Travelling east

May 2018 - March 2024
An open-ended adventure by The Gypsies
Currently traveling
  • 104footprints
  • 1countries
  • 2,147days
  • 614photos
  • 45videos
  • 22.6kkilometers
  • 3.5kkilometers
  • Day 2

    On the Road to Kalgoorlie

    May 5, 2018 in Australia ⋅ ⛅ 15 °C

    Finally we are on the road again. We had some mechanical issues with our truck and they took much longer to sort out than we expected. Iveco eventually fixed the problems after much discussion and time wasted.
    However we had a lovely time catching up with both our families and were sad to say goodbye. BUT ARE SOOOO GLAD to be moving on and doing what we planned. Well actually, there is not much of a plan but heading East is a good start.
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  • Day 4

    Kalgoorlie

    May 7, 2018 in Australia ⋅ ☀️ 17 °C

    We are in Kalgoorlie. Will be here for a few days while waiting for some stuff to arrive at the post office.

  • Day 6

    The Superpit and the Brothel

    May 9, 2018 in Australia ⋅ ☀️ 19 °C

    Today we had a look at the two most famous places in Kalgoorlie.

    The Goldmine.
    Each dump truck (worth $4.4 million each) carries 250 tons of rubble out of the pit. Only one out of every 7 trucks carries the high grade rock, which after crushing and processing will yield about a golf ball sized lump of pure gold. The mine owns and runs 40 trucks and various other mammoth machines 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. The tour was well worth it. The size and scale of the everything was huge.

    The Brothel
    Questa Casa or The Pink House. Back in its heydey it had ten working rooms and as many girls who were kept very busy and apparently they made pots of money. It’s still a working brothel and the girls start at 7pm.

    Now, the Questa Casa has just three rooms in use and there is only demand for two sex workers at a time. Prices are $150 for a half-hour and $280 for a full hour. (I thought you might like to know that vital piece of information).

    To keep the brothel afloat, Carmel and her daughter (the madams) run daily tours for travellers. There was 18 in our group and at $25 a head that’s pretty good money for an hour or so.
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  • Day 12

    Laverton - Great Central Rd

    May 15, 2018 in Australia ⋅ 🌙 18 °C

    We left Laverton after lunch today and took the GCR to our overnight spot, free camping at the Giles Breakaway. No facilities of course, just a nice view down into the valley and a quiet place to ourselves. There is one other couple here tonight, but after some chit chat they drove off down a track to find their own private spot. They said they’ve done this journey 4 times before.

    We had coffee at the Laverton Visitors Centre, where we had to get permits to travel across to Uluru, one for the WA side of the border and the other for the NT side. They are permits that allow us to travel on Native Title Land. A sign of respect I think as they do not cost anything, but you are expected to have them.

    The tour we paid for in the Visitors Centre was excellent. It was a good interpretative story of the history of Laverton and surrounding regions, going right back to the early exploration of the area by Sir John Forrest.

    Dave had to let Phoebe out at midnight last night and he said the night sky was phenomenal. He wanted to wake me up to have a look but thought better of it. I wonder why  😂

    Right now we are cooking a chicken casserole on the BBQ. It’s smelling pretty darn nice.
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  • Day 15

    Gnamma Holes

    May 18, 2018 in Australia ⋅ 🌬 14 °C

    We will cross the border into Northern Territory today sometime. The nights have been spent in charming little bush spots that we find on the WikiCamps app. There is a lot of car wrecks off to the side of this Rd, and tyre rims seem grow out of nowhere. 😉. We’ve made use of them for fire places, and they worked brilliantly.

    The Gnamma Holes in the Photos are natural cavities in rocky outcrops that hold water after rain. A major source of water for nomadic aboriginals.

    We were waved down by three local men, who asked if we had a pump for their car tyre. They had plugged it with a tyre plug and just needed to air it up so they could get on their way towards Warburton. Dave obliged by getting the compressor and air hose going. Their car was a red commodore that had seen better days. The only window that wasn’t smashed was the front windscreen, and all the panels were crumpled up to some degree. 😂😂

    We’ve seen hundreds of camel tracks on the Rd in front of us at different times but not a camel in sight, now that’s something we do want to see.
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  • Day 16

    Camels

    May 19, 2018 in Australia ⋅ ⛅ 15 °C

    We finally saw some camels.🐪🐪🐪🐪🐪. A large herd of about 20 appeared as we rounded a bend on the rd.

    We also looked at Lassiters Cave. He was famous for having found gold somewhere around this area, but then died trying to refind it years later. I think his diary was found in this cave.

    And we have passenger along for the ride, eek! It’s a mouse🐁! I noticed the telltale signs on a packet of cracker biscuits, and then saw the droppings in a bottom drawer. Then while Dave was sitting on the toilet it came running towards him and he screamed like a girl😜😂🤣. He said it was a very fat little thing, so we thinks it might be going to have babies. All the food is coming out of that drawer until we get some baits and commit murder.
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  • Day 16

    The Olgas and Uluru

    May 19, 2018 in Australia ⋅ 🌙 14 °C

    Wow wow and wow!!!! Much more impressive than we thought they would be. We came across the Olgas first and they are a stunning range of rocks that seem to come out of nowhere. Huge and beautiful to see. We were driving through a fairly flat scrubby landscape, then these great big, gigantic, massive red rocks appear that make you sit up and look. We were quite awed by the sight of them. I doubt our photos can do them justice.

    We did a short walk into the gorge at the Olgas and then decided to go and have a look at Uluru (Eyers Rock) 40m Kilometres away. It was getting a little late in the day, so our intention was to just have a look and see what is what, then return the next day. We had heard that the climb up the rock was closed due to winds. However when we arrived about 3pm, it was open and Dave has always wanted to climb the rock. So off he went. It was too daunting for me. I thought I could probably get to the top but didn’t like the thought of coming down as my knees are not what they used to be.

    When Dave set off it was about 3pm and he finally returned about 5 pm so it took about 2 hours to do the round trip. He said it was much, much more difficult than he ever expected. He also said that it is very dangerous and can not believe that is is even allowed considering today’s health and safety rules and regs.

    I sat down and waited for him to return. There was a lot of people coming and going, some to climb, and some to just look. I haven’t seen this many people since we left Perth! This place definitely attracts tourists!!!!!.

    They are closing the climb in October 2019 because the Aboriginal people believe it is a sacred place, and to climb it, is disrespectful to their cultural beliefs. Cultural beliefs aside, Dave now believes it should be closed and felt it was one of the most dangerous things he’s ever done. There are dozens of plaques embedded in the rock wall dedicated to people who have died while climbing.

    He took lots of photos while he was up there with my camera, but I haven’t worked out how to get them from the camera onto my iPad. I can put them onto a USB stick but I don’t have one that will go into an iPad. This travel blog is done through an app on my iPad so the photos need to be accessible from the photos app on this iPad. Sorry if that confuses you, its not really relevant so just ignore🤪.
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  • Day 19

    Kings Canyon

    May 22, 2018 in Australia ⋅ ⛅ 18 °C

    Kings Canyon is in the Watarrka National Park. We packed some lunch and did the 6k Rim Walk. The views down into the chasm, 270 metre below, are lovely and the beehive like rock structures are similar to the Bungle Bungles in the Kimberley, but much smaller. We ate lunch at the Garden of Eden, a beautiful water hole about half way through our walk.Read more

  • Day 23

    Alice springs and Ormiston Gorge

    May 26, 2018 in Australia ⋅ ⛅ 26 °C

    A visit to Ormiston Gorge then lunch at “Epilogue Lounge” in the Todd Mall, Alice Springs. The view from the lookout at the gorge was beautiful, looking straight into a swimming hole directly below us. Followed by an excellent lunch in town.Read more