We've been bungled

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Day 4
Left Halls Creek around 9:30am after stocking up on milk, bread & eggs at the local IGA and hunting down 2 real cappuccinos at the bakery (yes, real ones, not like Scottish pretend ones ! The Halls Creek campground was ok for one night but glad not to have been staying any longer as the facilities were quite grubby & dirty. Offered our friendly German couple neighbours who were on a 4 week holiday driving from Perth to Darwin, our discount voucher book which included a coupon for 10% of helicopter trips to the Bungle Bungles (we already got another voucher). In return 5 mins later we were asked “did we want a 10m roll of alu-foil, that they had spare !” No need for eBay or TradeMe when you are camping.

Approx 1 hour out of Halls Creek to the turn off to the Bungle Bungles with nice scenery en route; it has progressively got more scenic & hilly en route from when we started back in Broome. Grant did the honours and went systematically round the LandCruiser reducing the tyre pressure, then checking them all with his pressure guage and locking the front hubs so we could engage 4WD. We were a little apprehensive as the road into the Bungle Bungles is strictly high clearance 4WDs only and has a reputation for being a bit knarly. The road itself is only 53kms to the ranger station in the park but guidebooks estimate it to take 2-3 hours to negotiate. Fortunately we met a couple of friendly fellows at the start of the road who were coming the other way and they allayed any apprehensions - only a couple of water crossings; the second being the deeper of the two (probably up to your knee or so) - but no worries, we would easily get through. They also mentioned someone further down on the road who was travelling in a conventional Ford Falcon station and rated their chances of getting through the deeper water crossing as nil.

The first part of the road passed through a cattle station for about 40kms before a sign told us we were now in the Purnululu (Bungle Bungle) National Park & World Heritage area. The road itself was fine - apparently had just been graded (lucky us)- and other than some steep blind rises & the few river crossings (none very long - longest was 10m or so) it was a tad of an anti climax in terms of 4WD challenges. We made it to the ranger station in just over 1 hour, 30 mins.
Checked in to get registered (all visitors have to register on arrival & pay for camping and National Park fees). Ranger station was surprisingly small - had a few souvenirs, some park info, soft drinks, 2 bush toilets - and that was it. There are 2 bush campsites in the park - both with very basic facilities (long drop toilets, a bore water tap and some wood BBQs and fires). Some of the tour groups utilise 2 private camps, where DBB is provided & they have shower facilities, but very expensive - approx $300 per night (instead of $11 pp).There are no showers in the bush camps and the tap water has to be boiled before you can drink it. As it said in the park brochure “Cinderella didn’t go to the Bungles”. It turned out that the campsite in the northern part of the park was shut (possibly because early in the season) and thus we ended up staying in the campsite near the airstrip in the southern part of the park, which suited well due to early-ish helicopter trip on Wed.

We decided to spend our first afternoon at the park visiting Echidna Chasm in the northern part of the park. This was a 2 km walk up a long narrow chasm populated with Livistona palm trees. Very hot until we got into the shade of the chasm which was amazing. The chasm is around 200m high but at the narrowest points you can touch wall to wall, either side, with hands outstretched. After so far you come to a wider open area at what seems to be the end of the walk, but then you turn up a gully where it gets narrower & narrower - with a couple of small ladders up some steeper parts - until you finally reach a dead end. We met a couple of tour groups of oldies whilst there - impressive that some made if up there given the heat (prob mid 30s) and also because 2 or 3 of them had walking sticks. Up towards the end of the chasm, saw an ultra cute green tree frog sitting on a ledge and also a lizard on the chasm wall (almost hidden in the darkness). Was a great walk and just the right length given how hot it was when out of the shade.

The bush camp for the night lived up to its name !! On arrival we could either head for “generator & group camping area” or “quiet camping” area. The camp site itself was in a wooded area by the edge of a dried up creek & with loads of mossies, on which neither Aeroguard or Bushmans had any effect. We headed for “quiet camping” which turned out to be a bit of a misnomer on our first night as there was a family group with 3 4WDs taking over one spot, with loads of kids & camping lights etc. The facilities were indeed very basic. Whilst no showers, I had anticipated the toilets to perhaps be a block of 4 or 5 with a sink area & mirrors. Instead the toilet was a long drop with spiders & ants running all over the place, no light and a bucket next to the pan asking you to please brush & clean the toilet after you left (smell minimisation). On the plus side it did have a plastic seat and some toilet paper. Next door to the loo was the bore water tap, where a thoughtful soul had left a bar of soap sitting on top of the tap so you could wash your hands. Nearby were the wood campfire areas but out of use, as currently a total fire ban in place with the only cooking restricted to gas stoves (even citronella candles to defend against the mossies were not allowed ) My biggest concern was needing the loo in the middle of the night & stepping on a snake, but Grant reckoned we would be okay in thongs as the loo was only about 20m walk away !! (Did have to test this out at 2:15am in the morning & have survived to tell the tale, so perhaps I did stress too much about it).

Camping is a funny business as everyone goes to bed ultra early (9pm seems to be the max for most people) and everyone wakes up at the crack of dawn. Some mad loonies woke us up around 5:30am; no doubt they were getting up to do some of the walks early whilst it was still relatively cool. Even if you don’t want to get up you have to anyway - if the loonies don’t wake you up, then the birds will. Completely baffled how the loonies manage to get up, have breakfast, sort all their stuff out and break camp so quickly. For us, everything about camping seems to take a long time. You get up. Then you go to the toilet block to have shower. Oops. You forgot your shampoo. Bugger. (this happened to me on Day 1 in Broome & I thought, who cares). Next is cooking meals. Finding all the ingredients and which cubby hole in the 4WD you have put them drives you nuts. Even if you remember where they all are it takes a good 10 mins to get them all as you have to take squabs off seats, move bits of wood around, search through the little chest fridge, find cooking utensils (pans within pans etc). Again you invariably forget something / hit your head on something / end up with a whole load of mossies in the truck. This then provides good after dinner entertainment for Grant as he has to swat them all & exterminate them. ALL OF THEM. However it is all good fun and very relaxing. We are definitely getting faster at finding things & setting up / packing up - but it still takes about 20 to 30 mins each time, assuming we’ve already been fed & dishes are done and put away.

Day 5

First activity of the day was a 9am helicopter flight over the Bungles for 30 mins. The airstrip (grass) was only 5kms away from the campsite and very small (basic port-a-cabin, some picnic tables under shade cloths and a couple of bush loos). A very nice chap sorted us out with safety instructions (including telling us where the fire extinguisher and survival pack were - eck !) and then we were into it. It ended up just being Grant & I in the chopper which was great, with me in the front & Grant in the back (they reckoned that was the better position for taking photos). The trip was fantastic with chopper being doorless (lots of wind !) so we could see better. Once airborne the views were amazing and although we were a bit freaked out when the helicopter banked to our respective sides and held on to the door frame, I soon got used to it and didn’t mind it. Always interesting seeing things from the air as you get a whole different perspective. A lot of the flight went over areas that were inaccessible in the park - plateau top was interesting with quite a bit of greenery & small trees which are there all year round, deep gorges in the north and then returned over the bee hive dome areas in the southern part of the park. We were stoked when we came down; well worth the money.

The remainder of the day we headed off to do the walks in the southern part of the park - Dome walk, Cathedral Gorge walk and a Piccaninny Creek Lookout walk. We knew it would be hot so took plenty to drink & eat with us - 3 Powerades between us, 3 flasks of water, nuts, sultanas & cereal bars - and within 10 mins of leaving the car park around 10:30am, got through 1 Powerade & 1 water !! The beehive dome formations were weird & wonderful - very stripey and colourful - and up close looked like they were made up of big building bricks. Went bananas with the camera as everywhere you looked was amazing. The Domes walk was very quick - only approx 30 mins, weaving in and out of one area - but gave us a good intro & up close look of them. On then to Cathedral Gorge, which was a 3km walk up a valley with domes on either side - fortunately around half the walk was in shade. Along the way there were pools of water as the creek in the gorge was only semi-dried up at this time of year. The end of the walk opened up into a huge cavern with a white, fine sandy beach area and a deep pool in some of the bottom. Good echoes and a long way up to the top ! Luckily another couple who were walking up around the same time as us didn’t stay for long in the cavern, so we ended up having it to ourselves for a quick snack & swig of water. It was superb to sit & absorb the whole experience together with no-one else around.

The Piaccanniny Creek Lookout walk was similarly impressive with no-one else on that walk at all that we passed, so again we were very spoiled that we had it all to ourselves (.... the loonies perhaps had been & gone.... as it was sweltering hot when we were there 12:30pm - 1:30pm). The start of this walk went along the creek bed and there were big solid rock buttresses that demonstrated a hell of a lot of water came down there in the Wet Season. We recognised the spot quickly to be that were the (sickeningly sweet) Qantas Choir sing the start of their “Still call Australia home” song. The walk proceeded up a valley, winding slowly uphill and finally reaching the lookout up beside the tops of a couple of the domes. It was so hot we both sat down in the shade & downed a whole bottle of Powerade each whilst we took in the view. By this time we had been out walking for around 3 hours so keen to get back to the truck although on the return trip it was still impossible not to go frantic with the camera.
The walks were well worth doing and we were glad we had done all of them & not just the Cathedral Gorge one that a lot of tourists only go to.
Just a completely amazing place, unlike anywhere else and the fact that it is hard to get to & only fairly recently "discovered" in the early 80's, and therefore very uncommercial just enhances the mystique further.

Back to the campsite (same spot) again after the walks for around 3pm. We were quite tired after the walks so decided to take it easy the rest of the day. Heated up our solar shower for a "bush shower" involving standing in swimming cossies in the grass next to our campsite, one of us holding the shower bag up whilst the other made their best attempt to wash. I got the giggles as the soap kept falling on the ground every few seconds & would end up covered in grotty dirt, which was a pain in the arse ! However I think we did end up a bit cleaner than when we started........ no hair wash though 😞
The campsite was much quieter the second night with only one other couple parked in a camp spot near ours. Took advantage of our location & took some night time shots of the stars by trying out various exposure settings on the camera. Awesome.

Total distance travelled : Day 4 : 208 kms, 4 hours
Day 5 : 40 kms, 1 hour

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Photos

Bungle Bungles Road
Start of road

Crazy Ford driver
He made it to the deep water crossing

Grant enjoying water crossing
We reckoned this was nearly up to the bull bar

Echidna Chasm walk
At Car park

Echidna Chasm walk
the palms are called Livistona Palms and can grow up to 20m high

Echidna Chasm Walk
in the chasm itself

Echidna Chasm
It's pretty narrow and about 200m high

Comments

[Cate]

Sounds like an adventure!
It sounds like you are having a fabulous time Anne and Grant! It is great to read what you are doing and your photos are really good Anne :-) The nicest thing it that you seem to have most of it to yourselves. Enjoy the rest of the trip xx

[Paul]

Loonies?
In bed early and up at the crack of dawn, that's not just for loonies, it happens if you have kids too! Why didn't they let Grant fly the helicopter? Come on, you have heaps of helicopter hours up in a variety of makes ;-)