Lollies, salt lakes and brothels (in no particular order)

I can't remember the last time I spent a weekend in Perth. It was definitely before Easter. The last few weekends have been spent in exotic locales such as Manjimup, Karratha, Bindoon and Kalgoorlie. They are all very exciting urban metropolises. What is the plural for metropolis? Metropoli?... How many Octopi live in metropoli?

Anyhoo. This past weekend spent in clearly, the centre of the universe, Kalgoorlie was most picturesque. I spent the bulk of it ignoring the big tributes to the mining industry.

I went to a lolly shop. There are no pictures available because I ate the entire shop. Ok. No, I didn't - I've still got a loot of Easter chocolate left, yea, a veritable booty of chocolate.

Speaking of booty, I went on a tour of a brothel. The woman at the toursit bureau said, "They're very popular with young people". I must have gone on the wrong brothel tour as I was the youngest by a clear 30 years. Here is photographic evidence that I went to a real life, working brothel.

It wasn't terribly salacious. The tour was run by the madam of the brothel who spoke with a neat British accent and had a mobile that played a 60's surfing tune when randy young men called wondering if they could get some action. She spoke about the history of prostitutuon in Kalgoorlie and to be quite honest, it didn't seem terribly different from the Fremantle Prison tour.

The next day, I went with Adam on a big, rollicking day trip 200 kms north of Kalgoorlie to Lake Ballard, a salt lake with an art installation on it.

On the way, we went to the Broad Arrow Tavern, a dingy, country pub that has been completely graffitied and encourages you to mark your territory on the building for the cost of a beer.


Here's the pub itself:

And the guy perched atop the tavern...

The view from the loo.:
We then drove all the way past Menzies, along a scary unsealed road to Lake Ballard, home of flies and a beautiful art installation.

Although the statues were interesting and they added to the landscape, I had more fun taking photos of the salt crystals forming in the tyre tracks left by 4WDs that shouldn't have been on the salt lake.

Soon after, we made our way back to Kalgoorlie and had a competition to see who could spot the most roadkill. I won.