COOLGARDIE – GLENDAMBO
Friday, Octobre 1 st / 49,7 miles (80km) Coolgardie.
Start from Coolgardie
Saturday, October 2 nd / 49,7 miles
Serge seems to get into a running pace of 49,7 miles (80km) in 9 to 10 hours with a 23 to 30 minutes’break.
Sunday, October 3 rd / 49,7 miles (80km) Coonana
We are getting better end better organised. Coonana is a sort of shanty town of the country. We still come across a few vehicles but we can see lots of wrecks on the side of the track.
Monday, October 5th / 49,7 miles (80km)
What a scorcher ! 45°C We camp in the middle of the desert. The trees have vanished and the vegetation is becoming scarce.
Tuesday, October 5th / 49,7 miles (80km) Rawlinna
We camp at Rawlinna, a kind of ghost town.
Wednesday, October 6th / 48.6 miles (78.2 km)
Serge has covered his 621.5 miles in 12 days 1 hour and 17 minutes.
Thursday, October 7th / 79.7 miles(80 km)
Saint Serge – Loogana
Scorcher! The camp is set up in Loogana, a mining town with only six inhabitants exploiting a chalk mine.
Friday, October 8th miles
Serge starts slowly. He has felt sick and he doesn’t feel so sure about his legs. He doesn’t think he will manage to reach Sydney in 46 days but that it will take him 47 or 48 days.
Saturday, October 9th / 49.7 miles(80 km) Forrest
Forrest: two inhabitants.
Sunday, October 10th / 51.3 miles(82.2km)
He crosses the frontier between Western Australia and Southern Australia.
Tuesday, October 12th / 43.8 miles(70.5km) Cook
Puncture: 2 in the afternoon. Bruce who lives in Cook has helped us mend the inner tube.
It’s raining and the camp is hastily improvised in the mud. It has been an exhausting day for everybody.
Wednesday, October 13th / 50.3 miles(80.5km)
Bad night. We are woken up by thunder. On this barren ground, there are no sunsets like these, they remind us that life is beautiful in our desert.
Thursday, October 14th / 31miles(50km) Ooldea
Friday, October 15th / 50.3 miles(80.5 km) Barton
Serge runs through Barton in the late morning.
Saturday, October 16th / 50.7 miles(81.6 km)
Heatwave! Serge runs covered from head to toe. The top of his left hand is sunburnt and now he has to wear gloves.
Sunday, October 17th / 50.3 miles(81km)
Tarcoola Half-way
Thundery weather this morning. It’s also the most beautiful sunrise we have ever seen. Everybody stops for a little while to admire it!
Monday, October 18th Kingonya 50 miles (80,2km)
Right from the start and till the end of the day, Serge has to battle against the wind. He is dragging his feet. All the members of the crew are tired out.
Tuesday, October 19th 49,7 miles (80,2km) Glendambo
1245miles (2000km) in 24 days and 23 hours and 46 minutes.
A few kilometers away from Glendambo, we are back on the tarmack. As for Serge, after bidding goodbye to the desert, he keeps on going, unmoved.
COOLGARDIE
Coolgardie and kalgoorlie are towns worth visiting. Situated in the middle of the desert, they were founded in 1890 by settlers coming from all over the world, at the time of the goldrush.
With today, 22,230 inhabitants, kalgoorlie is the most populated. (there used to be 30 000 in 1902). Coolgardie has nearly become a ghost town with only 700 inhabitants instead of 25 000 in 1900 when the gold frenzy was at its highest.
Nowadays the exploitation of the gold mines is industrialized but providing a cheap licence, anyone can, with a metal detector, have a go. The golden Mile is exploited on 800 km2 and down to 1300m deep. Up to now, it has been one of the richest gold mines in the world, with a production of 1200tons and a profit of more than a billion dollars.
Great Victoria desert
Victoria, arid region in southern Australia, in the states of South Australia and Western Australia. A barren area of sand hills, salt lakes and sparse grasslands. It extends for about 700km (450 mil) from east to west and is separated from the Great Australian Bight, to the South by the Nullarbor plain.
