Week 8 · 16th May to 22nd May
Bungle Bungles
Day 50 – 16th May
The Gibb River Road is all about gorges – Widjana, Lennard, Bell, Galvins, Manning … the list goes on. So by the time we reached El Questro, we were all a little ‘Gorged Out’! Until that is, Drew and Fiona suggested we explore Chamberlain Gorge in their boat (tinny) and try a spot of Barra (Barramundi) fishing as well! Needless to say, we jumped at the chance, and as the gorge is sometimes inhabited by Saties (salt water crocs i.e. the ones that kill you) it’s a better option than swimming.
What a great day! The gorge was beautiful and floating peacefully down the river with big orange walls either side was like something in another world. We examined some ancient Aboriginal rock art along the way too. Then onto some fishing where Dean and I were given a crash course in bait, casting, rods, fish, technique, reels, hooks … you name it. F & D are pros! Caught a cobbler, a mullet and a few silver things and a few tiny tots but no Barra – who cares, we had an amazing day!
Back at camp, we ate and arranged to meet F & D again in Kununurra on Friday. Off to the Bungle Bungles tomorrow.
Day 51 – 17th May
The last day of the Gibb River Road – its been an amazing experience even though it wasn’t as remote or rough as we expected. We left El Questro pretty early (7am) but not before chilling out for a while at the 32 degrees all-year-round Zebedee springs. A perfect (and badly needed) hot bath / shower.
Arrived in Kununurra at about 11am and rushed around for supplies – which included yset another tyre for Max. We were so lucky – we got the only 2nd hand BFG 32 by 11.5 by 15 inch tyre in town for $70 (not bad). Now, the alert reader would’ve totted up the tyre spend so far for the trip and found that it came to $585 – nearly as much as a complete new set! The point: don’t buy 2nd hand tyres, instead shell out for a new set at the start.
So we set of for the BB’s at 12ish with the idea of camping at Turkey Ck just 50kms from the NP entrance (it takes nearly 3hrs just to get into Purnululu – the Aboriginal name for the park) Wrong! Yet another puncture just 70kms down the road – this time a big blow out. It had us back-tracking to Kununurra where (you guessed it) we bought a NEW tyre for $260 – ouch! This weeks budget gone!
Camped in Kununurra and had a good few beers to calm me down!
Day 52 – 18th May
Left the campsite at Kununurra before 6am and drove directly to the Bungle Bungle – took us around 6 hours – 3.5 to drive the 250km to the entrance and another 2.5 for the 50km long dreadful road into the park. Ten times worse than the Gibb River Road.
Decided to camp at and explore the Southern area first so after we got ourselves organised, we headed down to check out the famous bee-hive-like rock formations and Cathedral Gorge. They are both quite spectacular. The domes were formed by the erosion of the bigger Oswald range (to the North) and the striped effect is caused by layers of oxidised sandstone and blue-green algae (cyanobacteria).
Had an evening by the fire with two Melbourne families who shared their marshmallows with us!
Day 53 - 19th May
In true Orla and Dean style we weren’t satisfied with the short Cathedral Gorge and Domes trails. Since we knew of an overnight walk up Picaninny Gorge, we had to try and complete it in a day!
So we were up early and walking for about 7am. The first 7km of the walk was relatively easy, on a hard dry river bed. As for the scenery, it was fantastic – the domes looked superb in the morning light and we got some cool photos. Next the track turned North-West and we headed into the Picaninny Gorge itself. Here it became much more difficult as we were walking on pebbles and sand and there were a few boulders to climb over. Totally different landscape now – we were surrounded by 200m high sandstone walls covered in Palm (and other) trees. Every now and again there were pools of water: remnants of the wet season. It was hard to imagine that a torrent of water was flowing there just a few months earlier.
Further up the gorge at a place called ‘The Fingers’, we stopped for lunch. Total distance was approximately 12km. Orla had a swim in the stagnent water and said it was good but I wasn’t convinced. We had to power back in order to get back to camp before dark (only 5pm in Eastern Western Australia). It was a long hot slog to say the least but eventually we were greeted by Max and his full water tank! We were knackered and needless to say we didn’t burn the midnight oil that night.
Day 54 – 20th May
Oh my God, my aching bones! You could tell I’m nearly 30 if you’d seen me this morning. Good job we had very little planned. All we did was move the tent to the northern campsite in the Bungles and visit Echidna chasm. The rock in the north is more conglomerate as opposed to fine sandstone in the south – just in case you were wondering ;-)
After a great dinner (left over Spag Bol mixed with Satay rice) we attended a slide show presented by the park ranger. There, as a complete surprise we met Fiona and Drew who’d been in the park for two days too! We caught up on things and decided to push on to Kununurra (again) in the morning.
Day 55 – 21st May
After meeting F & A last night, we had brekky with them this morning and then hit the road. Its good tackling the Bungles road with another 4WD there just in case. All went well apart from Max’s console (the thingy that has the CB in it) fell off! Anyway on we went until … yep you guessed it – we got another puncture!! We must be the unluckiest 4WDers in the world – 5 punctures in 10 days!
After much bad language and stressing we changed it and drove into Kununurra in a very frazzled state. Bought yet another new tyre (and swore never to buy second hands again) and picked up some supplies before heading back to camp. I drank far too much alcohol but it was the only thing for it after the day we’d had!
Day 56 – 22nd May
A bit of a thick head this morning. Orla woke up in her clothes since she got a little too friendly with the red wine.
Today was really a sorting out day – we packed up then spend 2 hours updating this website, then we filled up, then we bought some food, the we started the drive to Katherine – all in 30 degree heat. There was no way we’d make it to Katherine before nightfall so we decided to stop in Gregory NP for the night. Oh yeah we stopped in Timber Ck for a beer in a rustic Aussie put where we met a couple of interesting octegenarians. (sp)
