Wherever it is, that's where it is.

Entrance to a 3KM decline into the earth.
A common saying around here goes as follows "Gold is where you find it." In context of Kalgoorlie, this is not some sort of Zen philosophical credo about love striking when you least expect it or doing something that you love, it really just means "where gold is, that's where it is." And its usually underground.



Mechanical dinosaur eats 100 tons of rocky flesh in every bite.







Forget your notions of pick axes and shovels and "There Will Be Blood"y reveries. Today miners make big holes and you just drive right in with a big truck and a bogger and a front end loader and take what you want. Some of these mines go 3KM down--you'd better be outfitted properly.

Meanwhile or "picking up the pieces"

I think I speak on behalf of everyone back home in saying that a New York with out Dave Saltzman is a pretty dreary, raisin bagel filled, slightly less snarky place. But Dave's sojourn has impacted me particularly. Hi I'm Dan, Dave's roommate and medium time faithful sidekick. I had a dream last night where Dave was eating a bucket of gold nuggets and riding that giant shovel up and down a canyon.... all while singing the same three Billy Joel songs. Then he gave me permission to log into his account and give myself permission to post on this blog (thanks gold eating dream Dave!).

I don't have much to say now except that I have a new roommate named Ney, who seems like a cool guy, but really hates the Kennedys, works on Wall Street and used to like the Grateful Dead (though anything after some time in the 70's is total shit to him). I've also included a picture of one of the many bills I've had to learn how to pay in Dave's absence. I guess we're all growing up a little on this trip.....

Oh, and we miss you Dave.

Oh and I ate the rest of your hummus. Sorry bro.

Why Do People Want Gold Anyway?

I am so overwhelmed by the size of this shovel that I can't lift my arms up to cheer!

Well, gold looks pretty, like for jewelry and stuff. Its also a really good conductor or heat insulator for, like, computers chips and UFOs and stuff. But the real reason why gold is so valuable is because people really have a lot of fun getting it out of the ground. The Superpit, an open cut mining operation, for example, is a schoolboy's dream come true. First you get to blow up HUGE swatches of rocks. Then you get to load the rocks into HUGE trucks with even HUGER loaders. This results in a HUUUUUGE pit in the earth which I think is really just the way some miner's compensate for something else...
No camera tricks or photoshop.
Same trucks as above are located in the upper right corner and center 2/5 of the way down.

Kalgoorlie, not Calgary

I'm sitting on the 3rd leg of my flight (between Sydney and Perth) and strike up a conversation with the two people next to me. Since clearly I'm a Yank conversation turns to me and where I was headed. The trendy 24 year old woman sitting next to me is wearing a "Hollywood" sweatshirt and is returning to grad school in Perth after visiting some family in Los Angeles. She turns to me and says "Kalgoorlie? Where's that?" The surfer looking dude (many city dwelling Aussie's have this look it seems) turns to her and says "Its 600 kilometers east of Perth and its a shithole, I was born there."

The town hall is inexplicably painted a sickly greenish pink.

Kalgoorlie IS 600km east of Perth, IS NOT a shithole, and obviously easy to overlook. With a population of 30,000 its actually the 'bustling regional center' of last section of the Australian outback settled until you cross 3/4 of the way across the continent the other direction. If you think that's small you should see the towns that feed this metropolis which boast populations ranging from the upper middle three digits to whopping lower upper four digits. But don't call these ghost towns (even though you might see a tumbleweed blowing through) because there are actual REAL ghost towns--where a town was settled and abandoned but still leaves some short of architectural and infrastructure based shell...Population: O.

The Exchange Hotel, Friday night 11:52pm, center of local nightlife.

The consistent 100+ degree days, dessert dry climate, and isolation beg the question why come here in the first place. The answer to that question is the same reason why I'm here...and everyone else is here: gold.

The coin is about the size of a quarter and worth about 70 cents. The rock is about the size of a zucchini bread and worth about $15,000.

G'day! So sorry for the long silence since my first post, but I've been quite pre-occupied with my new surroundings. First, let me back up and explain my situation. My name is Dave Saltzman and I'm looking for adventure. 2008 left me dry mouthed and ready to wet my lips with the ocean spray wafting over the gunnels of a oil tanker or the condensation on the window of an artic snowmobile speeding towards the pole.

Instead I found myself nearing the new year with little promise and a hefty bill from my rare coin obsession. My beard had been going through some disturbing fluctuations and I couldn't find the right length that pleased most of my lady callers. I was lonesome.

As luck would have it, I recieved word of an opportunity to escape the desolate New York winter for a desolation of another kind. I was on my way to Australia! But lo, this wasn't your mum's australia. It wasn't some "Shrimp on the barbie", "let's have a game of cricket" type of thing. When I was 10 I saw a movie called "Crocodile Dundee" and it changed my life. I decided this was my chance to become what I knew I always could become. So now I find myself in Kalgoorlie Australia, sitting in a dimly lit room. More on this waning gold mining town later, but for now I can tell you my adventure has turned soulful. After a 50 hour plane, train, car, bus, foot, camel, small australian servant trip, I awoke in the blazing western Australian sun. And I realized that I had found adventure..... but was now looking for something much greater. In this dry desolate place, women appeared to me as little pools of life. I had found adventure and now it was time for me to find Love.


(or at least a lonely mining woman who wanted to hold me in her scrap metal roughed hands.)

Saltzman Goes Down Under

On Friday Jan 9th 2009 Saltzman began his 50 hour flight to Kalgoorlie Australia. This is his story.