Road to the rock
THROUGH THE HEART of WA, there’s a self-drive adventure like few others in the world. Wind your way 1,000 kilometres north of Perth and you’ll find yourself face-to-face with Mount Augustus, the world’s biggest rock. An years old, it’s three times older than Uluru and twice its size. You can hike to its peak, enjoy the many walking trails around the base or swim in the cooling waters of nearby Cattle Pool. On the way back to Perth, be sure to check out the Kennedy Range National Park. If it’s spring, prepare your camera: the road here tracks west towards the coastline, and as you traverse the continent its famous wildflowers begin appearing in thick clumps, sometimes even scattered in carpets of yellow, white, purple and red. To see more of the famous wildflower carpets, stop in at Coalseam Conservation Park, a sheltered valley whose mineral-rich soils have created ideal conditions for the area’s native everlastings, which bloom here in carpets so thickly knotted it’s nigh on impossible to see the ground beneath.
