Part 3: Purnululu National Park

DAY 5

So if all the beautiful waterfalls and gorges I’ve been describing on my previous posts are not enough to get you to the Kimberleys then surely this will. The Kimberleys is home to one of the world’s best kept secrets: the Bungle Bungle Range. Located in Purnululu National Park, these amazing dome-shaped formations were only known to local Aboriginal people until aerial pictures were released in 1982.

Purnululu, meaning Sandstone, is approximately a 250km drive from Kununurra but the last 53km is unsealed. The park is only accessible by 4WD as the unsealed road is heavily corrugated with steep climbs and some tight corners - it took us over two hours to reach the campgrounds from the start of the unsealed road. We also had to be completely self-sufficient, because unlike many of the places we had camped at so far, there was limited water and no fire wood collection within the park.

Exploring the Bungles

The park is a great place to explore, both on foot and by air. There are long narrow chasms and hidden gorges, and of course, The Bungle Bungles. These fascinating geological landmarks stand 300m above the plain of the park. For those of you who have read my previously blogs will know I have a thing for rocks, and these orange and black sandstone domes are just amazing. 20 million years of weathering have produced these weirdly wonderful banded beehive structures. The dark bands are formed by cyanobacteria, winding horizontally around the domes contrast with the lighter orange sandstone. Although there are many sandstone towers across Australia and other parts of the world, the uniqueness of the Bungles is unrivalled in scale, extent and diversity of forms.

We took a quick walk through Echidna Chasm, a spectacularly long and narrow gorge with many colour variations and Livistonia palms on the ridge 200m above. But the gorge slowly becomes narrower and narrower, and then narrower again. At one point we found ourselves in a gap that is less than a metre wide but the walls so tall it was nearly completely dark where we were standing. The whole walk is only about 2km but at the end there is a small climb and steel ladders provide access into the innermost section.

Hike into Echidna Chasm
Echidna Chasm

We then headed to a viewing spot to watch the sun set over the Bungles. One of my favourite things about Australia, especially remote Australia, is the stars. There is zero light pollution in Purnululu so the only light is from the moon and the Milky Way above.

Watching sunset over The Bungles

Stargazing
DAY 6

Isn’t it funny how when your alarm goes off at 7am during the working week it’s a huge struggle to get out of bed, but when the alarm goes off at 4.45am to catch sunrise in The Bungles I am able to leap out of my swag immediately. It was definitely worth the early rise, drinking hot tea watching the glowing bungles in the first rays of sun is not an experience you get every day.

Sunrise at The Bungles

As soon as the sun was up we headed straight to the Purnululu Airfield to take a helicopter flight over The Bungles.  I’ve never been in a helicopter before – and these weren’t just any helicopters, they had no doors so you could pretty much hang out the side getting amazing views. Seeing Purnululu from the air is the only way to truly appreciate the vastness and rugged beauty of this World Heritage- Listed National Park. We flew over The Bungles towards Y Gorge before whizzing off over the top of the huge mouth of Piccaninny Gorge. We then followed Picaninny Creek over the mouth of Cathedral Gorge and then soared back over the amazing stripy domes.

Taking off from the red dirt airstrip

The Bungles from the air

Helicopter Hair

Once back on solid earth, and having already seen it from the air we headed to Picaninny Creek for a hike along the eroded creek bed. The walk is very exposed the sunny, and the scenery is beautiful; cliffs, chasms and rock pools, and of course close up views of The Bungles.

From Picaninny we wound our way through more of these iconic bee hives and headed into Cathedral Chasm. This is an astonishing natural amphitheatre of red rock which has been formed by water pounding through here in the wet season, carving out the rock and leaving a pool of water in the middle. Sound travels really well between the high rock walls and the acoustics are so good that music concerts have been played within the Chasm. 

Majestic Cathedral Chasm

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