[password] zara1010

[position]20 04.45s 164 00.09e

[status]
Anchored in Boat Pass. Think access to the west coast through this shortcut is just for the local boats, but will check it out by dinghy and see if we can venture through on Roxi in a few days - fingers crossed no adventure to report if we do give it a whirl.

Yesterday we were in Baie de Pam and explored by paddleboard (SUP), we landed at a beach covered in what we thought were rocks & stones as normal, but were actually lumps of rough steel. From the intact bucket shapes that were still set in concrete we could see the steel had been roughly smelted then moulded to create a breakwater and/or loading area for the ships.
We had seen a couple of ruins of small houses as we passed along the shore, walking further inland we could see huge ruins, amazing retaining walls still in good condition and doing their job over 100 years later. Wanting to find out more we went through the doorway, the ground was covered with trees, vines & bushes, the steel roof supports were very rusty and had mostly collapsed, hidden under the foliage now. The windows and doorways had their red brick arches and wood lintels stil intact, the stairs were perfect, having been constructed of glazed bricks they'd remained impervious to the rain. We saw the massive rusted out water tank high up the hill, above the boiler, this would have been needed to create the steam to drive the machinery. Looking harder we found the water pumps, amazing the quality of the engineering that was produced all that time ago - the stamp announcing model No 7 made by T H Waite Brothers of Bradford was still proudly displayed.

The gold rush in New Cal began around 1870, this foundry had been built in 1876/77, the ships that were loaded with the gold ore from here went to Australia - and Swansea in Wales. Amazing with the lure of riches to entice that the ships were loaded in the UK with the construction materials and necessary machinery, arrived, constructed housing and the foundry, left with holds full of ore for the voyage back via Cape of Good Hope.

Unfortunately after all this investment they only succeeded in extracting 212kg of gold over the 12 years it was open and by 1902 it was officially closed.
The abandoned ruins a legacy of the belief there was for prosperity, the potential for wealth even after the massive costs they must have incurred in the huge distances the ships had to travel. Now the plants have moved back in, birds sing and the lizards enjoy basking on the machinery.

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