Blogs from Bungle Bungles, Western Australia, Australia, Oceania - page 4

A particularly endearing aspect of some aboriginal languages is their habit of naming things twice, just in case you didn’t catch it the first time. Thus Australia still has a smattering of towns with such unlikely names as Wujal Wujal and Wagga Wagga, a sort of built-in acoustic action replay for the hearing impaired. Sadly folks these days are generally way too lazy for any of that sort of nonsense and just call them Wujal or Wagga, literally losing half their appeal in the process. Our first stop on entering Western Australia was a region with the wonderful title of the Bungle Bungles, as unlikely a name as you’ll find anywhere, not least for the aboriginals who were as bemused as anybody when a local farmer picked it as the name of his property a century ... read more

On 27 June, we headed into the Bungle Bungle (Purnululu National Park) for another 3 nights. We spent a leisurely day doing the northern walks (Mini Palms walk, Echidna Chasm, lookout) and another day around Picaninny Creek (lookout, Cathedral Gorge, Domes walk). Thomas was quite proud that we went 3 nights without a shower. The campsite at Kurrajong was great with barbeques and concrete fireplace rings with firewood supplied (you can't take in your own to prevent unwanted weeds/pests from entering the park). Apparently firewood is one of the park's biggest overheads but it would be a shame if fires were banned as is the case in Karijini National Park.... read more

More photos here... http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=12463&l=a5708&id=510918332 Here: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=12463&l=a5708&id=510918332 And here! http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=12466&l=2b568&id=510918332 -E After our disturbed night's sleep, we struggled awake at half 6 when the sun came up (I'll get used to these early mornings eventually) and set off for Hidden Valley - named for its great viewpoint from the top where you could see the mountains for miles around. Nice early morning walk, although quite hot again at 8am. Jane the daredevil was the first to climb up the highest rock; I found the easier route round the other side which was almost a proper path! Took some good pictures and headed back down to the bus where we set off for a long journey to Purnalulu National park. 'Purnalulu' means 'sandstone' in the local Aborigi... read more

After we got the all clear from a few people that the road was ok, we headed into the Bungle Bungles for 3 nights. It is a World Heritage Listed National Park with the road to the visitor centre is 53kms from the highway, and takes around 90 minutes when the road is good, 2 to 3 hours when the road is good and the wife is driving and up to 4 hours when the road is ‘degraded’. The road is quite rough in places with several water crossings, most no worse than a 300mm mud bath (we saw one Troppie ‘renter’ with mud all up the sides of their vehicle and across the roof - Germans!). There were lots of twists and turns, corrugations and washouts, with the most dangerous feature being the sharp crests ... read more

Hello again! We have a backlog of blogging to do and being as we've had to start a shift at stupid o'clock (11:30 pm) we've got some time to kill! So now I shall tell you the tales of our Journey north to Darwin, through the land of the Crocodiles, the many gorges, the cold water and the Bungle Bungles! Having Spent a short amount of time in Perth after the planting of thousands of trees we then decided to head north to the tropics were the sun shone and jobs were a plenty, supposedly. We decided to take a flight to Broome. we landed at about seven in the evening and tried to find accommodation, not very sucessfully, it took us ages but eventually me ben and jim mangaed to find a place to stay, ... read more