Wednesday 12th October

Mt Augustus to Meekatharra

Mt Augustus is often claimed to be the largest monolith in the world, it is about twice the size of Uluru but is, apparently a multicline rather than a monolith!! Mount Augustus (Western Australia) – Wikipedia

We approached it from the north, which is probably its best side!

We climbed this ‘rock’ back in 2010 when we first came up this way. We started at 0600 to ensure that we were climbing at the coolest time. It is not a particularly easy climb, some rock-steps requiring assistance to one member of the party! It is well worth the effort as the views from the top are magnificent and seem to go on for ever. We signed the book.

So, we’re not surprised to see restrictions have now been placed on the timing of your climb in certain months and sometimes access is not allowed at all.

The campground has undergone some serious upgrading since our last visit, there’s grassy areas where you can pitch a tent but no caravan wheels are allowed on it, although you can park so that you step out onto the grass! The facilities are very good and very clean.

The only drawback today is the wind which is very strong, even blowing wheelie bins around the place.

We have a reasonable night but are quite happy to leave in the morning.

Thursday 13th October

This will give you some idea of our current travels.

From Mt Augustus, the track is not as scenic and it has lots of dips with washouts which slow you down and make driving hard work.

The next place down the track is Landor Station about 90ks away. Landor has a racetrack and holds country races meeting every year. People travel several hundred ks to get here. This year has been very wet and it actually rained just before the event, as a result the roads are badly cut up in places and there are numerous washouts to catch out the unwary driver. These washouts are where the rainwater has cut out a watercourse through the bottom of a gully across the road. You can’t see them until you on top them, so a great deal of concentration on is needed.

About 40ks out of Landor we come to Mt Gould Police Station and Lockup built in 1888 but not used for decades. It once housed four police officers, who’s task was to stop the aboriginals from stealing the pastoralists sheep and cattle. The offenders were taken from the lockup to Carnarvon by horse or camel for sentencing. It was pretty remote, 200 from Meeka, 400 from Carnarvon, the only places with any sort of population. Mail was ‘occasional’!

It was restored in 2013.

From here into Meekatharra we’re travelling through very flat country, more seriously cut up roads and lots of gullies with washouts.

It is surprising to see so much surface water still around. Normally we would expect this area to be as dry as a bone at this time of the year.

We have to cross three major river systems on the way, fortunately the bulk of the water has subsided as these rivers comprise of literally hundreds of riverlets and creeks, such that from one side of the system to the other can be 100ks, particularly in the case of the Gascoyne River.

We have a favourite stopping spot near Meeka’ called Peace Gorge and tonight we have the place to ourselves. We take the cruiser off the caravan and pop into town, mainly to get yesterday’s Australian at the at the Shell garage. and top up with fuel at the same time. We’ve been getting withdrawal symptoms due to the lack of Times Cryptics! This is the only place you can get a national paper until Broome, another 1500ks!

We’ve decided to have a couple of nights here before we head off onto the dirt again for our planned route home. However, following a long conversation with my brother and sister-in-law we decide that we should be at home giving them some support with Roger’s father who is now in hospital.

Saturday 15th October

We’re now taking the shortest route home which means down the Great Northern Hwy, so having pumped the tyres up to road pressure we set out (after getting another Australian of course!). It’s about 800 ks from here so a pretty easy two days drive. In fact, unbelievably, we have a tailwind for most of the day which makes the fuel consumption even better!

Further south lots of Canola still making the countryside patriotic in green and gold!

Unfortunately, today (Day 2) it’s back to being a strongish wind on the starboard bow, arguably the worst angle.

We’re home about lunch time so we have lunch in the caravan before starting to unload.

We’ve had another great trip, with just the one problem that we were able to resolve without major disruption to the trip or our pockets.

Hope you’ve enjoyed the pictures.

As always, any feedback is appreciated.