Mt Augustus / Ashburton Downs Road WA

Cannot help you on updates but went that way last year at the beginning of May. The roads are good gravel and you can maintain 80kmh

Campsites are limited along the way but we went bush at Pingandy Creek(no signpost) and found a place to camp on the banks of the creek amongst the cattle pads

We were stopped just 15km from Mt Augustsus when 50mm of rain fell in about half an hour. Had to backtrack out of there to Meekatharra as all roads became impassable near Mt Augustus.

Local station owner said(after I rang him on the Satphone) that when it rains hard, it can take up to 2 weeks before roads become useable again.

Going to give it another go this year....lol

Thanks Willem. Back in town after the quick trip and now the fun begins with all the cleaning.

We made our way up there via the Mullewa road, camping overnight on the Murchison River, and turned off at Glenburgh Station making our way to Landor. The crossing at Landor Station over the Murchison was still about 400mm deep and quite fast flowing but we just hooked the trailer (it tends to float) between the two 4x4's and ambled across.

A section of road leading up the Burringurrah Aboriginal Community was a bit on the soggy side and we had a wait watching it swallow a shire grader and nearly taking the front end loader recovery vehicle too. Not much we could do so we cracked a beer and went for a walk around. Eventually they carted in some fill and we hammered through it. The wheels were now solid mud so we wobbled the rest of the way in the dark. Such is life.

Mt Augustus has experienced a lot of rainfall of late and they were still getting it back together again. Last night we were there they got the hot water going again (frog soup smells) but the phone was still on the blink. We got more rain in the wee hours of the morning on Monday so we took off and had a bit of a nail-biter trip out but beat the rivers swelling up again.

All in all a beaut trip but too short due to the wife's work unfortunately.

The Cruiser performed faultlessly with the exception of a muffler developing a hairline crack due to all the corrugations. Still managed two flats on the 10ply's but fixed them on the spot with the split rims. On the way home via Meekatharra we got 18.75 l/100km's towing a heavily laden tandem trailer and never went below 100km/h on cruise control.

Yeah, have to catch up sometime Davoe for sure. I'm down Freo way but the Roe Hwy should make it a 30 minute trip.

I kinda like the rain to tell you the truth because it keeps people away. We spent an arvo at Cattle Pool and didn't see a soul the whole time. In fact we only saw a handful of vehicles on the entire trip.