Pluck out Thine Eyes

"But it was looking at me!"

Trephina Gorge

After Arltunga, we stopped at Trephina Gorge, which was beautiful with the white Ghost Gums standing out brightly against the red walls of the gorge.



We hiked up the wash and stopped briefly for a snack. I don't have any pictures to prove it, but there were numerous small (non-biting) black flies that would buzz around our faces and hitch rides on our hats, several dozen at a time. Since it was winter, and cold as the dickens, I was surprised by this, and can only imagine what its like there in summer.



A magnificent Ghost Gum, with me at the base for scale.





The area was quite scenic, and we took a hike up into the surrounding hills for some nice views.





From this vantage point we are looking down directly into gorge.

Arltunga

We decided on a whim to visit the Arltunga Historical Preserve, which was down a 33 km dirt road. Ordinarily we would not have attempted this in our rental car, but we were told the road had been freshly graded only the week before, so we gave it a go. The red sign in the distance says "Beware: Road Trains".



Arltunga is an old ghost town - actually, the remains of a government-run gold mine. The setting was truly one of the harshest places I've ever been. Bitterly cold in the winter, and I imagine, blistering in the summer, with very little water and incredibly isolated.






Lots of the original mine equipment was still there.



A windowsill of treasures. I can't believe this stuff hasn't all disappeared into pockets yet.



The local jail cell, a tiny free-standing building.



Some of the mines were open for exploration.



The tunnels were tiny and low. Something like 260 oz of gold were mined here out of many, many tons of ore, all dug by hand. This was considered a very productive mine in its day, but it seems like an enormous amount of work and struggle for a small gain to me.



Despite the harshness of the area, we managed to see some amazing birds here. This tiny guy is a Splendid Fairy-Wren, shockingly bright against the dry vegetation.