All Good Plans

Well I guess you could say we were christened on the WA roads…about 8km past Cobra station, on a really shaley road – one shredded tyre and one punctured tyre on the trailer – which to do first.

First one took 20 min, next 30 min, then no spares left. Time to change plans.



Decided to go back through Kennedy Ranges where we knew there would be other people in case we had other problems (did I mention that the battery connections had also come loose? and that we left the 3 fishing rods on the ground where we changed the tyres as well?...not a particularly good day).



Final destination was also changed to Carnarvon as we knew that we would not be able to get 2 new tyres in Coral Bay. That’s life on the road in WA. At least we would get a bunch of fresh fruit and vege!



Only saw 2 other cars on the road that day…felt a little vulnerable with our low supplies.



It was nice to be greeted by familiar faces at Kennedy Ranges and some friends, Maus and Brigitta who we had met at Cape Peron.

Mt Augustus (Burringurrah)….The Big Rock

We were somewhat limited in our ability as a family to do all of the walks to the lookouts and in particular the summit (12km – class 4 & 5) due to John’s bad foot (see Kennedy entry). Incredible rock engravings, or petroglyphs as they are called.

The rock is different to Uluru in that it actually has vegetation on it (and a bunch less people) – even though they say it hasn’t rained here for 4 years!

Frank, Pete and Matt attempted the summit on one days, however, Peter got giddy near the top, so they had to return to base. Second day Frank and Matt made it. They were gone for the entire day (fairly long hot days at base camp). A huge achievement for them.

At a waterhole called Cattle Pool, we saw a bevy of birds (we have become quite the twitchers since leaving).

Then at Flinstone Rock we sawy the most incredible petroglyph in a cave up really close….until Pete spotted a snake up really close! Then we fled.

A remarkable place (yet again) with the most magnificent sunrises and sunsets (that only seemed to get better as the days went by).

We fell in love with the red dirt and the rock, and were driven out due to having 2 nights worth of food left and 20 l of drinking water….

Time to get back to a town and restock.

We decided on a dirt road through the stations with an overnight stop beside the road with final destination …Coral Bay.

Road to Mt Augustus

We travelled on the same day from Kennedy Ranges to Mt Augustus as another family we had just met from Melbourne, the Delany’s, doing their annual 2 month trip. Our kids gelled straight away so they had a bunch of fun on the walks together at Kennedy. It was a great drive through some really dusty roads and dry creek beds past hollow cattle, white rock on top of the red dirt making it look like snow, then changing to red/brown rocks on top of the red dirt. The dust was the finest dust that we have driven through yet.

We past one creek bed and were surprised to actually see water. Stopped and saw black swans (which of course moved to the other end of the waterhole at the commotion of the kids).

Finally we way the beauty of this enormous reddy-purply-green rock rising up. Mt Augustus. The largest rock in the world. We had arrived. All a little shaken, dusty, however, we were in awe. We felt like were in the middle of nowhere. “outback Resort” is a loose term, however, it was aright up our alley – bush camping, campfires, great hosts (Lou and Beryl), red dirt, great views, but with a toilet, shower and a laundry where they only charged $5 for as many loads as you needed to do! Incredible!!! We watched the sunset and the full moon rise. Does it get better than this?