Well folks we've been a bit slack in getting our blogs written and uploaded - sorry about that. But we've finally downloaded our photos from the camera, argued about which ones to upload here and written our second blog of what will hopefully many more (we'll try not to be as distracted enjoying the adventure in future!)

Hyden to Kalgoorlie - The Holland Track (Day 2 - Day 4)

We stayed at the Wave Rock Caravan Park on Saturday night after scrabbling all over the famous granite. After breakfast and a shower the following morning we packed and headed into town to fuel up for the Holland track. Once fully fuelled, fed, watered (2x 60L water tanks on the trailer) and can of Mother in hand we set off for the famous Holland track to make the journey from Hyden to Coolgardie and Kalgoorlie.

A brief (and potentially inaccurate) history of the Holland track.

Cut by John Holland in 1893 this track runs from Broomehill to Coolgardie and was originally created as a short cut to the Goldfields for those men looking for work as they landed in the port of Albany. Holland and three others set out in April 1893 and completed cutting of a cart track more than 500kms long in just two months and four days! No mean feat considering they set out with meagre supplies - 5 ponies and a dray (a kind of cart) carrying their provisions and a 100 gallon water tank. The track was immediately adopted by eager miners seeking their fortune in the gold rush. However the track lasted just 3 years before the extension of the railway from Northam to Coolgardie ended traffic along the track as people and supplies more easily and rapidly got to the goldfields. All but forgotten for decades the track was eventually traced from the 1950s and more recently reopened as a 4wd track.

The track between Hyden and Coolgardie is about 275km and follows the original Holland track reasonably faithfully. It is not hardcore driving but it certainly offers some challenges especially when navigating a trailer through the extremely tight sections of scrub and trees. Lots of fun!

At the beginning of the track we met members of the Toyota Landcruiser Club who were out on a working bee drive to carry out works along the Holland Track. As it turns out the Holland Track is actually cared for by this club everywhere it runs outside of a National Park.

In total it took us three days (two nights) to get from Hyden to Coolgardie and Kalgoorlie. Day one included the 55km drive out to the Holland Track, a visit to Emu Rock and about 27km travelled on the track. It's literally slow going at 10-25kmh through some very tight obstacles as the track winds its way through the trees and scrub. We tried out the odd puddle here and there but not without a stop and depth check. I (James) nearly went arse up once or twice on the slippery edges when checking the depth!

By the end of day one on the Holland track we pulled in to the Mt Holland camping area where the Landcruiser club members had also set up for the night. We picked a spot, positioned the car and set up the awning and swags. We always intended on using the swags along the Holland Track as we would be doing overnighters and it was just quicker and more convenient. We got the campfire going and chowed down on jaffles and beers (and ciders) for dinner before heading over to visit our neighbours to say 'hi'. It was nice to hear some tips on where to visit as between all the members of this group they had pretty much travelled the entire country in more detail than we will be able to do on our tour!

We awoke the next morning before dawn because we wanted to walk to the top of Mt Holland to watch the sunrise. Unfortunately clouds rolled in to prevent us from seeing the full sunrise but the colours we did see were pretty spectacular. Back down the hill for some breaky before we had to pack up and conduct some running repairs bush mechanic style. One of the latches on the trailer rack had given way and required some "gentle persuasion" to get the alignment right. A bunch of wire later and we were good to go at 10am which wasn't too bad.

We travelled from Mt Holland to Thursday Rock over the course of day 2 on the track stopping along the way at various spots to take photos or have a brief explore. Due to the late start we had to press on to get to Thursday Rock. With the sun almost setting we pulled in to the camping area and got set up and a small campfire going.

Day 3 out on the track and we were up for dawn and packed and on the road for about 8am. The last section of the track was not as interesting or tight as the previous couple of days before it eventually opened out onto gravel mining roads for the final run to Coolgardie. One highlight was definitely Victoria Rock were we stopped for lunch. This National Park includes the giant expanse of granite known as Victoria Rock and is quite interesting to walk around. You can find various soaks and gnamma holes where water can be sourced. Early pioneers were shown how to find these areas by the local Aboriginal guides. Essentially a soak is the area at the base of large granite rocks such as Victoria Rock, Emu Rock and Wave Rock where mossy ground soaks up and holds the run-off water. Gnamma holes are deep depressions and holes in the granite that hold enough water for it to last into and sometimes through summer without totally evaporating.

Finally we rolled into Coolgardie for about 3:30pm, through torrential rain, where we aired up the tires and had a brief sticky beak around. We pressed on to Kalgoorlie and checked into the Gold Miners Caravan Park. We decided we would stay 2 - 3 nights so we set up the trailer including the annex and walls. It was a race against the weather this time as the rain had been chasing us finally caught up. We succeeded and cracked open a couple of cold ones as the heavens opened.

Kalgoorlie to Esperance (Day 5 - Day 7)

Friday 22 August 2014

Staying three nights in Kalgoorlie allowed us to tidy up some of the repairs on the trailer rack. We splinted the weak latch with a tent peg and some hose clamps which meant it would be easy to set the trailer up until we complete a permanent fix. We also discovered the kitchen tailgate had not fared so well so far on the trip. The bottom hinge had a small buckle and as a result the whole tailgate and kitchen was sagging and not sealing properly around the bottom. This was allowing the ingress of dust and worse potentially water if we had to complete any kind of water crossing. Other niggles included the front tank electric pump not picking up any water (fortunately the hand pump worked fine) and the switches for the passenger side work lights packing it in.

We contacted the manufacturer and after a series of discussions and photos of the problems we had organised to visit a distributer once we got to Adelaide. In the mean time there was little we could do other than try and c*** the tailgate as best we could and avoid river crossings.

We did the usual tourist things in Kalgoorlie including a visit to the Superpit lookout - one SERIOUSLY big hole in the ground - and Questa Casa the only remaining original brothel in Kalgoorlie. No, nothing sordid! They run tours daily at 2pm. Not very glamorous inside and you can only imagine it being even more basic back in the day. We took a trip out to Coolgardie to visit the old cemetery where John Holland and his wife Agnes are buried.

On the morning of day 7 we once again packed up and fuelled up and departed for Esperance where we would stay one night before heading out to the two National Parks - Cape Le Grand and Cape Arid.