Leaving Exmouth , we headed south toward Carnarvon , deciding to go out to Mt Augustus from there , leaving the van in storage whilst we're away . We had an overnight stop at Yalabia Rest Area on the way up and again tonight , thankfully the flies had disappeared .
The highway travels between sand dunes for quite a fair distance , and the drone photos show this , red dunes going off into the distance .
We didn't have it to ourselves with several other vehicles pulling in after dark as well , but we got a good spot away from the road with a bush beside us .
This is the highway heading north .
Back to Carnarvon the next day and getting ready for our drive and camping at Mt Augustus . Our friends from Sydney had arrived at Mt Augustus a day earlier than planned , so we had to throw everything together a bit quicker than planned - we were going to take 2 days to drive out , staying overnight somewhere- not now , drive out in the one day . Not a big ask I suppose - 480klms , but 380 of it were on gravel roads !
After getting organised early on Saturday , moving the van into storage and packing the last things in, we headed off at 9am . The trip to Gascoyne Junction was all on bitumen and went without drama and we stopped for a fuel top up and a leg stretch .
Before long we found the gravel , and a few friends along the way . This one was chewing on a dead kangaroo , so we gave it plenty of warning with a blast of the horn so it could get out of the way without harm - they take a bit to get up in the air .
The gravel roads are pretty good out here - nearly 4 lanes wide and recently graded , meaning we could get along at 90 - 100klms per hour . The landscape is pretty flat out here , though there are some hills around the place .
We are driving along a tourist route - the Kingsford Smith Mail Run - one of the stop offs was the shell fish fossils , needless to say we didn't find any - think they've been removed ! There were some wildflowers coming out though , breaking up the harshness of the outback .
Some more mountains appeared , then disappeared in the rearview mirrors .
It grew larger the closer we got .
Arriving at the caravan park , we headed to the office - who was just outside Suzie and some of the tour group from Sydney - the look on her face was priceless - she wasn't sure whether we were coming out or not !!
We set up camp in the group campsite - the only one's in a tent - and then sat down and chatted to everyone , Suzie expected us to be in the 5th wheeler - not on that much gravel road !!
A nice sunset topped off a good day .
Awake before the sun had risen , we got to see the magical moments as the sun started to hit Mt Augustus .
The drone came out to get a group shot of the camp spot and campground .
Mt Augustus with the sun shining is a sight to see , and it's size - it rises 860m above the plains around it - 1105m above sea level , the main ridge is 8klms long and it's twice the size of Uluru !
Deciding which walks to do was a task , there are 11 to choose from ! Kotka Gorge was todays walk . It starts on the flats below the main ridge and gradually gains height . The walk takes you though dry creek beds and beside enormous red gums , before starting up the rocky slope - there's no shortage of rocks here !!
After a kilometre you reach a creek bed / gorge and it starts to get rugged . Up rock steps , along sloping rock ledges and more up , lots of up in fact .
This is looking up the gorge .
Reaching the end of the trail , views back out were a little obscured by trees , but still great .
The red cliffs are something to behold , the scale of what you are looking at also amazing .
Here's one of the red gums - you can see where one branch has split in half and fallen , still growing as part of the main tree , it is also rooted into the ground where it fell . The base of this one is about 2.5m across !
After that Class 4 walk , we headed down to Cattle Pool for some lunch , we were quite surprised how much water is here .
Whilst we were having lunch a bird decided is was bath time , dropping into the water 3 times - must have enjoyed it .
We headed down the Corella Trail beside Cattle Pool , through the red gums .
The water was clean & clear , but looked like it hasn't been flowing for a while .
Looking back at the rock you can see white patches on the red cliffs - it's actually white sandstone . The core or base of the mountain is sandstone and has a granite cap over it , however on the north side the granite has been eroding away letting the sandstone show itself .
There were plenty of butterflies around feeding off the growing wildflowers .
With that we headed back to camp and had a nice hot shower and a lovely cold beer . Here's a map link :- https://drive.google.com/open?id=1sZiP3t7tWItvLXbk60bUflsf9cjgXAwu&usp=sharing
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