Day 25

We started the day early - packed and driving away by 8am. 

About an hour or so into the drive we came upon at least one car and caravan parked half on the road and a number of people standing around on the road.  "What on earth is going on here?" we thought to ourselves and subsequently asked to the travellers in the car in front.

The answer we got was not what we expected: "A truck has rolled over up ahead and there is a chemical spill.  They won't have it cleaned up until mid-afternoon, so get comfortable."  A quick inspection up the road showed a long line of caravans and trucks and a police car way up the road.

With seemingly plenty of time to spend we had a little chat to the other travellers around us - four separate Victorian cars all on their way home - and then took the opportunity to photograph such a strange situation.

I started counting all the cars/caravans as I walked down the line but lost count around 5 due to the number of people saying G'day.  Walking down the line of vehicles the cars and caravans were switched for prime movers and road trains... the sort of vehicles that travel in the dark.  Eventually we got down to the first truck and the police car. 

The accident scene was cleaned up fairly well and the rolled truck was no-where to be seen.  Talking to the truck driver at the front of the queue he said he arrived on the scene about 2:30am (it was now 9:45am) and that the emergency services were already on the scene when he got there.  He also said that the latest word from the police was that they would open up the road and start feeding cars through at about 10am.  That was a hell of a lot different to what we were first told!  Guess we'd better go back to the car then; lucky I moved it completely off the road before we left it unattended!!

I actually plotted a couple of waypoints at our vehicle location and the first truck in the queue; the line of cars was about 1300m long!  I counted them on the way back; 47 vehicles in total, around 20 of them trucks, 2 normal cars (plus us) and the rest were mostly caravans and the odd motorhomes.  We were 39th in the queue.  A few minutes after arriving back at our car the line of cars already started moving, so in the end there wasn't even a moment of boredom, sitting down with that feeling of endless waiting.

Of course once we were past the crash site the only things in front of us were about 20 caravans/motorhomes travelling at 80-90kph and another 20 trucks travelling at 100kph!!  On one clear, straight downhill section of road we overtook over half a dozen caravans in a row!  WEEEEEE!!!!!

About 20 minutes later we rolled into Coolgardie.  Not the most exciting of towns, but there looks to be a whole lot of history going on.  Since we're trying to get home we didn't stop but we could see there were plenty of information boards explaining the history of the town - possibly photos of old buildings that used to be or are still located on the site in front.  Put it this way - Morgs' idea of hell would be a trip to Coolgardie with her dad and myself.

The other thing of note in Coolgardie is they have the widest, most luxurious lanes in the main street; I think I'd struggle to kick a footy across from footpath to footpath.

We continued on to Kalgoorlie instead of taking the shortcut road down to Norseman.  Given this is the first time we've ever been in this area of the country I thought it was well worth a quick look.  What we found was a large, well serviced town with a big main street and plenty of history.  I noted that the median strip had fake grass... fair enough given that we're in the desert.  The one thing we had to do in Kal was stop by the Super Pit, but firstly we had to stop off at a cafe for coffee.  It was only 11:45, but we thought that since we're heading east it's probably a good idea to gradually have lunch earlier and earlier, so we added food to the coffee order as well.

Next up we headed on to the Super Pit, which unsurprisingly wasn't that hard to find given that it's several kilometres long, wide and half a kilometre deep.  After being thoroughly impressed with the enormity of it all we were getting in our car to go find a loo when a few guys, who had just arrived, asked whether we were aware that the blasting was going off at 1pm or not.  We had no idea, but given there was a growing number of visitors here we figured it was happening soon.  Given it was 12:42pm we decided we'd go find a loo quickly and try to get back for the blasting (I couldn't hold another 20+ minutes). 

We found a nearby McDonalds (the only thing they're good for) and then got back to the Super Pit just on 1pm.  Thankfully all the other spectators hadn't left so we knew the blasting hadn't begun.  We had no idea where the blasting was supposed to be going off... I missed seeing the first blast since I was walking to find a better viewing spot of the lower parts of the pit, but I still definitely heard it and saw the dust cloud.  Then a minute later as I was turning around to ask Morgs if she saw the blast she responds with "You've just missed a second one right now".  Sure enough I turn around and there's a second, much larger dust cloud rising up in the air!  A few seconds later the thunder-clap roar of the blast arrived - three times at least - as the sound bounced around the distant walls. 

Even though I missed seeing the explosion, I still enjoyed hearing the blast!  In fact I think the sound was more impressive than the sight.  We were lucky enough to have been there at the right time of the day and even luckier that the other guys mentioned the blasting was only minutes away!

Moving on, we filled up the tanks on the way out of Boulder, and made for Kambalda and Norseman.  Not a lot going on there.  At Norseman we arrived back on a stretch of bitumen we had driven before and followed it back to Balladonia.

Given the delay in the morning with the truck roll over, which was apparently an ammonium nitrate spill, we hadn't quite got as far as we wanted.  On the plus side it meant we got to camp the night at Newman Rocks, which had been highlighted by Dad on his trip as a place worthy of a camp for the night.  There were a few other campers there that night, one of which was a caravan running a bloody generator until 9pm.  Seriously... that's what solar panels and battery banks are for!

It was a bit windy when we arrived, but it settled down an hour or so after sunset.  Overcast sky kept the air temperature fairly warm and we didn't need the sleeping bags zipped up that night.