We have actually moved onto Cue. We arrived mid afternoon yesterday and discovered we had secured a very agreeable site, up high and close to the loos and showers. Excellent. Michael spent today sorting out the back of Lily, so as to make room for the rest of the trip's fossicking. The roof rack has finally been utilised and now we have much more space to fill with rusty metal. I attacked Will's interior, moved bags and crates around into better locations, tossed out a few undesirable empty packages and endeavoured to create a more organised space. I think we actually achieved this result, which will be good as from next year onward, we will not only be travelling with Stella, but with our new addition, Luna, who we will be collecting after we return home.
That's right, ladies and gentlemen, we have secured a black Groodle puppy, who was born on 30 May. We have known since Pip shuffled off the mortal cool that Stella was never meant to be an "only" dog. Hence, we have been actively searching for a hypoallergenic Poodle cross. A very long time ago, Michael has a Kelpie/Poodle cross named Kelly, whom he adored. Having another Poodle cross had become my mission from God. This week, we have paid the deposit for Luna, who will becoming the latest member of our quirky family come late August.
Enough of these distractions. We had an absolutely wonderful time in Yalgoo and spent three afternoons fossicking our little hearts out. Once more, the old tip proved to be an absolute treasure trove of interesting and in some cases, intriguing pieces that we eagerly added to a growing pile of found metal objects. We also visited the pub for dinner twice (average food but an entertaining cross section of Yalgoo's residents and those passing through) and conducted our own self-driving tour of the historic sights.
On our last afternoon, I had Michael drop me at the Saint Hyacinth's Church. I wandered down the hill and onto the main drag to enjoy the atmosphere of another lazy afternoon in the fragment left of a much busier town.
Europeans first went through the area in the mid 1850s. Pastoralists began running sheep and cattle in the 1870s. Gold was the sensation that ignited Yalgoo in the early 1890s. By 1895, Yalgoo's goldfields were declared a separate entity and by the following year, the town boasted seven hotels to service the inhabitants of a sizable tent city. The town flourished until the first decade of the twentieth century, when the gold reserves declined and the town rapidly shrunk to a fraction of its former self. Yalgoo's purpose is now to service the surrounding stations and mining activities through the local shire. But for fossickers like us, Yalgoo is a veritable cornucopia of historic stories told by the metal artifacts left behind.
The caravan park was, and remains a marvellous oasis for visitors. When I first convinced Michael to return to Yalgoo, he only had memories of a rough and rugged blip on the landscape from his time working at the Golden Grove mine site. When we first stayed at the caravan park, his attitude was turned on its head. This is a modern and clean park with excellent amenities, ideal for the fossicker, the prospector, the wildflower enthusiast or those heading north or south. There are ensuite toilets with showers, a well resourced campers kitchen, rammed earth chalets and powered and unpowered sites. The complex is fully fenced which allows those guests with dogs a chance to exercise on lead safely within the grounds.
We stayed five nights in Yalgoo and were not bored for one second. We watched, often with amusement, those arriving late in the afternoon and then leaving early the next morning without a clue of the gem that Yalgoo remains. So, if travelling through the Mid West in future, do yourselves a favour and drop anchor at the Yalgoo caravan park, put your feet up and enjoy the ambiance of this wonderful little settlement.
No comments:
Post a Comment