311kms with a Brief Stop

Our next place of rest is the Bungle Bungles Caravan Park. We have to drive through Halls Creek to get there, which is a good thing as we will need dinner and lunch supplies.

On the way we drive past Mistake Creek, and I really need to tell you about this place. So, sometime ago, around 1915, some Kija people were said to have been killed by men under the control of a Constable Rhatigan. They were killed for allegedly killing Rhatigan’s cow, BUT!!! the cow is said to have been found alive and well after the massacre had already taken place. Bloody awesome, ai m sure a quick apology and the naming of a creek made up for that.

Rhatigan was arrested for wilful murder apparently due to the fact that the killers were riding horses which belonged to him, but the charges were dropped, for lack of evidence that he was personally involved.

There are some that debate this, but it is aboriginal lore and there are old cave paintings depicting the massacre.

Something to think about…

Back to supplies!

It sounds like we stock up a lot, but actually our fridge is only 40 litres capacity, and by the time you put the beer and wine in there, there is very little room left. And my husband, bless him, has a habit of just dumping everything in without forethought. Salads are squished to unrecognisable so we just buy as we go.

We reach Halls Creek and, to our delight, find a fantastic butchery and a bakery!!!! Happy days. No alcohol is sold in Halls Creek though, as this is another dry community. According to the local butcher, this encourages bootlegging. If you are lucky you can buy a box (2 dozen) VB for $125. Jesus WEPT!

The reason Halls Creek has the finer things (except for alcohol), rather than supermarket only meat and frozen bread, is because it supplies the local gold mine, which is still in operation.

We give Keem a good feed too, back on the road. Another 109kms until Bungle Bungle Caravan Park. https://bunglebunglecaravanpark.com.au/ definitely recommend it! If you are passing by.

The road, you will be shocked to hear, is long and flat! An easy drive, but not overly distinguishable.

We arrive at Bungle Bungles Caravan Park just before midday. Very productive and relieved to have a rest from driving. The camp ground looks like a set from MASH, all army green and brown tents, with intermittent $100k caravans driven by the grey nomads.

TANGENT: The grey nomads really know how to travel in style. A lot of the caravans have extension walls, pull out cookers, and one lady told me about the little wall mounted washing machine in her bathroom.

No one was really able to tell me where the name Bungle Bungles came from. I really liked it, sounds fun. The aboriginal name is Purnululu and comes from the Aboriginal Gija people, meaning ‘fretting sands’. It is suggested that Bungle Bungles is reference to Bundle Bundle, a Kimberley grass. But that makes no sense, to me anyway.

It is another hot day, and the sky is blue with no clouds, making it four in row.

It is too late to drive into the national park, only 52km away, but the road is said to be unpleasant, windy, and with boulders blocking your way. We opt to go first thing in the morning. So we have the afternoon to do whatever we please.

And we please to go up in a helicopter for a bit of a jaunt. With our turtle fully established, we pay our extortionate amount of money and head off for an hour of sightseeing. The full hour option covered the Triple Falls, the Bungle Bungle Range and the Ord River, and Mabel Downs Cattle Station.

Turns out our pilot is a Kiwi, Chris the Kiwi helicopter pilot. This guy was freaking awesome.

Now is probably the time to point out I was scared, sphincter tightening scared, Jason had happily pointed out that this particular make and model of helicopter Robinson R44 Raven, is renowned chopping its own tail off and falling from the sky.

And we had no doors! Thank god we had amazingly strong looking seatbelts! Nope, nope, they looked the same as those you get in in bumper cars. BUT, I didn’t want to say anything so I just got in, belted up, and well, belted up.

Off we went. Up, up, up, and fucking up! I actually calmed down relatively quickly, I don’t think Chris or Jason noticed, and I definitely resisted the urge to grab Chris and tell him how much I didn’t want to die right now.

It was amazing, and beautiful, and breathtaking. The hour went so fast. Chris was brilliant, he knew his stuff about the region and he also realised, because we are Kiwis too, that showing us any Australian “mountains” would be farcical.

Instead he took us to see extra valleys that he had not yet explored, talked us through the history of the land, and the station on it. Bloody awesome, and really worth it, we got a much greater appreciation for the enormity of feature. During some seismic activity, the entire mass popped up out of the earth millions of years ago. Magical.

There are rock formations that look like beehives, the type you would see on the packet of beehive matches (that’s going back a long way). Mounds of rock with black and orange stripes, see photos, some people think this is why the place is called Bungle Bungles, but no. They are just created by the pressure of the rock coming out of the earth, with layers of rock having a bacterial element, making them a darker colour. Looks cool though.

One minute the land is dry and barren looking, then boom, palm trees, waterfalls, and flowing rivers. Stunning, and not something we would have seen from our walk in the next day.

Whilst it was an expensive outing, it was well worth it and we are pretty sure we were gone longer than an hour. Thanks Chris and Bungle Bungle Caravan Park.

We had a few hours of chilling out.

The caravan park has a firepit. And from 500pm everyone gathers around the firepit, has a few drinks. You can BYO or buy from the bar. BLOODY AWESOME IDEA, you leave your own little boundary and actually talk to your neighbours.

We spoke to some very lovely people and got lots of hints and tips from each person. We liked it so much we did not get back to our campsite until after 7! My god, what a late night. We cooked dinner, and crawled into the turtle. No wind, great sleep.

TANGENT: I have changed people! Gone is the tough Kiwi who could brush off the 5 degree mornings, now when it is down to 14 degrees, I have to rug up and double hoodie! Its quite sad really, but oh well. The warmth is where the fun is J

Purnululu National Park / Bungle Bungles

We knew that the tour bus left for the Bungle Bungles at 630am, and we did not want to be stuck behind the bus. So we deflated tyres, packed up camp, and were on the road by 620. Ready for the serious off roading we had been promised.

We had been told it would take 1.5 to two hours to drive in there, so we were prepared for the worst. But, the worst turned out to be pretty average. Jason was quite disappointed, as we kept expecting the road to get a little exciting, instead, we made it in one hour.

On the upside, it meant we were the first ones there!

According to everyone we spoke to, there were two must see features of the Purnululu. Echidna Chasm and Cathedral Gorge. Both of these are at either end of the park, so you need to drive 50km between the two.

We started with the Echidna Chasm. You leave the carpark and walk up a rocky river bed, it is hard going, but pretty, and you simply follow the palm trees. Occasionally clamouring over boulders, climbing ladders.

The entire track glows with an orange hue coming off the surrounding rocks. Beautiful, and with no other tourists to be seen, very peaceful.

As you go further into the chasm the echo gets better and better. As I lack the ability to whistle, the best I could do was call out BOOP. And that works perfectly well. The walls of the chasm has steep are up to 200 metres high and barely a metre wide in places. So if you don’t like confined spaces, not the best place to hang out. The return walk is 1.6 kilometres doesn’t take long, but it is very pretty. Well worth doing.

We walk back down the path and start to meet the tourists coming in. Nice timing indeed. But we know we will catch up with the bus loads eventually.

We drive the 50kms to the next feature, Cathedral Gorge. When we arrived at car park it was pretty busy, so time to set up our cooker and its my turn to cook breakfast. I make scrambled eggs buns with smoked salmon.

The only problem was it was warm, and the flies were out in force. I sat in the car after a while to eat in peace, but the little bastards found me in there too. I abandoned my breakfast halfway through, but Jason has a far better constitution than me so finished his and helped with mine a little too.

Camp oven and dishes all safely stored back inside Keem we hit the trail. Despite the number of cars the trail is surprisingly quiet, excellent. Its an easy walk to the Cathedral and it is beautiful. It really is like an amphitheatre with amazing acoustics – there were more BOOPs. There is also a pool of water which adds to the beauty of the place.

Hard to explain, you are in absolute awe of the size, and the possibility that a small shift in the rock would squish you like a bug.

The tour groups started to catch up with us, so we started our return journey. Well worth the effort, flies, and heat. There were other walks to lookouts and so on, but Chris has already said, once you’ve seen them from the helicopter, there really is not point.

Time for some more dirt road driving as we leave Purnululu and head to our next stop. Kununurra.

This is 272kms from the Bungle Bungles Caravan park, a pretty easy drive, the roads appear to be long, and straight. Despite all the people we meet at the camp grounds the roads are never really busy. Its my turn to drive as Jason did all the off road work.