The Nullabor...and a bit of "me time"

We it is fair to say we made the right (albeit late) decision to send Mel and the kids home on the plane from Perth....the road from Perth to Melbourne is extremely long without a lot of big name tourist attractions.

The morning after sending the family home, I did a quick visit into the Perth Arena to complete my business there and then I was back to hook on the caravan for the long haul across the Nullabor.  I didn't get away until 10am with my first destination being Kalgoorlie.   I heard that the Boulder Cup was being held in Kalgoorlie that day so I thought it would be best to google the caravan parks.  I was very surprised when the pre-emptive search engine almost sent me to the Kalgoorlie Brothels which obviously is highly googled term in Kalgoorlie.   I then learnt that the prostitution trade was huge in the gold rush and that there were still functioning brothels in Kalgoorlie...one even offering a tour at 3pm daily to give you an insight.  Apparently back in the day, it was very similar to Amsterdam where the pro's would sit in the windows of the brothels so you could do a bit of window shopping.

Anyway, I checked out the Superpit - which is the lifeblood of the town.  It will be very interesting how the town fares after 2021 when the believe the pit will run out of gold.  I then ventured into town to have a cleansing ale at the Exchange Hotel which was buzzing after the big race day in town.  I sat down to be greeted by a scantily clad lass behind the bar....I had again stumbled across a "skimpy's" bar....I am starting to see a trend in these mining towns!!  So I ended up having a couple of beers to assist in stimulating their economy...

The next morning I had a later than planned start as I intended to commence the Nullabor Golf links which commenced at Kalgoorlie Golf Course, but I couldn't get on until 8.30am.  Nullabor golf is the longest golf course in the world which stretches 1365kms from Kalgoorlie to Ceduna.  It commences at Kalgoorlie where you play 2 holes and then you stop every 100kms or so and play another hole at different golf courses of road houses along the nullabor.  It sounded enticing and also a good way to break up the trip for myself, so I teed off at the beautiful course in Kalgoorlie.  Little was I to know that this would be the highlight of the golf courses as the majority of the holes where at roadhouses where they had plonked some astro turf for a tee and another bit for a green - and the rest the advertised as "natural terain" which meant they hadn't cleared anything and you were hitting over shrubs and dirt.  I had never been asked to rake the green or tee before while playing golf, but some of the holes were very unique.  All in all it was a bit of fun, but I didn't finish all the holes as I did find it was slowing me down significantly as you had to find the hole, get your card stamped at the visitors centre etc.

One of the highlights of the drive (and in fact the whole trip) was the visit to the Head of the Bight where I was expecting to just take some scenic photo's of the shear cliffs and the crashing waves.  What I didn't expect to see was 30 odd whales with the calves at the "whale nursery".  Apparently 130 or so whales frequent this area annually to give birth.  It was spectacular....whales as far as the eye can see!  This put me a bit behind, but certainly worth the stop.

Almost home now...a couple of big days on the road and about $1000 worth of fuel and I will be sitting in my leather recliner in the next few days!!