Day 4 Cave Hill to Home,
Monday, 25th January 2016
When we left Cave Hill we headed west toward Victoria Rock Road rather than heading straight to Coolgardie. Wow! we thought we’d seen the last of the puddles for this trip but we were wrong. Puddle after puddle greeted us for about the first 10 kms and the going was a bit slow. A bit further down the track we came across a long puddle and got out to walk it. Lucky we did. The line through the puddle dropped off on the right hand side to a depth we weren’t comfortable negotiating so we turned around and headed back to Cave Hill where we had left 2 hours before. We then had no alternative but to take the road to Coolgardie via Burra Rocks.
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- There’d been a bit of rain along the Victoria Rock Road near Cave Hill
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- A puddle along the Victoria Rock Road near Cave Hill
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- Heading toward Victoria Rock Road from Cave Hill
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- Turn right for Coolgardie
A short distance South of Coolgardie we saw a couple of brumbies up ahead feeding at the side of the road. We slowed to allow them to move away which they did. As we got closer we could see one was a pregnant mare and the other a foal. The term Brumby is thought to have originated in the Australian Alps when a settler by the name of James Brumby let his horses run free. They adapted to the Australian landscape and inter bred with other breeds of horses including Clydesdales, Arabians, Draft horses and others. They developed into a very hardy breed and were used by the Australian Army in the Boer (South Africa), First and Second World Wars. Today the topic of Brumbies brings up strong feelings on both sides of an argument. Some say they’re pests/feral others believe they should be allowed to continue running free and not be culled.
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- Wild mare in foal with another foal, south of Coolgardie
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- Nearly Home
Well that’s pretty much it, a good trip despite all the mud, tree clearing and mid 30 degree temperature. But we would do it all again and soon will.
The rest of the journey home was pretty straight forward although we did encounter a thunderstorm west of Southern Cross all the way to Merredin. The rain was so heavy we all dropped our speed except for one twit but as they say ” there’s one in every crowd” As we got closer to home our conversation changed topic as we discussed where to next…..
Total Time : 9.51 Hrs
Total Distance: 704 kms
Maximum Speed : 109 KPH
Average Speed : 71 KPH
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