On the Road Again (Thursday 9th)

Having left the Road House heading towards bluer skies and a dry road, our first stop was at "Stock Route Well No 19". We never saw numbers 1 - 18 or any others on the trip, so this may be one that has survived the passage of time. I forgot to mention that for a good part of this trip, we were following the old wool trail which continues north to Carnarvon, which we didn't go to, having passed through there on last year's trip.

The bucket in this picture is lying on top of a trapdoor that is covering the well. It looks like you had to bucket water from the well into the trough from which the animals could drink.

Next stop was a beautiful spot called Bilung Pool. It is named after an Aboriginal elder and is known amongst the Wajarri people as Bilungardi's Dreaming. 'Bilungardi means standing tall and skinny - this pool was the home of his Dreaming, the place from which ancient Dreamtime laws and customs originate'. The school is also on Wajarri land so it felt like there was a connection to this spot any of our indigenous staff from the Wajarri people will know this place and it's stories. This pool was at the bottom of a cliff which you could scramble down (I didn't, lol) and what looked to be a dry river bed which no doubt the pool overflowed into when in flood - it was fed from a smaller pool at the top of the cliff. There were lots of animal footprints in the riverbed, so obviously a watering hole for them. Surrounding the pool and along the riverbed were some magnificent white-barked river gum trees that were huge and therefore possibly very old. One had branches reaching up to the top of the cliff, which was worn away to accomodate one particular branch.

It was not long after I hopped back in the ute, I began to feel unwell - possibly the bacon and egg sandwhich not travelling too well through my inner workings!. I grabbed a gavascon tablet out of my bag and took that and then the next one which began to give a smidgeon of relief. I spent most of the trip with my eyes closed, willing myself to feel better and trying not to throw up, finally coming right as Mt Augustus came into view. We did make one brief stop at the Burringurrah Aboriginal settlement along the way to see if the shop was open but it only opened two hours a day, already been and gone. I cannot remember a bumpier road which was filled with hollows and dips all the way, so I considered myself lucky to have survived in one piece, lol.

"Mt Augustus or Burringurrah rises abruptly 715m out of an extensive, stony, red sandplain of arid shrubland dominated by wattles, assias and eremophilas. (for those playing at home, lol). It is 1105m above sea level" and is regarded as the largest rock in the world (larger than Ayers Rock). " In the Dreaming, a boy called Burringarrah was undergoing his initiation into manhood. The rigours of this process so distressed him that he ran away, thereby breaking the Aboriginal law. Tribesmen pursued the boy, finally catching up with him and spearing him in the upper right leg as his punishment. Burringaurrah fell to the ground; the spearhead broke from its shaft and protruded from his leg. The boy tried to crawl away but was hit with a mulgurrah (fighting stick), collapsed and died, lying on his belly with his left leg bent up beside his body. You can see his final resting pose when you approach Mt Augustus from the south".

We arrived at Mt Augustus 'Resort' and set up camp once again. The WM had booked a family unit for T & B which came with a double room, shower, toilet, open plan kitchen, living area and another bedroom with two single beds. As my tent was wet through still from the mornings rain, I was offered the spare room which I gratefully accepted. I was still not feeling great so took a codene tablet, curled up in my bed and fell asleep. There was no drinkable water at this 'resort' so nine bottles of 1.5l water were purchased from the shop for $32 and two loaves of bread at $5 each. (No crusts were given to the birds at this price, lol). The plan was to be up at 6.30am next morning to climb to the summit which there and back is usually a 6hr walk, so it was a relatively early night, after we had viewed and uploaded all our photos, with me mentally girding my loins so to speak for the challenge ahead!