Friday 17th May – Mt Augustus

Woke to see the sunrise upon the rock (from our camper!)  Did a load of washing and then set out to circumnavigate the rock – 45 km.

Stopped off at Cattle Pool – lots of water (so named as drovers would have stopped here with their cattle en route to Meekatharra).  Quite a few birds and beautiful gum trees – White Barked River Gums.

What bird is that?  - at Cattle Pool

Next point of call was The Pound (so called as it was a spot where cattle were kept overnight) where we climbed to a saddle looking to the flat country to the north.

At Flintstone and Mundee we were able to view some Aboriginal Engravings (petroglyphs) – unfortunately quite  faded.

After lunch in the carpark at Ooramboo and Edney’s lookout we set out to climb to the eastern part of the rock (about 3 hours return and nowhere near as high as the highest point – 6 hours return)  After more engravings near the carpark the climb was quite steady and not too difficult.  We stopped a couple of times along the path and for about half an hour at the peak, an unusual natural cairn shaped structure on the rock – a pimple we called it.

Edney's Lookout

Back to camp for a bit of a rest before setting off for Emu Hill about 4:30 to watch the sunset over the rock.  It wasn’t particularly speccy today but was fun viewing with our wine and nibbles.

Sunset on Mt Augustus

Back to camp for left over’s tonight and another hot shower before bed