Day 205 Norseman, WA

The drive from Lucky Bay to Norseman is around 200kms and we have to head back to Esperance before we take the turn to Norseman.  It was hard saying goodbye to Lucky Bay.

The first part of our journey is through farming area with acre upon acre of wheat moving gently in the wind.  There is a sign on the side of the road saying the we are now in the Mallee area and the country changes significantly.  Philip says to expect more of this scrub country as we make our way across the Nullarbor tomorrow.

Arriving into Norseman I am pleasantly surprised.  It is a gold mining town, make no bones about that, but the town is very neat and tidy.  I am intrigued by the Corrugated Tin Camels that sit proudly on one of the towns roundabouts and I read the information board about the significance of those camels that carried the freight and mark ti the town in the early days of settlement.  They are also a reminder that Norseman has very wide streets because the camel trains needed to be able to turn around.

We are staying at the Acclaim Gateway Caravan Park that is a bit of a "come down" from where we were staying at Lucky Bay 😩.  However we have power and water so we are able to refill the water tank for our trip across the Nullarbor.  There is no water at any of the caravan parks between Norseman and Eucla. The owner of this caravan park is also able to refill our gas cylinder for $4/kg that is actually very reasonable.  We ran out of gas last night but always carry two 8.5kg cylinders so it is just a matter of switching from one to the other.  One cylinder gives us around six weeks of use.

A little street art in downtown Norseman

After we unhook the van and have a quick bit of lunch we head back to the town area we I pick up some last minute supplies from the local IGA.  I have seen on the Aussie Towns website that Norseman has a fairly decent lookout just two kilometres from the town centre so we decided to head up there before returning to the van.  As we make our way to the top of Beacon Hill we pass the massive Phoenix Tailing Storage Facility.  It stands 40 metres high, holds 4 million tonnes of tailing and covers 12ha of land.  It is very impressive.

The 360 degree views from the Beacon Hill Lookout are excellent.  We can see Lake Cowan in the distance and just below us is the Central Norseman Gold mine that has been mining in the area sine 1936. In the far distance we can also see Mount Thirsty.  There is a very good information bay at the lookout that gives us a very good insight into those early mining days.

It is close to three o'clock when we have driven back from the lookout so we swing by the BP Service station to top up our diesel.  Price is $2.36/litre and we expect to pay a lot more for diesel as we cross the Nullarbor.  I loved this Highway sign near where we fuelled up.  Adelaide is almost 2000 kilometres to the East but at least you will be on the right road 👍😂.

Tomorrow we hope to get as far as Cocklebiddy that is 469km from Norseman.  This is a lot of driving for us when we have been averaging around 200km between stops for the past few months.  But, there is not a lot to stop for across the Nullarbor so it should be an easy drive.  Hopefully I will have mobile service when we stop tomorrow evening but there are no guarantees.