Albany, Western Australia to Kalgoorlie, Western Australia - 870 kms 9:10 hours.
Leaving Albany, I try to stay as close to the coast, on the way to Esperance. Then I will travel north, overshoot Norseman till I reach Kalgoorlie. As I have already stayed at Norseman on the way in, I will stay overnight at Kalgoorlie instead, even if it involves a small detour.
Just an hour over, out of Albany, the traffic came to a halt. I was stuck behind a road train and could not see much. I got out to have a look and it was an accident up ahead.
A ute had its rear wheel fall off at high speed and ended up on its side. The occupants were shaken but unhurt. You could see a zigzag furrow on the road where the wheel hub dragged along. The wheel was nowhere to be seen.
As I was driving along the road, I saw an elevated conveyor belt crossing the road. This connected the Nickel mine at Munglinup just past Ravensthorpe to the processing plant on the other side of the road.
The landscape is usually beige, be it wild grass or farms.
Soon I was passing through Esperance and then turning north towards Norseman. But now I started seeing splashes of bright orange along the road. It is the hemiparisitic plant Nuytsia, known locally as moodjar. As the flowers appear around Christmas, it is also known as the Christmas tree. It grows only around Southwestern Australia.
Further north, I saw the beds of Stevensons Lake. This is a smaller lake, part of the Lake Dundas system, which is further up north. As the waters evaporate, the lakes form multiple pools and the salts left behind are quite colourful, ranging from blue and green to pink. In this case, the water was blue-green.
Almost any where along the road in these parts, a rail line runs almost parallel and within sight.
Getting closer to Dundas, I spotted a long train. Being somewhat of a train nut, I stopped to take a few pictures.
I soon got back on the road and quickly outpaced the train, leaving it behind. Just past Dundas, the road crossed the rail line. This meant I could wait there and watch the train thunder past.
I had spent enough time gawking at trains and I soon got back on the road which stretched out endlessly in front of me.
It was starting to get dark. I did see some lit up industrial works off the road at Feysville. It was the Jubilee Processing Plant that processes gold ore from the nearby South Jubilee mine.
The dinner option at the motel did not look good, so I ventured out into the city. I did not find many options and just grabbed some fast food and headed back to my room and turned in. Tomorrow, I head back across the Nullarbor.
No comments:
Post a Comment