Heavenly Beverley : We're on the Road Again...Just Loving being on the Road Again.

Saturday 2 May 2015

We're on the Road Again...Just Loving being on the Road Again.

Day 6. We're at Hoover House, a fabulous Bed and Breakfast in Gwalia, the Northern Goldfields. Although the House has three guest bedrooms, we have the place to ourselves. Hoover House was commissioned by Herbert Hoover, a young American mining engineer, who happened to become president of the United States in 1929. Awful time to become a president. He only served one term before being turfed out, due to the Great Depression and Franklin Roosevelt's New Deal.

We are surrounded by history. Hoover House is part of the Gwalia historical precinct, a little blip of time standing still. The Sons of Gwalia Mine closed, supposedly, for the last time on 21 December 1963, the population left with what they could carry. Now Saint Barbara runs the mining operations and is drilling for gold in a shaft fifteen hundred metres directly under where we are staying. A twenty-four hour a day business, we can observe the activity out of our bedroom window, as we are staying in the Blue Room at the front of the House.

Gwalia has been lovingly restored by the not for profit organisation that manages the site. There is the Museum compound itself, which is bulging with memorabilia, including the biggest Winders in the Southern Hemisphere (to bring men and ore up from the bottom of the mine), the Oregon timber poppet head, the tools of trade of the mine, the locomotive named "Ken" and sundry other artifacts.

Then there is the town itself, which has been frozen in time. Corrugated iron cottages, the Hotel, the shops, the playing fields; all remain for visitors to see. This is our second time staying at Hoover House and I know there will be a third and a fourth time and so on. Once you have been to Gwalia, you get hooked and have to keep coming back.

We've had a wonderful trip so far. We've stopped at Karalee Dam, Lake Ballard, Leinster and two memorable nights around Lawlers.We've had sun, heat, rain and wind. We have found some wondrous metal objects to add to Michael's collection to produce amazing sculptures for the East End Gallery.

We've had the added bonus of Roger the motorbike to boldly go where we hadn't been before.We've only had one mishap so far and the only part bruised was our dignity. We've travelled to old, familiar sites and new unexplored sites. We are having the time of our lives.

The first shower in three days, clean clothes, a bed already made, a flushing toilet and access to TV and our computers has been intoxicating. We will enjoy every second of our time here and explore the site thoroughly again in the morning.And we have decided that we will stop in Coolgardie in another three nights to have our next fix of luxury.

In the meantime, we will move on to Murrin Murrin and Anaconda, following the Old Laverton Road. Tally ho.