On Friday we all met up at 8 am to start our journey to the Holland track. We stopped at Mt Palmer for lunch to see the facade of the old Mt Palmer hotel which had a short life, was demolished and used the remains to build a hotel at Kalgoorlie. Victoria rock was our first overnight stop, nice spot and lots of flies.
Saturday- It rained overnight but the morning sun dried off everything nicely before leaving to pursue the Holland track. The track had lots of challenges, but was mostly with ruts that were very deep and we didn’t want to risk damage. Paul was the only one who decided to get muddied up and made it through without a hitch. We reach the half way point about mid afternoon.
Second night stayed at a nice spacious camp site, had a fire that night and played “what would you rather”, was a good night had some laugh and debates.
Sunday the drone got to work again taking some good aerial footage. More challenges along the track not only with ruts but other drivers coming in the opposite direction. We mostly took the chicken tracks along the way and a lot of them were really bad too. Most
of the track was dry, only some areas were wet. We went up Mt Holland for a nice view and a spot of lunch. We also saw a mallee fowl nest along the way. We finished the Holland track about mid afternoon where Alan and Wendy left us at the Hyden-Norseman Rd and the rest of us continued on and we had our last night at Dragon Rocks campsite. Was okay, had another fire and a few laughs.
On Monday it was Kevin’s birthday – ‘Happy Birthday Kev’, bet you haven’t had a birthday like that before. We left about 9:30 and took the scenic route around the entire Dragon Rocks reserve before heading down the Holland Way towards Broomehill. This is the 2WD section. We saw Lake Grace and the remains of Lake Biddy township along the way. Marcus and Kevin, Steve and Mandy and Paul left us near Newdegate to get home early and Dave and Tammy, Jessica and myself continued into Broomehill. From there we continued the Holland Way. About half of it was well sign posted and the next half would have been very difficult to follow if Marcus hadn’t left me with his Cave Hill/Holland Track booklet – ‘thanks for the loan Marcus it was a huge help’.
The 4 of us arrived in Broomehill around 4pm and spent a lot of time trying to find a monument to signify the start of the track but to no avail. There is a monument in town for John Holland’s achievement but that was it. Thanks Tammy for asking where to find it. And a big thank you everyone for their support and help with navigating the Holland Track and Holland Way with me. A very enjoyable weekend.