Hm……sleep. Discuss. Well , it wasn’t easy but I’m pleased to report that Jane, despite her back, did get a fair nights sleep on the lower bunk. However, up on the top bunk it was terribly hot. The bed, although pretty narrow, was quite comfortable. However, the train itself was v rickety and noisy as it rattles along at about 80mph. At times, in the blue cabin light, it felt like it might fly off the rails and I kept thinking ‘How can it be so bumpy when it’s just a straight rail line?’. I felt like a backseat train driver making sure we stayed on track. All night…..
At about midnight, I needed to come down the ladder to visit the en-suite facilities. I also discovered how to turn off the blue light but I’m not sure the pitch black dark helped with my sense of disorientation. I slept very fitfully until about 5-30am when I was woken by noises outside in the corridor. I looked at my watch and wondered why my alarm hadn’t gone off at 5-15?
Crikey, we now had just 30 minutes to get up and dressed as we needed to be in the Outback Bar ready for our day trip at 6am. Bleary eyed we put on our long trousers, long sleeved shirts and boots as described in our instructions.
We slowly pulled into Kalgoorlie and disembarked. The groups were split up onto coaches for the different tour options. We’d chosen the Superpit Tour which would take us right into the huge working gold mine. I was beyond excited to be doing this as a Geography nerd and Jane happily went along with the plan.
We boarded our coach with Alan the driver whose commentary throughout was somewhat negative. He was very cross with the people who got on with short sleeves and insisted that they’d have to wear overalls which were ‘very unpleasant’. We were all given Hi-Viz jackets and plastic protection glasses and Alan made it clear that we had to wear them when he said as otherwise he would lose his job.
Our first stop was Hannam’s North Tourist Mine. We’d only stop here for a cup of tea and a loo break but Alan said it was ‘ridiculous’ as we could easily spend at least a couple of hours here. The main attractions for us were the big trucks!! These weren’t in use and we were able to climb all over them which was great fun.
Next we drove on and into the Superpit mine site itself. Alan threw lots of facts and figures out about the huge piles of boulders, massive cranes, enormous machinery and of course the monster trucks. I’m afraid it was still a little early and I couldn’t take it all in so you will need to fact-check my statistics of the day yourselves!
My Top 10 AlanFacts
1) Size of the pit. The pit is an oblong in shape 3.5km x 1.5km x 600m deep
2) Amount of alcohol you are allowed in your bloodstream when entering the pit – 0%
3) Number of monster dump trucks going up and down in the mine – 40 at a cost of Aus$ 3million each
4) Date when the goldfields were created 2.6 to 2.9 billion years ago in the Dolerite rock.
5) Number of dump trucks that have enough gold ore in them to be sent to the mill (rather than just dump their 250 tonne load) 1:6
6) The Golden Mile is one of the world’s richest gold deposits and by 2019 had produced how many gold bars? 50,000
7) How much can a big truck driver earn in a year working one week on, one week off? Aus$ 100,000
8) When did they first discover gold at Kalgoorlie ? 1893
9) How many little rocks did Jane sneak into her pocket in the hope that it might contain some gold? None, Alan was very clear that we were all being watched by multiple sources and would be strip searched if they suspected any funny business.
10) Amount of Sodium Cyanide used in the process of extracting gold, globally. 35000 tonnes. I have used Prof Google here and it’s obviously a very touchy subject and on their Kalgoorlie Consolidated Gold Mines website, they seem defensive about its use.
We also made two stops at a couple of amazing viewpoints looking right over the Superpit. It was at one of these that we needed to wear our glasses and even a hard-hat. What a treat. It was incredible to see the bands of different coloured rocks and the now ant-like Monster Trucks winding their way up and down.
I must say, Alan did seem very optimistic about the future of the mine saying that there was probably enough gold here to keep the company busy for another 60 years. He drove us back to the train in time for a lovely brunch. The day was only just beginning.
PS Today, even the photos are BIG! I’ve had some trouble making images fit the grid so decided to send the full images today. Let me know which you prefer in the comments. Thanks. 🙏
Where shall we go to next? 