I just realised I have to add 3 more to my list of 101 things accomplished from my time in New Zealand... unfortunately, getting a speeding ticket in the middle of nowhere in Western Australia is not on the list. For all of those who knew what was coming given my normal driving style, read it and chuckle!
Yep - I was chased down by Australia's equivalent of the country sheriff! Luckily I did spot him (was telling Kelly: there's something funny about that car coming towards us up ahead... does he have lights on the top... BRAKE!) and he didn't catch me doing the 160km/h I was doing, but "only" caught me at 135km/h... the limit is (unfortunately for me) 110km/h.
The thing is, the roads are completely straight with hardly anything on them... and you can see traffic etc from MILES away. Some journeys have taken us up to 8 hours driving in one day and it gets really tedious if you have to recycle the same CD's over and over and over again without a change in scenery. If its good enough for Germany, why are the other countries so narrow-minded?
Here's my rationale:
Speeding makes it a shorter journey => less chance to fall asleep => less chance of an accident => safer for everyone really... I didn't try explaining that to the nice police officer though :)
Oh well, AUD$250 down the drain... its one very expensive souvenir, but its definitely going in the scrapbook!
When we finally got to Kalgoorlie (about 2 hours later than intended...because I kept to the speedlimit and we wasted 25 minutes being reprimanded by the officer) we went to visit the Mining Hall of Fame. Kalgoorlie is in the middle of the Golfields gold belt, and is home to the SUPERPIT! The biggest open face mine in the world! Yeah!
We went on an underground tour through the first mine to have been created in the area. It was a bit claustrophobic, especially when they turn off the lights and show you just HOW dark it really is and how LITTLE light the first miners had with just the one candle... Respect. The mine we saw was only on level 1 = 120 feet below the surface, which took us about 2 minutes to descend to in a minute shaft-elevator that could only hold 5 people. However, this particular mine had 5 levels going to nearly 1500 feet below the surface. I was quite fine with just the one, thanks very much!
We stayed at the GoldRush Backpackers for the night, two of only a handful of females, where apparently 80% of the people are actually permanent residents - all young miners and engineers who have come to work in one of the many many many mines in the aread... spot the odd pair of shoes in the hallway! Very nice guys on the whole, on of which we dubbed "The Superpit Man"- aka Andy from the north of the UK who was an engineer working in the superpit to find new gold veins to be exploited.
Yep - I was chased down by Australia's equivalent of the country sheriff! Luckily I did spot him (was telling Kelly: there's something funny about that car coming towards us up ahead... does he have lights on the top... BRAKE!) and he didn't catch me doing the 160km/h I was doing, but "only" caught me at 135km/h... the limit is (unfortunately for me) 110km/h.
The thing is, the roads are completely straight with hardly anything on them... and you can see traffic etc from MILES away. Some journeys have taken us up to 8 hours driving in one day and it gets really tedious if you have to recycle the same CD's over and over and over again without a change in scenery. If its good enough for Germany, why are the other countries so narrow-minded?
Here's my rationale:
Speeding makes it a shorter journey => less chance to fall asleep => less chance of an accident => safer for everyone really... I didn't try explaining that to the nice police officer though :)
Oh well, AUD$250 down the drain... its one very expensive souvenir, but its definitely going in the scrapbook!
When we finally got to Kalgoorlie (about 2 hours later than intended...because I kept to the speedlimit and we wasted 25 minutes being reprimanded by the officer) we went to visit the Mining Hall of Fame. Kalgoorlie is in the middle of the Golfields gold belt, and is home to the SUPERPIT! The biggest open face mine in the world! Yeah!
We went on an underground tour through the first mine to have been created in the area. It was a bit claustrophobic, especially when they turn off the lights and show you just HOW dark it really is and how LITTLE light the first miners had with just the one candle... Respect. The mine we saw was only on level 1 = 120 feet below the surface, which took us about 2 minutes to descend to in a minute shaft-elevator that could only hold 5 people. However, this particular mine had 5 levels going to nearly 1500 feet below the surface. I was quite fine with just the one, thanks very much! 
Seeing the old machinery (pick axe and hammer/chisel combo) and the new machinery (money-maker drill and explosives) I'm not sure that mining today is any more fun than it was 100 years ago... but apparently it pays really well... especially if you're adept at swallowing what you find!
We stayed at the GoldRush Backpackers for the night, two of only a handful of females, where apparently 80% of the people are actually permanent residents - all young miners and engineers who have come to work in one of the many many many mines in the aread... spot the odd pair of shoes in the hallway! Very nice guys on the whole, on of which we dubbed "The Superpit Man"- aka Andy from the north of the UK who was an engineer working in the superpit to find new gold veins to be exploited.(Un)fortunately no more gory or embarrassing stories to add since we avoided the bars (featuring scantily clad "ladies" wearing little more than pasties and hotpants... or so we were told). Instead, we hunkered down in the hostel and watched "What Women Want" with a bunch of miners. :)
1 comment:
De miners hebben What Women Want met jullie mee gekeken? Dan moeten ze jullie wel erg leuk hebben gevonden! :)))
Ik vind bijna iedere mijn eng, behalve die in ene in Limburg waar je met een karretje doorheen gaat, dan heb je in ieder geval nog de ruimte. Het trucje met het licht uit doen ze trouwens overal, na-apers :)
groetjes,
Kim
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