One remarkable thing about the roads was their straightness! The photo above was taken a little north of Esperance as we drove up to Kalgoorlie. The green/yellow colour of the salt lake was quite striking, so we pulled over to take some photos. If I had only known then that there would probably be no others cars for several hours, then I would have spent more time stood in the middle of the road to get a more centred photo. The colours/textures were stunning, so here are some more photos.
Kalgoorlie is the heart of gold mining country and houses the Super Pit which is the second largest open cut gold mine in Australia. It is huge, being 3.5 km in length and 1.5 km wide and currently 570 m deep. The is a Super Pit Lookout Point for visitors to Kalgoorlie, so that is where we headed. I had booked a tour of the Super Pit for a later date, so more of that later.
These trucks looked like toys moving around in the distance, but they too were enormous. Here is Lawrence stood in scoop of a dumper truck to give you some idea of scale.
The town of Kalgoorlie felt slightly passed its prime. There were plenty of interesting original buildings, but also a lot of empty shops. The local visitor centre suggested we follow the Art Walk around town. Local artists had used shop windows as their canvas, but this still did not hide the run down nature of Kalgoorlie. This seems a shame because a conserted effort to smarten up the town would make a huge difference and keep visitors here longer.
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