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Published: June 14th 2009
Kookaburra and the moon
The moon was still visible early this morning, it jut looked great with the Blue Winged KookaburraDAY 217
The night had been absolutely freezing due to the fact that the mountains within the Purnululu National Park surround us, we both slept well, from 7.30 the night before until 6.00 am a good 10½ hours solid.
This morning was cold but as soon as the sun started to rise so did the temperature.
By the time we emerged from the trailer Andrew had already made our tea in our mugs and put the lids on to keep them warm, ah bliss!
Kirsty was up and around, and you could tell she was still suffering from her migraine; unfortunately they were not staying in the National Park any longer and had to pack their tent and belongings away. Despite her migraine Kirsty was determined to do the gorge walks and see what she had come into the Purnululu to see.
By 8.00am we were all rallied and breakfasted our plan today was to do a couple of walks around the park then just after lunch Andrew and Kirsty would head back to Turkey Creek where their Caravan is being stored spend a night there and carry on with their journey North we are both
Blue Winged Kookaburra
Looking Gorgeous on this high branch roughly going in the same direction and doing similar things so we may catch them further along the way somewhere.
As we were sitting drinking the last dregs of our morning cuppa tea a Blue Winged Kookaburra came and sat in a tree just by our camp, looking for its breakfast, then in the blink of an eye had launched itself towards the ground with a thump as it had obviously seen something. When he went back in to his tree the Kookaburra preened itself and continued to look spectacular in the morning sun.
We jumped into the trucks and headed off from the campsite towards the Domes, towering rocky domes of the Bungle Bungle range, in the Purnululu National Park which have long enchanted people with their majestic beauty, the deep gorges change colour as the sun progresses across the sky changing from Brown to Red, Orange and Gold, while palm tree’s make a striking green contrast to the deep Orange of the rocks.
The car park was fairly empty but we had just past a Wilderness Outback truck full of people heading this way so we new things were about to change, and the day
KTM
The only off road bike worth throwing your leg over was getting warmer.
The first walk we did was the Dome walk, only about a kilometre long but all around the dome structures which was really good, we started to head back after taking loads of pictures and only had to walk back a short way before we got on to the track of the Cathedral walk, which was about a 3k return. By now the day was starting to sizzle and the truckload of elderly people on the wilderness adventure had walked in to the Gorge.
The prize at the end of the Cathedral walk was a superb amphitheatre, the pool though quite large and the remaining water was rather stagnant. I can only begin to imagine how the water fills this amphitheatre after running down the walls of the gorge.
The sunlight really enhanced the colours in the rock as the walls were around 200 Meters high. We followed the track back, through the gorge, following the river bed, down a flight of ladders and by passing the large potholes caused by the water and again back onto a dry riverbed before getting back to the car park.
The car park was full of tourist
Boiling the Billy
We hung our Billy of the tripod so we could have enough water to sjower with buses of every size and description, getting back to our vehicles you could easily see that Kirsty’s migraine was pulling her down, but her and Andrew soldiered on, it was heading for an early lunchtime a few pictures then they would be off, so as Andrew turned his ignition we heard the engine start but he was just sitting there not moving, he looked over from the drivers seat and shrugged his shoulders. He jumped out and said that he could not select any gear on his manual transmission, and from his verbal description they clutch seem to be engaging function but not engaging a gear.
This would have been a difficult place to break down, we are 100K’s from civilization and 52K’s over some serious-ish off road, but we knew it would be possible to tow them if required as we keep a decent snatch rope in the patrol and I’m sure with Andrew being the self reliant sort of bloke I know he also would have one.
Andrew turned his engine off and managed to select reverse then started the truck in gear, and back it went, he reversed the operation and got the truck moving
Lighting the fire
Caroline had the job of lighting the fire forwards and about 5 K’s up the road pulled in to a lay-by where he left the engine running and they both jumped out, sensibly they had decided that as the truck was running and he now seemed to be able to select the gears they would drive straight back to Turkey Creek, we all agreed it was the most sensible, we kissed and shook hands and said our farewells (again!), and we asked Andrew if he wanted us to follow him back to the bitumen just in case but he said he thought it wasn’t necessary.
We drove back to our trailer and planned to have an easy afternoon, with the first thing on the agenda was to have a shower, and put some clean clothes on.
Being out in the bush is not quite as romantic as it sounds, as its very hard to stay clean, especially when you are constantly dealing with wood, ash from the fire, ropes, etc etc. so staying nice and clean is very difficult.
I had promised Caroline that we would set the shower bag up when we got back, and as soon as the truck was parked I had
Boiling
The fire was going well, too well I thought It may burn through the rope supporting the Billy to fulfil my promise.
The first hurdle was to make a fire, so I had to get “Glenda” the axe of the truck and split some wood for kindling, as without it, it would be difficult to get a decent fire going.
I had rigged a tripod over the fire using tent poles to support our rather large Billy to boil the water, as we wanted a decent amount to shower with, and whilst the water was boiling away I set the shower up, with a rope over a tree and asked Caroline just to stand just by it so I could get a measure how high it needed to be.
The shower bag was then filled with about 10 litres of water (cold) on then the boiling water, which was about 8 litres, was poured in.
Once done, I pulled the rope elevating it to a suitable height whilst Caroline in her bikini got under the water, no tarps this time and no need really.
Before Caroline showered we made a damper, so whilst she was having her shower, we put it on the embers of the fire that had previously boiled the water.
Damper Buns
Once the Billy had boiled we made Damper Buns, there were 4 but one was the test and quality subject, that was eaten Camp Walardi was quite quiet this afternoon and with the shower bag hanging behind the trailer in our quite sunny camp spot I had no need to put my bathers on but settled on the au aturel approach, stripped off and got under the shower, it was perfect, warm water and lots of it.
Once all dry with clean clothes, we went to retrieve the damper out of the fire, and with the aide of my trusty knife flipped the damper buns over to make sure they were cooked all the way through, though they had risen perfectly. We sat down after our shower and after our damper had cooled we had some lunch, yep you guessed it Damper! With strawberry jam, lovely.
We spent the rest of the afternoon doing photo management, defragging the hard disk and generally beetling about, and as the sun started to set, Caroline wanted to go and have yet another walk to get some pictures of the late afternoon sun illuminating the rock formation.
As we were walking out a 4x4 was pulling in to the camp site so we waved and the truck came by us and dropped its
window, looking in we saw it was a couple we had met a Karijini National Park, (Fern Pool) where Caroline took some pictures of there kids swimming and we down loaded the pictures on to their hard drive, this was all documented in our Blog Day 192, 18th May 2009 - Icy Plunge or Warm Massage.
We explained that we needed to go and get some pictures at sunset and would catch up with them later. We walked down the management track to the dry river bed that we had not seen, and Caroline shot off a few frames.
Our discussion turned to what we were having for dinner tonight, was it to be the shank of lamb, with all the trimmings in the camp oven? Or Tortellini with Spanish Chorizo done on our gas cooker, the options were coming thick and fast, but as we had left it quite late, and had a roaring camp fire we wrapped two large potatoes up in two layers of foil and tossed them in to the burning embers of the fire where they would cook nicely.
Forty minutes later, Ta’da they were done, rescuing them from the fire with
Bungle Bungles
At sunset the dramatic backdrop the shovel I repatriated them to our plates, cut them in half and smothered them in butter, I had mine with Chilli Tuna and Caroline had hers with Cheese and the remnants of the Spam (emergency spam).
We sat with the Simmons family around the fire, Caroline had made another damper, and put it in the camp oven in the fire as we have run out of bread, so needs must, Chris and the Children wanted to make one, which they did, and used our camp oven which was nice and hot to cook it in.
For our desert we had chocolate chip damper, with Cocky’s Joy (Golden Syrup), this was our best one yet. The night sky was absolutely amazing again; the night was cold but not quite as cold as it had been, especially as we were sat by the fire tonight.
When sitting around the fire I asked Chris if when they had driven in this afternoon they had past a Nissan Patrol Broken down and he had said they hadn’t so we can only assume that Andrew and Kirsty had got back, as out here we have no mobile or Internet access, and
Bungle Bungles
Another view as the sun goes down. have absolutely no contact with the outside world.
At 8.30 we all threw the towel in, the children were sleeping in Chris’ arms and the fire was burning very low, so we all went back to our respective sites and by 9.00 we were nestled in the warmth of our sleeping bags.
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