Friday 26th May
Mt Augustus WA
Early morning drama's for J and J at Mt Augustus
I decided that discretion was again the better part of valour and not climb the mount today.
The aptly named Eller-Springs.
I’ll save myself for Karijini.
John and Julie awoke to find their tent in a large puddle of water. Damned if anyone new where it had come from as it was dry when they set up
camp. They decided to unpeg and drag the tent to another area. Julie was pulling out the back pegs and as she did so, a geyser came bubbling up from the ground. As luck would have it, they’d holed a water pipe while setting up. Talk about laugh. Now unrestrained by any object, the fountaining water soon formed a large pond in the middle of the
campground. Ever the wag,
John dubbed it “Eller Springs” in his own honour.
Heading up to Kotke Gorge
Mount Augustus is the largest monolith in the world. It is 2.5 times larger than Uluru Ayers
Rock) and stands 858 m above the surrounding plain and 1105 metres above sea level. On 3rd June, 1858 Francis
Gregory, during his epic 107 day journey through the Gascoyne, became the first European to climb the mountain.
Gums area on south eastern side of Augustus
He named
the monolith after his brother, Sir Augustus Charles
Gregory (1819-1905). At the time Augustus was on his last expedition, an unsuccessful foray into western Queensland in an attempt to discover the whereabouts of Ludwig Leichhardt. The most significant difference between Uluru and
Mount Augustus is that the former has a hard coating on its exterior which has, very distinctively, created a situation where there is no scree or talus slope at the bottom of
the monolith. In the case of
Mount Augustus there is a scree slope so it lacks the distinctive shape of Uluru although it does change colour during the day.
Mount Augustus also has considerable vegetation on its slopes.
More views to the west from Warrarla
Amanda and I drove over to the Gum Grove area (Warrarla) and then hiked up the side of the mount to Kotke
Gorge.
The rock-strewn
gorge did not have any water in it at all but the 500 metres height provided some good
views to the north and east.
The afternoon entertainment - Bloody Galah!
The rest of the afternoon was spent in leisurely pursuits such as worrying about dinner and watching the mad galahs perch precariously on the overhead power cables. Their antics and accompanying screeching was hilarious. Our small
campground soon filled and became quite crowded during the later afternoon. Duncan arrived later in the day.
A quite aperitif at the local saloon ($26.00 for 4 drinks!) in the later afternoon and then we cooked chicken pasta for dinner and had
John and Julie over. A lovely evening capped off with Coffee, cake and
New Norcia Muscat Liqueur.