Mine. Mine. Mine.

I wake up to a cold but sunny morning in Kalgoorlie. It's only 6:00am but the campsite is bustling with activity. We soon learn there's a housing shortage in Kalgoorlie with even the nastiest rundown rentals going around $800 per week. Many miners have instead opted to live in tents at the campsite. They're all up early and getting ready for today's twelve hour shift. It's a rough way to live.

My bike needs new oil and the only Suzuki mechanic in town has graciously squeezed me into his Saturday schedule as the first job of the day. What a champion. My bike is purring again, pleased with all the attention no doubt, and in no time we're off to see the Kalgoorlie Super Pit.

For those who have been living under a rock, Kalgoorlie is a famous gold mining town. Originally people found gold nuggets simply lying on the ground. When the surface was exhausted they started underground mines, excavating seams, and digging out gold ore. Eventually even that was exhausted and the miners had reached rock so hard that their tools became useless.

So they gave up on underground mining and turned the whole area into an open cut mine. It's a bloody huge hole in the ground; about 1000 feet deep and kilometres around the edges. The hard rock is regularly blasted into rubble by hundreds of diesel-fertilizer explosives and the ore is then scooped into gigantic trucks. Each truck carries 200 tonnes of ore which produces just a few ounces of gold.

I'm watching all this from the observation deck and I feel a bit like I'm a kid in the sandpit with Tonka toys. I know the trucks are gigantic - each wheel is bigger than my bike - but from up here they look so tiny I could almost reach out and grab one. There's an endless stream of trucks rolling up and down the sides of the pit. A digger fills each truck with only four scoops. Within seconds the truck is trundling back out of the pit. It's like watching gigantic mechanical ants. The allure of gold causes all this activity and expense. It's just mind boggling.

I'm fascinated but I can't stay here all day. We scoot off to tour an old underground mine. Squeezing into a mining elevator we descend about 30 metres underground. Our guide is a retired miner with a gift for the gab. He demos various mining tools and takes us around the warren of old tunnels. It's kind of creepy and very cramped. The mining tools are deafening; it would have been difficult working in these conditions every day. I feel immensely grateful for my cushy desk job.

Back on the surface we're approached by another tourist who wants to know just how cramped it is down in the underground mine. He explains he's very claustrophobic and enclosed spaces might cause panic attacks. How should I explain this to him... IT'S A MINE!!! Sheesh.

We ride outside Kalgoorlie to an old abandoned mining "ghost" town. I was hoping for some decent ruins but the best I can find is a pile of rubble where the schoolhouse used to stand. It's a bit of a disappointment. However I did get a chance to practice my offroad riding. Dave is still a whole lot better at it than I am. This is not boding well for when we head north.