I decide to take Bonnie for a walk to the petrol station to pick up a chocolate or something , it seemed ages away on our arrival but in fact was  a 15 minute walk so I was back before I wanted to be. I tried to read the paper in the bedroom area. Still felt like my head was exploding. I took the opportunity to have a shower which suprizingly was perfect. I could hear nothing and wondered how I could use the shower cubilcle as a little office with a chair and computer – no water of course. I returned stuck my ipod with my French language lessons, stuck my earphones in and  drifted into a haze of words. Once it was over I joined Moose for another more suitable program and politely (honest I didn’t even raise my voice) informed him that will not happen again. Plus I purchased a set of ear plugs just in case of an emergency.

Deaf lugs Moose and Madame Moz signing out x