The Holland Track Trip–Day 1

More than a week since the last blog post.  But I have a very good excuse as I’ve been where there was no internet coverage.

Last Sunday I commenced the planned Holland Track 4WD trip with blog reader, Ken and his brother-in-law, Bob.  We rendezvoused at Brookton approximately 1¾ hours east of Perth and then carried on to Hyden some 350km from home.  Hyden is a small rural town at the southern end of the 4WD portion of the Holland Track.  It’s also the last location you can purchase fuel.  Obviously the roadhouse knows this as the fuel was expensive ($1.62 ltr).

Ken and Bob take on fuel whilst I cry over the damage to my wallet wait.

Hyden is also the location of the ‘Wave Rock’ tourist attraction.  None of us had previously seen it so a visit seemed appropriate. 

Well the formation is very similar to the one at Elchabutting Rock although entry here was $12 verses free at Elchabutting Rock.

Ken & Bob

The wave shape has been formed by the wind and rain.  There is a 2ft high boundary wall on the top of the rock which directs rainfall into a dam which is the water supply for Hyden.  Effectively the town has turned their water supply into a tourist attraction!  

The dam

The channel down into the dam

From here we drove to our first campsite adjacent to the start of the track.  Ken’s lovely wife had made a mountain of sandwiches so being lazy buggers we had sandwiches for dinner.

First campsite.

Breakfast was more sandwiches cooked over an open fire using the Jaffle Iron

It was a short 400 metre drive to the start of the 4WD part of the track

I think I’ve previously mentioned in 1893 John Holland and a party of three took 3½ months to create this track.  It provided a shortcut for miners to reach the newly discovered goldfields around Kalgoorlie.  Unfortunately it only had a useful life of three years before the railway was built from Perth to Kalgoorlie.  Largely abandoned for 100 years, the West Australian Toyota Landcruiser Club adopted the track and it was once again open to traffic.  However there is no track maintenance!