The East Kimberleys - The Bungle Bungles (Purnululu N.P.)
After a couple of days of serious washing and organising in Darwin I was off on the road once again! I can't for the life of me figure out how people do this for years on end? Don't get me wrong, I'm having the time of my life, but my God it's tiring being constantly on the go and living out of a backpack, I just want a wardrobe to hang my clothes in so that I can see them, now is that too much to ask?!! Anyway...I got the good 'oul Greyhound down to Kununurra. Now, my bus ticket stated that I was departing at 07.15 and would arrive at 17.25 that evening. To me that meant just over 10 hours of a trip? Well what the bastards forget to tell you and assume you know is that there is a 1.5 hour time difference between north and west so it meant that my journey was actually 11.5 hours long. I don't understand how they work out these time differences either. Kununurra is literally 25 mins away from the NT border. There is no way that the sun sets any earlier rises any later in the space of those 25 mins so why is there a time difference here? It's all very confusing and doesn't make much sense in my mind! That's enough of the giving out (told ya I was tired!) I promise!!
Kununurra is one of those places where people just stop to break up the journey to Broome, mind you there are a lot of backpackers doing farm work here at the moment ( I think they're insane, it's 38 degrees and upwards here at the moment) but generally it is a very sleepy little town and there really isn't much to do or see. I went into Mirima National Park on my first morning here. I started walking at 8am and by 10am the temperature had already reache 35 degrees so I just had to head back to the hostel before I evaporated!
That evening I climbed Kelly's knob (what an unfortunate name!) to watch the sunset over Kununurra and it really was quite spectacular, particularly because someone was burning off some sugar cane and the suns rays lit up the smoke, it was perfect timing!
The following morning I went off on another outback trip, this time to the East Kimberleys and in particular the Bungle Bungles. These national park has had many names over the years and was named this by the most recent leaseholder, who named it after the grass that grows in the area. The Aboriginal people call this grass Bundle Bundle, but the owner wanted to change it a touch and came up with Bungle Bungle. If it were me, I would have called them the Bumble Bumble as the shape of the mounds are known to look like beehives and are infact sometimes referred to as the beehive domes, but Bungle Bungle it is.
All of this area is sandstone, the same as Uluru. So everything you own comes back from the trip bright red!! It really is spectacular to see though. It would be even better if you were travelling in a truck with functioning air conditioning when it's over 40 degrees hot, but I suppose beggers can't be choosers?!!
Our first stop was the Echidna Chasm. There are 2 stories as to why it is so called. The first is the Aboriginal version, that is was carved out by an echina trying to escape a bird of prey and that the palms represent the echidna's spines; the second and perhaps more believable is that one of the early explorers found echidna remains through it and thus named it Echidna Chasm.
Our second stop of the day was Mini Palms, so called because of all the mini palm trees growing from every crevasse of the rock surface. This is another sandstone gorge, and although lovely, it isn't a patch on some of the gorges I saw in Kakadu.
We headed to camp (I got a tent to myself this time, Wohoo!) had dinner and had an early night in preparation for yet another early morning of 5am!! After brekkie we went straight to the heli base to go on a heli flight over the bungle bungles (an optional extra of course!) This was amazing, the best part of the trip and to be honest I was sorry I didn't just do that part instead of paying for the full 2 days as you saw as much in those 18 minutes as in the other 10 hours of driving!! The formations and colours are fabulous and it really is a wonderous sight. I do have pictures of me in the helicopter but they're on my video camera and I forgot to bring it so you'll have to wait!! The pilot was a mad man and kept whirling us around and doing sharp pull ups and there were no doors or windows on the helicopter!!!
After that we went for a walk through the Bungles. This was hot hot hot!! Firstly to Cathedral Gorge, where we sat in silence as our guide played some operatic music. The accustics in here are amazing, better than any cathedral in the world! Truely magical. Then it was down to the lookout point at the end of Picaninny Creek, to give us an overview of the size of Purnululu N.P. (aka Bungle Bungles). When we finally got back to the truck everyone downed about a litre of cold water to try and cool down and then we had to get onto the dreaded oven for the arduous trek back to Kununurra which took about 5 hours in the sweltering heat!
I know this posting sounds rather negative, but I think after the wonders of Kakadu and its surrounding National Parks, I expected too much of this trip, and then the fact that there was no air conditioning just tainted the whole thing, because the heat just made everyone moody and there was no escape from it. The flight over the Bungle Bungles is definitely worthwhile though, so you should stop in Kununurra for that reason alone.
Alas we returned to the devastating news that Steve Irwin, the Crocodile Hunter was killed on the Barrier reef by a sting ray on Monday! The country is in mouring and it really is very sad. To think that Anne and myself were snorkelling in that area 2 weeks ago and that we were at his zoo over a month ago. James, I don't know what we're going to watch on Saturday mornings anymore?!It's a tragedy. R.I.P. Steve.
It's off to Broome for me now on a 13 hour bus journey. Bring it on!!!
Kununurra is one of those places where people just stop to break up the journey to Broome, mind you there are a lot of backpackers doing farm work here at the moment ( I think they're insane, it's 38 degrees and upwards here at the moment) but generally it is a very sleepy little town and there really isn't much to do or see. I went into Mirima National Park on my first morning here. I started walking at 8am and by 10am the temperature had already reache 35 degrees so I just had to head back to the hostel before I evaporated!That evening I climbed Kelly's knob (what an unfortunate name!) to watch the sunset over Kununurra and it really was quite spectacular, particularly because someone was burning off some sugar cane and the suns rays lit up the smoke, it was perfect timing!
The following morning I went off on another outback trip, this time to the East Kimberleys and in particular the Bungle Bungles. These national park has had many names over the years and was named this by the most recent leaseholder, who named it after the grass that grows in the area. The Aboriginal people call this grass Bundle Bundle, but the owner wanted to change it a touch and came up with Bungle Bungle. If it were me, I would have called them the Bumble Bumble as the shape of the mounds are known to look like beehives and are infact sometimes referred to as the beehive domes, but Bungle Bungle it is.
All of this area is sandstone, the same as Uluru. So everything you own comes back from the trip bright red!! It really is spectacular to see though. It would be even better if you were travelling in a truck with functioning air conditioning when it's over 40 degrees hot, but I suppose beggers can't be choosers?!!
Our first stop was the Echidna Chasm. There are 2 stories as to why it is so called. The first is the Aboriginal version, that is was carved out by an echina trying to escape a bird of prey and that the palms represent the echidna's spines; the second and perhaps more believable is that one of the early explorers found echidna remains through it and thus named it Echidna Chasm.Our second stop of the day was Mini Palms, so called because of all the mini palm trees growing from every crevasse of the rock surface. This is another sandstone gorge, and although lovely, it isn't a patch on some of the gorges I saw in Kakadu.
We headed to camp (I got a tent to myself this time, Wohoo!) had dinner and had an early night in preparation for yet another early morning of 5am!! After brekkie we went straight to the heli base to go on a heli flight over the bungle bungles (an optional extra of course!) This was amazing, the best part of the trip and to be honest I was sorry I didn't just do that part instead of paying for the full 2 days as you saw as much in those 18 minutes as in the other 10 hours of driving!! The formations and colours are fabulous and it really is a wonderous sight. I do have pictures of me in the helicopter but they're on my video camera and I forgot to bring it so you'll have to wait!! The pilot was a mad man and kept whirling us around and doing sharp pull ups and there were no doors or windows on the helicopter!!!
After that we went for a walk through the Bungles. This was hot hot hot!! Firstly to Cathedral Gorge, where we sat in silence as our guide played some operatic music. The accustics in here are amazing, better than any cathedral in the world! Truely magical. Then it was down to the lookout point at the end of Picaninny Creek, to give us an overview of the size of Purnululu N.P. (aka Bungle Bungles). When we finally got back to the truck everyone downed about a litre of cold water to try and cool down and then we had to get onto the dreaded oven for the arduous trek back to Kununurra which took about 5 hours in the sweltering heat!I know this posting sounds rather negative, but I think after the wonders of Kakadu and its surrounding National Parks, I expected too much of this trip, and then the fact that there was no air conditioning just tainted the whole thing, because the heat just made everyone moody and there was no escape from it. The flight over the Bungle Bungles is definitely worthwhile though, so you should stop in Kununurra for that reason alone.
Alas we returned to the devastating news that Steve Irwin, the Crocodile Hunter was killed on the Barrier reef by a sting ray on Monday! The country is in mouring and it really is very sad. To think that Anne and myself were snorkelling in that area 2 weeks ago and that we were at his zoo over a month ago. James, I don't know what we're going to watch on Saturday mornings anymore?!It's a tragedy. R.I.P. Steve.
It's off to Broome for me now on a 13 hour bus journey. Bring it on!!!
posted by Alison at
10:57 PM
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