Bungle Bungles, Western Australia

Friday June 17^th saw us leave Kununurra for the second and final time for this journey. We traveled South West approximately 250 Km to the Bungle Bungles. Traffic was light and the road was good for most of the way, with the exception of a number of one lane bridges. Beautiful views of escarpment along the way. We arrived at the Bungle Bungle Caravan park shortly after lunch. The park is quite expensive with only basic facilities. We got a powered site for $50/night that only had limited capacity. We could do our fridge and air conditioner but nothing else unless we turned off one of them. Only caravan place around though to tour the Bungle Bungles from. The amenities are unique in that they are individual ensuites with no ceilings. Actually quite a good idea as it kept it much cooler and was neat staring up at the stars at night. Relatively clean so 3 Stars for these ones.

Surprisingly we had Telstra service so were able to make some phone calls and do some internet catch-up. We enjoyed a pleasant afternoon and evening preparing for our journey into the National Park on Saturday. I rearranged our car so that the four of us could travel together and let the tyre pressure down.

Saturday morning saw us up early and on the road by 7 AM. The trip into the Park office was 50 Km but we had been advised to allow 1.5-2 hours. Took us just over the 1.5 hours and the travel was better than we had been expecting. Lots of corrugation, floodways, sharp rocks etc. We checked into the Park office to pay our Park Permit and get maps for Purnululu National Park. Back in the car for 30 minutes to travel to the South end of the Bungle Bungles. These are the famous beehive structures for which the park is famous. We had seen them on our previous trip when we flew over them on a scenic flight from Kununurra but was a totally different experience on foot. We would recommend seeing them both ways if possible as gives two completely different perspectives.

We completed the short Dome Walk first where we walked in amongst many of these magnificent dome/beehive structures. The weather conditions were ideal and the colours were amazing!

Next walk was a slightly longer one to Cathedral Gorge. More Beehive structures leading along a river bed to the gorge. The gorge itself is a huge amphitheater mostly under ground. You can see up the gorge walls along the river from inside. Beautiful.

We returned to the car to travel 50 Km to the North end of the Park. We enjoyed a picnic lunch at our first stop at Echidna Chasm. The landscape here is considerably different than the beehives of the Southern end, but equally beautiful. We completed a fairly challenging walk up to the end of Echidna Chasm. Highlights were the glimpses of light shining in the chasm, the colours, and the varied vegetation.

We completed a short walk on the return trip to Osmand Lookout. This gave a good view of the Chasm entry and to another range further East. Enjoyed a quick break at the top and a few photos before returning to the car.

The day was getting late but we decided to complete one more walk to Mini Palms Gorge. We drove to the Bloodwood rest area to begin this one. The first half of the walk was fairly straight forward but hot along a stone path. The second half was considerably more challenging with lot of climbing and rock climbing. Probably not the best choice to end of a tiring day. That being said the Gorge was again different with lots of Palm Trees and more incredible colours. No Mini Palm trees at the end of the walk though which was a bit of a disappointment. 

We made the return journey down to the car for a late afternoon drive back to our campground. The return trip was a bit rougher and the light was difficult as we were driving directly into the setting sun. Had a close call with a motorbike when two came around a corner side by side. Luckily we were able to stop and the one motorbike went around us on the passenger side. We were tired and over dirt roads by the time we made it back to the caravan park by 6 PM. Was a great day but a long one. Rans figured out that we had walked just under 10 Km in total, much of which was in sand and river rocks. Lots of climbing and rock hopping on the last couple as well. We all slept well that night!