Sandstone to Menzies
Trek through the goldfields #part2
After a busy morning sight seeing around Mt Magnet, we decided to treat ourselves to a powered site at the van park in Sandstone,. A small park with clean amenities, communal fire pit, green grass and most importantly only one block away from the pub. All refreshed from a nice hot shower we strolled up to the National Hotel - a lovely cosy pub for a pint & parmy.
The following day we drove around and checked out Sandstones local attractions, London Bridge, The Brewery & the old state battery. With the van in tow, we grabbed some fresh milk & veges from the store before heading east towards Leinster. Just over halfway to Leinster we found a ripper camp-spot near some granite formations.
It was such a good spot, we decided to stay 2 nights. We loved sitting back next to a fire and watching the Granite cliffs change colours, especially around sunset. We then moved up the road into Leinster, for 3 nights. The town itself is purely a mining town with just a pub, grocery store, petrol station and a communal recreation centre. At only $20 a night for power and water plus free washing machines, it was the perfect place to catch up on some work, maintenance and of course washing.
One night, we headed to the pub as we were craving another chicken parmy. Wow is all we can say. The food was delicious and such massive servings. You can see why it was full of people. Thanks Leinster for some down days, now off towards Leonora.
We had planned to have a lamb roast for dinner, so we didn’t travel too far down the road when we found another epic free camp to set up at. Plenty of firewood scattered around, which is what we wanted so we started the fire and slow cooked our lamb. Needless to say, it was delicious. The next day we made it into Leonora.
Not really alot to see in Leonora town itself, so headed south to check out the Gwailia Ghost town which was only 5km south of Leonora. We had a few people recommend to us to visit here, so we were excited to check it out. You make a donation at the front counter, where the lady then gave us a map so we could wander around the museum and township. A great museum with lots to see and it also had a small cafe on the grounds.
We decided to head out to Malcolm Dam - a free camp 15minutes east of Leonora to stay for the night. There were plenty of vans scattered around but not much water in the dam unfortunately. The following day, we made tracks and headed south and out to the ghost town of Kookynie. It is practically a real life ghost town with only the Grand Hotel left open and a few residents of the town.