Natasha Yann - Adventurer: Van Adventure 2

This trip was more of a hiking/climbing opportunity rather than a van based adventure, however it provided an opportunity to travel north between the two main highways of Western Australia into the Murchison and Gascoyne regions. This served as a reconnaissance run for future reference as well as a challenging ascent of a substantial geosyncline in central WA, Mt Augustus.

Day 1 - 23/9/2019

Headed up the ‘middle’ between the two main highways heading north from Perth to camp overnight at the Murchison Oasis Roadhouse caravan park for the night. This route takes you through wildflower country via Carnamah and Mullewa thence onto the Carnarvon-Mullewa Road. It has short stretches of bitumen but mostly fairly rough dirt road. 560km completed.

Unpowered site

BBQ gazebo

Day 2 - 24/9/2019

Set out after having a wander around the Murchison Polocrosse field and pioneer museum grounds next door. Stopped in at E.T. Hooley stock route well 19 historical site for a gander then for lunch at the Dalgety Downs - Glenburgh Rd turnoff. From there I headed towards Mt Augustus Tourist Park but saw a hillock which looked like an interesting climb so I parked up and had a scramble up to the top.

Continued on to the Mt Augustus Meekatharra intersection and headed north to the tourist park. This is a great oasis in the middle of WA set beside the imposing vista of Mt Augustus. There are no limits to unpowered sites, no booking required. It has donga style shower blocks and a grass tent base area. Fuel is also available.

386km driven

Polocrosse field

Healthy Bungarra on the road

Lunch spot

Random hillock

Top of the hillock

Meekatharra road intersection

Upper reaches of the Gascoyne River

Day 3 - 25/9/2019

Very early start to climb Mt Augustus. The Aboriginal custodians don’t want people to be on the mountain at any time in the dark as it has a profound significance for them. I drove to the trail head, loaded up and set off at 0600 for a 12km return trip to the summit rising 650m. Me being me, I chose the more difficult initial route via the creek gully. It rejoins the normal trail after 1.5km. Well worth the deviation as long as you’re fit and a bit nimble for scrambling over large rocks and such.

The other reason you should set out early is the heat. Unfortunately two tourists became disoriented and died due to extreme dehydration not long before my visit. The sweeping views from the top are magnificent. The best view is from the top of the cairn.

Made my way down again and returned to camp for the night.

Summit trail head

Info board

Gully trail

First glimpse of the surrounding area

Heading back toward the main trail

Trail intersection

Trail heading up

Climbing the escarpment

The summit

From the cairn

Day 4 - 26/9/2019

Today was a little more relaxed so I could make my way around the other points of interest around the mountain. First was Edney’s lookout followed by Mundee petroglyphs then on to Kotka Gorge. The walk to Edney’s was 6km return walk with the others being relatively nominal distances.

Area map

Top of Edney’s in sight

End of the trail

View across to the summit

View across the plain

Looking south

Ornate dragon

Info board

Petraglyphs

Day 5 - 27/9/2019

Rest and recuperation day lazing around camp after two days of hot weather walking.

The summit from the tourist park

Camped alongside the grass tent area

Day 6 - 28/9/2019

Time to make my way south again to stay with friends at Pilroc Retreat, Paynes Find. Dropped into the historic Mt Gould police station, then onward to join the Great Northern Hwy at Meekatharra. From there it was highway all the way to Paynes Find.

Pilroc Retreat is a native wildlife rescue and rehabilitation centre. Unfortunately the heavy traffic on GNHwy extracts a significant toll on native wildlife. It’s not uncommon for joeys to survive their mother’s death. Gail & Dave do a wonderful job caring for them as well as birds.

Drove 685km