Mt Augustus

Mt Augustus is the largest rock in the world, being 1.5 times larger than Ayers Rock, but most of it is underground. Which posses the question, how do they know it's size if it's underground? X-ray it? Petty big x-ray machine! Technically it's a 'asymmetrical anticline', whereas Ayers Rock is a monolith.

Even though it's mostly underground the thing is huge. There is a 49km circuit road to drive around it, so there is no way you can walk around it like we did with Beate and Herbert at Ayers Rock. You are welcome to climb to the top, the local Aboriginals don't have an issue with this even though the rock is engulfed in Aboriginal Folk Law.

It was hot here, we arrived a day earlier than planned as it was well above 35°C the whole drive and we just didn't want to get out of the car air-con. So we drove until 5.30pm, and it still was above 35°. We were looking for a place to pull over and stop for the night until we came across this sign.

Soon after, we saw yet another one saying if you left the road you can expect that there will be firearms used. It didn't say at you, but we got a very clear message. So we pushed onto Mt Augustus Tourist Park at 5.45pm. Mind you, it still was above 35°. Is this the future of free camping in Australia? We hope not.

View of the Mountain from where we were camped. With power and running water.

There are multiple walks and climbs to do there. The walk or climb to the top is 12kms takes between 4 to 9 hours, average 7 hours and involves 2kms of basically vertical climbing. As it was above 30°at 7am, we elected to do the much shorter Edney's Trail, which was a Class 4 walk of 6kms. Poor Bailey struggled with the heat. We had to carry extra water for him.

The climb to Edney's Peak was still quite steep.

Bailey hiding in the shade.

You can see Edney's Peak is no where near the top.

Mt Augustus.

Mount Gould Police Outpost (abandoned).

Wild flowers.

Near Sandstone there is London Bridge.

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