God Moves in Mysterious Ways, lol

Did I hear rain in the night, tell me I heard rain in the night, YES!, oh dear, what a catastrophe (said with tongue in cheek), it POURED with rain during the night and in the early morning. About 6.30 am there was a knock at the door and all the troops were stood there damp as their tents had leaked and they were getting wetter and wetter. It was not looking good for the climb (heh, heh) as there was fog all over the Mt as well. Everyone had breakfast, got changed, had a hot drink and B went and checked with Ranger Bob (who had a shack with a flag up outside, within the camp) - open at 9am, to see what the story was on re the possibility of doing the climb. The reply came back, not at all and more rain was expected. Some of the roads to Mt Augustus were already closed, the mail man couldn’t get through and so we were stuck. (You get fined if you drive on a closed road over here - $400 I saw on one sign) About 10am, the weather started to lift, so all the bedding and tents were taken down and put about the place to dry. The unit started to look like a Chinese laundry with clothing, bedding and towels etc draped from anything drapeable - doors, pictures on the wall, lol. In the midst of this, the camp table was set up in my bedroom between the two single beds for the kids to play cards to keep out of everyones way when one of them said there was a spider in the room. It just happened to be a REDBACK!!!!!! OMG, I stayed right where I was out in the living room area while the aforementioned beastie was killed and disposed of having severe palpitations as I had been walking about the place, seeing I was inside, with my bare feet!!! Needless to say, my boots went back on, flyspray was got from the shop and the room liberally sprayed with a napalm equivalent sweep. Once I could breath in the room, I then shook everything and repacked my bag, zipping it firmly shut.The WM took a photo of the beast before it was killed and just looking at the photo was nearly enough to make me heave never mind getting closer to the poisonous beast in situ.

There were several very silly hat moments not long after that as some of us then got dressed up in an assortment of head attire and took photos (one of those 'you had to have been there moments) and just as everyone was about to get cabin fever, the rain started to lift and the sun sort of came out. The decision was made to do a walk at the base of the Mt instead and so off we went to Gum Grove (Warrala) where there was the Kotka Gorge trail (class 4), 2km, 2 hours return amble. The walk started out through some awesome white gums and a gentle path and then with memories of Karajini coming to the fore, it turned into terrain that was only fit for mountain goats. Managed to lumber up the rocks and crevices with the aid of a trusty stick until the last 100mtrs when the kids and the WM (more intrepid than the oldies, lol) met us on the way back and said there was no water, just more rocks, and that was enough for us who needed no encouragement to stop and turn back. Got back down with only one ‘is my bum bigger than this rock’ moment when I was wedged and had to slide down one bit, lol and made it to the car without any misadventure requiring medical attention. There were several other shorter walks, at a lesser degree of difficulty further around the base of the Mt so off we went. The Ooramboo trail was a gentle walk into to see aboriginal rock carvings – goodness knows how many hundreds of years old. There was yet another walk further up the road again and this time there were more aboriginal rock drawings (Flinstone - see pic below). It looked like a flood had swept through the place at some stage – there was a cave to one side with 5 kangaroo skeletons and there were bones scattered further down that looked to be cattle bones.

The WM was extremely disappointed not to have climbed the Mt as it seemed people who had started out later in the day, managed to do so. Me, I was able to cope with the crushing disappointment heh heh.Back to the ‘resort’ and it was time to do dinner which was barbeque and very tasty. Had a small heart attack at some of the prices of this place. Bread $5 loaf, $34 for 9 bottles of water – we had to buy water as there was no drinkable water to be had on site – only bore water. Because there was a possibility of rain again, everybody camped in the unit that night. We moved a cane two-seater into my bedroom and put 4 squabs on the floor for the kids to sleep on. The WM shared the other bed in my room and the WMH put his swag on the floor next to the stove and bench in the kitchen. Amazingly enough, everyone seemed to have a good nights sleep and no one moved until 8am.


White-barked river gums.


My artistic shot of the workmate and family draped through the aforementioned wbr gums.

Another tree (right) and the path! to Kotka gorge, lol (below).


















Below is a picture of the rock carvings at the next stop called Ooramboo.

Picture above is taken at a stop called Flinstone - Beedoboondu. The actual drawings are on the wall under the rock that T & B are in front of.

This was an easier walk with a class 3, 500mtrs, 30mins return certification. We fairly gamboled up this incline, lol.



The drive around the base of Mt Augustus is 49k, all dirt/gravel. Mt Augustus is different to Ayres Rock in that it has vegetation of sorts all over it and is not merely rock. The rock on the ground alongside the roads is reddish and looks like a scoria type rock mixed with what looks like quartz.