02/09/2018

After an awesome cooked breakfast we make tracks for Coolgardie 45 kms to the North. Upon arriving at Coolgardie we check out the main street and decide to fill up our fuel tanks at Vibe but head back to the big Caltex for a shower. After feeling human again we make tracks for the Denver City Hotel to grab lunch. After a feed of Fish’n’Chips  washed down with a beer we make tracks for our planned overnight camp – Burra rocks.

Turning south into Hunt Street from the Great Eastern Hwy we pass by a beautiful house which was Warden Finnerty’s Residence. For such a small town Coolgardie had many beautiful old buildings. It wasn’t long before the 55km drive took on the usual pace, so to break things up we stopped a couple of times to chainsaw up some firewood, as we were going into Nature Reserves again so would not be able to cut wood at the campgrounds.

We arrived around 4pm and set up camp. Then I went to Burra Rock to check out the rock and look for any orchids that may be present. Richard took off East with his metal detector and Deb was happy to potter around camp.

Burra Rock has a dam at the base of it, which has water directed to it by walls made from granite slabs cemented together. This is typical of many granite outcrops in WA.

Water is trapped and directed into the dam. Well If more water then it would flow rather than just form pools

Looking down at the dam

Dam at base of the rock

Rock walls made to trap the water

 I did find some orchids as well, however nothing new for the trip. Yellow granite donkey orchids (Diuris hazeliae) and Hairy-stemmed snail orchids (Pterostylis sp. ‘inland’).

Yellow, brown marked flowers

As the name suggests the stem is covered in small hairs

Broad dorsal sepal

Broad yellow petals

Again we had the campground to ourselves and with the wood we brought in we had a great campfire cooked dinner again.

Not a huge amount of orchid hunting achieved today but it was great to recharge in Coolgardie after a hard few days on the Holland Track proper.