Australia Prt 14, WA: Leonora to Coolgardie

Route: Leonora – Menzies – Davyhurst – Ora Banda – Kalgoorlie – Coolgardie

Day 177: 3 August 2019
From few km before Leonora to 12 km before Menzies
105,54 km (Total so far: 8.733,10 km) – Altitude climbed: 287 m
Weather: Sunny, strong and moderate tail and side wind

After riding back into town, I first visited Gwalia, an old mining village a few kilometer outside Leonora. The rest of the day was spend on the Goldfields Highway.
Much less busy than f.e. the Stuart Highway, but still too much to make it a pleasant ride. Too much of your time is occupied with watching the rear view mirror and negotiating traffic. Can’t let the mind wander and enjoy.

I find a nice camping spot a bit before Menzies. The spot is nice and although I’m almost 500 meter from the road, the noise of the road trains is too much to call it peaceful.
Tomorrow, back on gravel.

Day 178: 4 August 2019
From 11 km before Menzies to 10 km before Davyhurst
67,44 km (Total so far: 8.800,54 km) – Altitude climbed: 225 m
Weather: Sunny, light & strong head and side winds

Menzies, an old mining town, is pretty neatly maintained. Lot’s of tourist signs and information about their past. A hotel, a tourist information, a campground, but no shop (the so called ‘general store’ in the hotel is nothing). I drink a coke at the hotel pub before leaving town, back on gravel. 250 kilometer / 3 days on asphalt since Laverton has been enough.

I take the Evanston-Menzies road going west out of town. A light wind from the northwest works against me. If I would have stayed on the highway, it would have been to my advantage. But this is so much better, even when the wind picks up soon after that.
A perfect gravel road, hardly any corrugation, no loose sand.
Pretty soon, I get taller trees again. Nice to see, as nothing grew much higher as the six meter mulga trees the last months.

On the 27 kilometer stretch to the junction with the Davyhurst Road, I saw two cars. On the 27 km after the junction, on the Davyhurst Road, still on excellent gravel, zero cars.
Cycling heaven, outback cycling as I had imagined it.
Lots of different plants and trees.
The fauna even feels a bit tropical.
Temperatures are more agreeable as in the tropics. 23 degrees in the shade, 33 degrees in the sun. 8 degrees just before sunrise.
A perfect day.

Day 179: 5 August 2019
From 10 km before Davyhurst to few km passed Ora Banda
80,20 km (Total so far: 8.880,74 km) – Altitude climbed: 321 m
Weather: Sunny, moderate side and tail wind

Another brilliant day.
Well almost.
First I rode through Davyhurst. At the map and in the tourist information in Leonora and Menzies, they say it’s abandoned. Well, nothing is left. The hotel once standing there its heydays is just a pile of stones. There is apparently a mining office where you should present yourself when continuing on the road to Kalgoorlie, but I didn’t.
This is a national park, this is a road on the map not marked as private, so they have to leave me alone.

The rest of the day cycling towards Ora Banda, the road goes up and down a bit all the time. So much different trees again, it’s fantastic. The first 75 kilometer of the day I see one truck and two motorbike riders, that’s all.
I expected Ora Banda to be deserted as well.
The hotel next to the camp ground burned down recently.
The campground itself is a place for the miners, I think, because mining is what they do here.
A lot !
What I didn’t expect either, was a paved road from Ora Banda. I hoped to be on gravel till rejoining the Goldfields Highway at Broad Arrow.

I pitched the tent a few kilometer southeast of Ora Banda. The night was loud with continuous road trains passing the road a few hundred meters away.
To make this a perfect loop, I think you better continue riding the dirt directly to Coolgardie. I wanted to have a real supermarket again, because I haven’t seen one since Alice Springs, 2.500 kilometer ago. Also want to buy a new bottle of shellite for the stove. Kalgoorlie has a Bunnings. The next one would be in Albany only (although I later found out Esperance has a Bunnings store as well).

Day 180: 6 August 2019
From few km passed Ora Banda to Kalgoorlie
62,76 km (Total so far: 8.943,50 km) – Altitude climbed: 173 m
Weather: Sunny, moderate tail and side wind

Rode the paved road towards Broad Arrow, where there’s an ancient pub. I asked the bar tender wether there’s a possibility to follow the dirt track along the railway towards Kalgoorlie (instead of the Goldfields Highway) but both he and the people in the kitchen didn’t have a clue. The pub is right beside the railway.

I took my chances and tried it. First halve, there are a couple of active mines and every time I thought there would be signs that it’s forbidden to enter, but that track along the railway is open all the way down to Kalgoorlie.
Fantastic !
No worries about traffic.

Second half, the scenery improves, but the track becomes a bit more sandy and deeper gravel the last 10 km before Kalgoorlie.
Overall, very recommended.
I can stay two night with Shirley and Eddy in Kalgoorlie. Susie, a teacher I met on the GCR arranged it for me.

Day 181: 7 August 2019
Kalgoorlie
Weather: Sunny

Eddy takes me out in his car to visit Bunnings and a few of the highlights. The main one of course the Super Pit.

Day 182: 8 August 2019
From Kalgoorlie to the forest a few km outside Kalgoorlie
13,39 km (Total so far: 8.956,89 km) – Altitude climbed: 150 m
Weather: Sunny

Shirley and Eddy left town for a couple of days. As I don’t want to go too far south too soon (it’s still winter), I chose to take a few rest days in that forest outside of town. Just load up some good food and enjoy the quietness.

Day 183-185: 9-11 August 2019
Forest, 8 km outside Kalgoorlie

Rest days

Day 186: 12 August 2019
From forest, 8 km outside Kalgoorlie to 6 km passed Coolgardie
59,97 km (Total so far: 9.016,86 km) – Altitude climbed: 347 m
Weather: Sunny

Rode back into Kalgoorlie.
Lunch at MacDonalds and shopping at Coles.

As I found a good road to ride into Kalgoorlie along the railway line, there is also a good option to avoid the highway between Kalgoorlie and Coolgardie.
Studying the map, I saw there was a (water)pipeline running between the two towns, and a maintenance track alongside it.
It is good riding almost all the time.
Most of the time, I stayed south of the pipeline. There is a track north of the pipeline as well, but less scenic.

Once the track south of the pipeline joins the main highway, it is only a few hundred meters before the pipeline goes underground for a bit and you can cross to ride along the track north of the pipeline, away from the highway.
If riding the opposite direction, towards Kalgoorlie, there’s a small hill to tackle just outside Coolgardie. Don’t be discouraged by it, the rest of the road is only slightly undulating and in much better shape.

Coolgardie is a historical mining town. The highway runs through it.
Hope to visit the museum when I come back in a few days to buy provisions.
Rain is forecasted for the day after tomorrow, and I don’t want to be in the middle of the dirt track between Coolgardie and Norseman, so I will pitch the tent outside town and wait it out.
There is a campground in Coolgardie, but it is right next to the main road. That will be awfully loud.

Day 187-189: 13 – 15 August 2019
6 km passed Coolgardie

Quite a lot of rain was predicted for Wednesday 14th August. The 13th was still a nice sunny day with blue skies, and what’s more, a pretty strong wind from the north. That would be a tail wind, if I were to ride today. But I didn’t want to be caught up in the bad weather somewhere in the middle between Coolgardie and Norseman on these dirt roads, so I decided to take some more rest days.
14th of August brought indeed a lot of rain.
Around sunset, I heard a thunderstorm coming from my left and another one from my right. Of course, they met each other right above my head.
Hundreds of lightnings, immediately followed by loud thunders, strong wind gusts, rain and hail.
The whole area flooded, my tent standing in two centimeters of water.
Too much to worry about, especially those lightnings above my head, so I decided to distract myself and prepare a nice meal. Cutting broccoli, peppers, carrots, onion to prepare a delicious vegetable curry with couscous.
I heard the water flooding under my tent but I stayed perfectly dry inside.
By the time I started eating, there was some time already between the lightnings and the thunder and by the time I finished my meal the worst was over.

Contrary to the predictions, the 15th was also a rainy day, so I stayed put another day.