Day 60 17/08/2013 Mt Augustus NP.
It was a clear and crisp morning and we were up early. Mt Augustus has a 49km loop road around its base, with access from this road to various walking trails. In addition to some short trails.....ranging from 20 minutes to 2 hours in length...there is a 5 hour return walk to the summit. We decided that doing all the shorter walks was a better option for us. The first walk was to Edney's lookout. This is a peak on the south east of the mount. It was a really scenic walk and the wildflowers were putting on a great show. Higher up the slope we were treated to displays of the threatened Mt Augustus foxglove. The views from the top were lovely. Taking our time, this walk took us just under two hours. Our next stop was a very short walk to look at some Aboriginal Petroglyphs at Mundee. These rock engravings have been etched by the Wajarri people. Further around the loop we headed into the Pound. In the past, this natural basin was used for holding cattle prior to driving them to Meekatharra.......a journey of some 10-12 days. (We are hoping to do the same journey in under 5 hours tomorrow!). This short walk (20 minutes return), provided views over the Lyons River valley and back into the Pound. Once again it was very picturesque. We continued on our way and stopped for lunch at the Cattle Pool. This is a permanent pool on the Lyons River. We enjoyed a walk along the south bank of the pool and stopped to observe the bird life in the area. As the name suggests it was once used as a watering hole for cattle. We spent quite a bit of time in this location....it was a lovely warm part of the day. Our last walk took us into Gum Grove and then into Kotka Gorge. The first part of this trail took us through a shady grove of river red gums and then along a dry rocky creek bed and up above the creek line into Kotka Gorge. This involved a lot of rock hopping but it was a very enjoyable trail. Back at camp we had showers and caught up with some travellers that we had met before at the Kennedy Range NP and also some who had been at the Lighthouse Caravan Park in Cape Range. Once again we enjoyed swapping tales around the campfire. It was a cool evening but there is now very little wind. Back on the road again tomorrow.