Australia June 2013 - Visiting Squid: Part 5

Wednesday 19 June

We got up very early - just after 6 - with the idea of getting quickly to Kununarra for supplies, internet and fuel (oh, and bacon butties and coffee), and then rush on to reach the Bungle Bungles (or Purnululu National Park to give it the proper name) before dark. There wasn't much to delay us in the town, and we decided not to explore the other main tourist attraction hereabouts: Lake Argyle, so we were soon heading back south on the Great Northern Highway.

Scenery on the Highway
There was yet more sparse woodland on either side of the road, and now that the road had a hard, smooth, rut-free surface it was easier to look around. There were more spikey hills appearing until, just after 2pm we reached the Bungle Bungle turn-off. Just through the gates, genius, was a mobile real coffee vendor! So we had to stop before tackling the 53km rough track to the Reserve visitor centre, where we would have to book for camping (having been unable to get through on the phone). The only snag was that the centre closed at 4pm, but even with the speed limit of 50kph that did not appear to be a problem........  

 

 

..........until I started driving down the 'road'. The first part of the road ran through private land, i.e. upkeep was not the responsibility of the National Park, and clearly wasn't a high priority for the owner. So from the start 50kph remained a rarely attained speed. Once we reached the National Park upkeep was evident as we had to drive through parts of the road being graded, meaning we had to follow, or try to pass, the grader, then drive to the left, right, or on top of the ridge of dirt in the middle of the road left by the grader's last efforts. We were even further away from the 50kph limit!

Nevertheless, with some rally driving on the few straight and level bits of the road we reached the centre just in time, and booked in to the Walardi camp-site. Although we had passed a 'sunset' viewpoint, the sun refused to appear in order to disappear photogenically, so we remained on the site, relaxed, and had a good meaty dinner with fresh meat from the butchers in Kununarra - delicious with powdered potato and tinned garden peas. And jelly for afters!

 

Thursday June 20

Our earliest rising yet - 05.45 - due to raindrops coming down through our mossie domes! By 06.00 we were up & rapidly erecting a tent to shove our sleeping bags & kit into - by which time the rain had stopped (only to start again and remain annoyingly intermittent throughout the day). Inevitably we had an early, but leisurely, breakfast: bacon and mushrooms in bread rolls - scrummy!

Bungle Bungles from the distance

Another bungled photo?

Sculpted river bedrock and Bungles
The plan for the day was to see as much of the Bungle Bungles as possible, starting with Piccaninny Creek. The landscape got weirder as we approached the road end: rounded sandstone domes in serried ranks alongside the dry creek, the strata horizontal and alternate orange/red and black in colour. We explored several of the trails, up Cathedral Gorge (or Gorge XII!) with its overhanging walls over a plunge pool; on to the 'Window', a hole in the rock no less; and up the dry Piccaninny creek with stone-filled potholes sculpted in the rocky river bed. Some domes had been neatly sliced in two like butter by a geological fault. However, after a while, we became bungled out, as there was limited variety in the admittedly unusual formations. So we headed back to the car park and set up our stove on a picnic table and brewed soup for lunch.
It was a long drive, just under 50km, back past the camp site to the other end of the Bungle Bungles, where instead of the striped sandstones the rocks are very coarse conglomerate - so coarse you feel in danger of being hit by a loose pebble falling out of the rock faces towing above you in places. The star attraction was Echidna Chasm, a winding deep narrow gorge carved 100-200m deep in the pebbly rock. With a width in places of only 1.5m it felt pretty claustrophobic, but the range of colours in the rock, despite the grey skies, made up for this feeling   

Aboriginal hand-prints in a gorge on the Dome walk

Bowerbird nest

Echidna Chasm

Colourful rock, even with no sun
Back at camp the intermittent rain had finally stopped, and we chilled out, read, and then consumed our kangaroo kebabs, served with salad and cous-cous.

Friday June 21

Having had our fill of the Bungle Bungles we set of at 08.30 to try and reach Fitzroy Crossing for the night. We had hatched a new plan (or rather Squid had) to finish our trip a day earlier, hand back the vehicle, and then head off down to Broome and stay with Pete for a couple of days.

The road back to the Great Northern Highway had been smoothed out significantly since our arrival, but it was still slow, mainly due to a I'm-not-going-to-give-way slow car ahead of us. After a short stop for coffee from the mobile man at the gate we headed south again for a short stop at Halls Creek for fuel and a quick visit to the China Wall, a remarkable vertical dyke of quartz, unfortunately partly hidden by vegetation.

 

China Wall, near Halls Creek
We were off again by 12.20, heading on the straight, straight and flat, flat road to Fitzroy Crossing. Apart from the odd single lane bridge, or roadworks, it was a steady 110kph all the way - keeping a wary eye out for wandering cattle or roos. The odd distant red cliffs and hills poked through the savanah in places. Black kites circled over the road kill, and it was a tedious drive.

We camped at the Fitzroy River Lodge, literally on the lawns beside the hotel. Rain forgotten, we slept back in our mossie domes again.

Saturday June 22

Geikie Gorge
We had planned an early start so we could go on the first boat trip at Geikie Gorge (our final gorge - Gorge XIII) at 08.00 - but somehow  bacon and tomato butties and coffee delayed us somewhat, so we missed the boat. We a couple of loops on the trails into the Devonian limestone reef and along the river, but the full charm and beauty of the gorge wasn't apparent until we were on the next boat trip. The Fitzroy river cuts through the limestone reef here, leaving high cliffs with solution gullies high up,  and water-scalloped features lower down. the cliffs were also two-toned: dark 'dry rocks' high up, and whiter rock below the flood level.
There were numerous cracks and caves in the gorge walls, giving the crocs suitable spots to laze, and the birds suitable safe rock walls on which to glue their nests.

After our hour-long cruise Squid headed off back towards town in order to find a mobile signal & check that we could hand the vehicle back in later that day, and  I headed off on a longer trail along the river and beside the reef. For conservation and aboriginal significance reasons it was not possible to scramble up onto the reef, although the rocks seemed to beg to be climbed! The best views were definitely from the boat on the river.

Nests on the overhanging gorge wall

Freshwater croc
After we met up again at 11.30 we set off for Derby straight away, with a quick stop in a lay by for a picnic, and at Mary's Pool for a quick look (no swimming, crocs about). So by 16.30 we had got back to Squid's quarters, unloaded the ute, filled it with fuel, and got to the supermarket to buy a crate of beer, promised to Dave in return for the loan of his Engel. Then we reluctantly gave the (slightly scratched) vehicle back, and so ended our adventure 'up the Gibb'.

Washing, pizza and Midsomer Murders somehow felt a little dull end to the day......

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