We arrived a half hour before Racetime. We got our free glass of champagne and were sat in the back room with The Ladies of Kalgoorlie. Some were wearing hats, all were dressed to the nines.
Who to bet on. The favorite was number 1, American. We had to bet on him. We also selected a longshot, DrunkenSailor. The bets were placed in-between the bar and the back room, clearly where the men were.
Alas we were skunked, American coming in 4th and Drunken Sailor apparently stopped for a drink. It was an exciting race with an incredible photo finish. Then the ladies and us chowed down on chicken and prawns with Pavlova for dessert. We got to chat with Dixie the proprietor. She had come to Kalgoorlie for gold five years ago, bought a hotel instead and now has the hotel up for sale so she can retire. Apparently the past five years did well for them. We resisted purchase, not part of our life plan. She gave us a shirt as a souvenir.
We did look at some galleries and photographed some of the amazing architecture. Some of the buildings were scaffolded because of an earthquake that occurred a few months ago.
This is a mining town. Somehow we missed the brothel tours but noted the stripper bars.
The craft/ art store was a bit over priced but they had crocheted an afghan for the jacaranda tree trunk in front of the store. The jacarandas were in bloom while we were here. Quite beautiful.
This was the first day Michael drove and within minutes, he was pulled over for a u-turn and per the police, nearly hitting their car. They let him off, not because he was a deputy but we are tourists.
The Western Australia mining museum had a lovely bush garden outside it's entrance.
Of course more flowers.
We dropped the rental car, quite dusted with orange from our drive to Lake Ballard. We ate dinner at The Blue Monkey. We had grilled Barrimondi. Now we are packing for our train trip back to Perth and the pick up of our rental car for the second half of the trip. Nothing scheduled, not my modus operandi. Somehow I will muddle through.
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Location:Kalgoorlie Western Australia
hi-
ReplyDeleteso - who did win the melbourne cup?
Were there any winners at your bar- oops I mean hotel.
If you've never read Dick francis' "In the Frame" pick it up - a lot of the action takes place in NZ and Australia and there is a well planned 'event' which goes off during the Cup. One of his best stories.
ciao Monica