Bad Puns and Great Pizza – Exploring the Goldfields Nov 2020

Attending this trip

Penny and Spence: Landcruiser

Dave and Cindy: Prado

Ivo and Lucy: Landcruiser

Sean and Deb: Triton

Shane and Ralph: Triton

We met at the Lakes Roadhouse and headed East. After a stop at Merredin for fuel and ice cream, and an opportunity for Shane and Ralph to have a quick look at Merredin museum we continued on to Boondi Rock. We drove through some rain but it had stopped by the time we got to Boondi and set up camp. It’s a great little camp ground and provided the opportunity for Ralph and Shane, both of whom were keen to see if the goldfields lived up to their name, to dig a large and quite unproductive hole. Ivo was able to do his normal mountain goat impression walking up the rock, closely followed by Deb, with Cindy, Lucy and I following some way behind. There was a lovely view of the black clouds rolling in from the top of the rock, so we made our way back to camp and enjoyed an evening chatting before retiring to our tents/campers just before the rain started.

Boondi Rock

The next morning we managed to pack up without getting too wet. We fuelled and turned off the tar at Coolgardie, having already received a message from the camp host at Credo that they had had LOTS of rain, and some tracks would not be accessible. The track to Credo is part of the Golden Quest Discovery Trail and we had our first view of the past when we stopped at the ruined Premier Hotel, probably a very impressive establishment in its day.

The Premier Hotel

Arriving at Credo, we set up camp and then drove to the Broad Arrow Tavern for lunch.

Some shots at Credo camp

Unfortunately they no longer encourage guests to write on every part of the walls of the tavern, but we had an awesome lunch.

Dave and Cindy had not visited the area before and headed to Kalgoorlie for a view of the Super Pit and some really big machinery. Shane and Ralph also headed off, and the rest of us had a wander in Ora Banda, and Siberia, before heading to Rowles Lagoon where we all met up. Rowles Lagoon is a freshwater lake surprisingly located in the middle of the nowhere. A group of locals from Kal were camping there, with the kids enjoying the water. Its apparently treated as the local beach for people from Kal. It was also another opportunity for Dave to put the drone up and get some great shots.

Kalgoorlie Super Pit

Day 3 was a long day’s driving. A stop at Davyhurst cemetery really bought home the harsh reality of living in that area in the pioneer times. One family had lost 4 children, we stood by their little graves in the middle of the isolation of the endless red dust.

We headed to the ruined town of Davyhurst and saw a snake on the road which is where the bad puns began. There were conversations about Hissstamines, and Hissstorical buidings, a cemetery to be found in the dead centre of town and road kill looking for their flat mates. I was really slow that morning and took a while to catch on.

After Spence and I got stuck in mud on the Goongarrie track (thanks for pulling us out guys), we had to turn around and headed for Menzies where the boys got to play in more old mining and agricultural machinery.

Old mining machinery at Menzies

Next stop was Lake Ballard, another drone opportunity for Dave, and a climbing opportunity for Ivo and Deb. Shane and Ralph had gone off prospecting, hoping to find that retirement nugget, but were empty handed but not discouraged when we met them back at the camp. There is always the next trip to find it.

Lake Ballard

It was 5:00 by the time we got back to camp, but Dave valiantly started mixing the Pizza dough, despite the terrible flies everywhere, and within an hour we had all added our toppings and the first of us were sitting eating delicious Pizza. It was Cindy’s birthday the next day so we sang Happy Birthday and Shane brought out the (New Zealand) Pavlova and custard.

Pizza Night

The next morning we headed for home. Credo is an awesome camp site. The camp host was very helpful, there is lots of space and a donkey shower. The trip had a great group of people, it was lovely to have Lucy back on a trip with us, and Shane’s visitor Ralph fitted right in. We travelled a large portion of the Golden Quest Discovery Trail but there is lots more to see and we will schedule a ‘Bits we missed’ trip next year.

Story by Penny and Spence