The Three Amigos

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A very welcome watering hole.
The return trip was punctuated with a lingering “pause” at the Broad Arrow tavern, 24 mile north of Kalgoorlie. Yep, once again shade is the premium parking place.

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The richest gold deposit in the world.
Back in central Kalgoorlie we were treated to the clearest overview of the golden mile one could ever want to hear. Former mine manager, John Meneghini, who oversaw the melding of 2 huge mining companies into one in the late 70’s was with us the entire run. John gave us the most comprehensive overview of the resultant super pit one could ever imagine. The pit is 3km long 1km wide and currently 800m deep. The main ore body twists down and runs in a south easterly direction. (If you have a shovel…) About 15million tonnes of earth is removed from the pit annually and 58 million oz of gold has been retrieved since Paddy Hannan found his first 100oz in  back in 1893.

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Most of the team found their way to another historic Kalgoorlie bike venue, Bob Pinner’s private collection, which I know nothing about. Unkind readers may assume I got lost, and they would be correct.

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Saturday, always a great day to ride,
We prepare to join the annual Kalgoorlie toy run. It’s a charity event run with the help of the Salvo’s, the police, local service clubs and local bike enthusiasts to collect toys donated by bike riders for underprivileged kids for Christmas.

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Bikes and characters of all backgrounds assemble in the park. Following the cops, the postie bikes, known as the largest bike group across the world, lead the parade, followed by the vintage bikes (code for our crew) followed by about another 350 bikes.

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Our intrepid leader shows the way, and readers may be as surprised as anyone else  to see that the squirrel could be street legal. (This is Kalgoorlie)

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Having regrouped and replenished back at Richard’s workshop, we head south west of Kalgoorlie 25 miles to Coolgardie. It’s another pleasant sun searing 43c day and bikes and riders do remarkably well. We arrive at the lions lookout in Coolgardie, to be refreshed by the excellent support crew once again. Home baked sweet biscuits and freshly brewed tea and coffee again proving popular despite the heat. Plenty of flavoured ice treats hit the spot as well. A Coolgardie local Tim Moore gave an excellent background to Coolgardie, its gold rush days, and other events. Like the speakers of the 2 previous days he made the local area come alive with fascinating facts behind its rich history.

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These shots show how sparce “city of Coolgardie” is now. It was once home to 35,000.

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We lunch at the Denver City hotel and saddle up smartly as the fire truck responds to a call. Refuelled we head south west to Kambalda 47 warmish miles down the track.