Irish Music

Who knew in April I would be in an Irish pub in Australia listening to a band with fake Irish accents singing a Christmas song?

Kalgoorlie on the train

We have just returned from Kalgorlie after a return trip there on the Prospector - the Perth - Kalgoorlie train service.

Kalgoorlie itself is the second largest town in Western Australia, but for all that it only has a population of 30,000. We had booked a room at the York Hotel, one of the oldest in the town, but unfortunately its facilities showed its age - our room had no windows, and was really very hot, no air-conditioning to boot. The tourist office found us a nice self-contained unit, we unpacked and made our way back to the town. We got a taxi to Kalgoorlie's Super Pit - Kal is a gold-mining town - it certainly is a great big hole in the ground! We took pictures and made our way to the museum, had a look at their large, rather unexpected, Masonic regalia display and then had dinner.

Kalgoorlie, with its workforce mostly miners who do not live permanently in the town, has a number of large brothels, one of these has a nightly tour which unfortunately we missed - but it costs AU$60 for the tour, I can only assume that for that price the tour includes a demonstration!

The train journey, at 6-7 hours, is very comfortable, the seats are well spaced, and all faced forward. For the return journey we were even upgraded to first class - which means leather antimacassars on the standard seats, a free newspaper and as much food and drink as we liked. I had planned on booking first class both ways anyway, but as it turns out it would not have been worth paying twice as much.

All in a good way to travel, and a nice place to go to.

The family have arrived.

This morning at half eight I picked up my Aunt and my Grandmother from Perth International Airport, and then we dropped off their bags and made our way to Perth where we had a coffee, and walked round, and went to the Western Australian Museum and then had lunch and wandered through Kings Park, and then made our way back to Guildford where they were checked into their hotel, and then it was dinner time. A packed day of not very much, but it was as if I was seeing things for the first time, mainly because I was - my Grandmother asked me many time what certain buildings were, each time they were not ones I had ever noticed before.

Whiteman Park Classic Car Show

Went to the Whiteman Park Classic Car Show the other weekend, it was quite interesting. A lot of old army vehicles, lots and lots of Minis, and random Australian and American stuff I didn't know. There was even a A-reg Ford Excort XR3i, clearly a classic.

The first picture I took was of a Reliant Kitten, and a Reliant Rialto. Sad, but true.

I didn't take many pictures, becuse shiney and nice to look at the cars were, there was nothing amazingly rare.

http://kylet.co.uk/pictures/carShow

Sculpture by the Sea

At Cottesloe there has been a Sculpture by the Sea exhibition for the past week, I have finally got round to taking some pictures of the exhibits:

http://kylet.co.uk/pictures/sculpture/

One month left

My trip has gone by fast, I have seen a lot, scootered nearly 7,000km, taken over 900 photos (many of which are up on my pictures pages) and have generally had a blimmin' great holiday.

The last month may well be my busiest, as I have my family over and we are heading to Kalgoorlie on the Prospector train, and then we are hiring a 4x4 and driving down south to Margaret River, the Gloucester Tree, the Tree-top Walk, and many other places. If we have time I will take them up north too, visiting some of the spots I went to on my Monkey Mia tour.

Yet more pictures

Yet more pictures

Another photo album from Perth to add to the many, many photos I have already put up.