Bungle Bungles

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Purnululu National Park home to the Bungle Bungles.
A early start, caravan put in storage and we are ready to tent camp. A 53km drive to the National Park Ranger Information Station.
The road full of sharp limestone rocks, corrugated with a couple of rocky river crossings.
Booked in with the Ranger we travelled to Waladi Camp ground home for 2 nights. Basic drop toilets and bore water taps.
Picking an area to camp we opened our Marquee and camp chairs and ate a very early lunch.

Purnululu National Park covers 239,723ha. The Bungle Bungle Range consists of a spectacular array of banded sandstone domes. These dramatic sculptures are allegedly unrivalled in their scale, grandeur and diversity of form. Not seen anywhere in the world.
Hence in 2003 it was classified a World Heritage Area, based on it's natural beauty and outstanding geological value.
The Aboriginal people continue to have a strong connection with this land, they continue to use the resources that have sustained them for thousands of years, tourists are restricted from entering some areas of the national park.
We commence our adventure at the Southern end of the park. On approach we could not miss the striking banded domes,that the brochures picture.
The orange and grey bands are caused by the presence or absence of cyanobacteria.
A organism that grows on layers of sandstone where moisture accumulates. The black bands indicate the presence of cyanobacteria,
The orange bands are oxidised iron compounds that have dried out too quickly for the cyanobacteria to grow.
These sandstones were deposited 360 million years ago.
The First trail we take is the 2.8km Piccaninny Creek Look out walk. Graded a class 3 walk. The creek, dried out contains grey sandstone in wave like formation.
There was little shade and the temperature in the mid 30's, we were a little hot and bothered.
We back tracked on the trail to the Cathedral Gorge trail, a 2km class 4 trail. With the etowering cliffs as shade we walked on pebbles, steep slopes and narrow ledges until we came to the magnificent amphitheater. Not even the shallow slummy cane toad infested pond in the middle could take away it's beauty.
The amphitheater exists because of a fracture in the rocks and 2 large pieces of sandstone have fallen from the cliffs above.
In the surrounds of the amptheatre it was 10 degrees cooler so we ate our snacks and stayed a while.
Rested we headed back
Out into the heat again walking the 600 metres extra
Dome walk which wand around the banded domes.
Here Kate almost stepped on a 60cm black headed snake that was very fast moving.
Back to the car we were very grateful for air conditioning.
A rest, drink and we put our backs into setting up our two 4 man tents, swag, therma-rests and sleeping bags.
Dinner (sausages, marinated chicken wings, rice and the last of the salad for a while)
The sun down at 5pm, we were all in bed early.

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