Purnululu National Park (Bungle Bungles)

We left Derby and headed for Kununurra again where we would meet Ross, Barb and Daniel again.  On the way we stopped at Fitzroy Crossing and visited Geiki Gorge.  If you don't do the river cruise up the gorge there isn't really that much to see so it was just a short visit.

We passed through Halls Creek and although we initially wanted to see the crater at Wolf Creek, making that side trip would have meant leaving the van somewhere and doing a 7 hour trip (in a day) on feral roads to look at it.  There isn't much else to do there so we decided to save some time and move on to see the Bungle Bungles in Purnululu National Park.

The 55km road into Purnululu National Park is in terrible condition and several people had told us that the trip would take around 2 hours.  It is definitely not caravan friendly and most people stay at the caravan park near the entrance and do a day trip in or they stay in the park at one of the two campsites if they have camper or tent.

There aren’t any other caravan parks nearby and the owners know it.  Where most parks we have stayed at charge $30-$45 per night for a site with power and water, this place charges $40 per night for a site with no power or water.  Ross and Barb as well as our friends Kate and Rod had both been to Purnululu before us and told us about a free camp called Spring Creek, located on the other side of the road where lots of people stay instead.  We went there and found it packed with vans.  It is an awesome place - a big rest stop with toilets and bins.  We stayed the first night and left the van there to drive into the National Park the next day, staying there a second night when we got back and then continuing on our way, all for free. 

Purnululu is a big park and the two main sites that we wanted to see were at opposite ends of the park, an hour’s drive apart so it was a long day.

We left early and our first stop was the visitor centre where the lady working there advised us to switch the order of our itinerary.  Echidna Chasm is best visited between 11am-12.30pm when the midday sun lights it up a fiery orange colour.  On the way there we stopped at a short nature walk called Stonehenge which pointed out various local trees and shrubs and how the Aboriginal people used them as medicine or foods.

Lots of interesting info about the local flora.

We continued on to Echidna Chasm and loved the walk in.  It was through a rocky river bed, lined in places with lush greenery. We were there at exactly the right time to see the fiery effects of the sun.

Walking into the chasm.

When the sun is right, it lights up.

Interesting rock formations outside.

We drove for an hour or so south to the area where the ‘Bungle Bungles’ are located, with the amazing Cathedral Gorge nearby. Along the way we admired seemingly endless lengths of red and orange rocky ranges and boulders of varied and interesting shapes.  Here is Elephant Rock:

The Bungle Bungles themselves are really interesting.  They are bigger than we expected and the lines through them are very distinct and clear.  We had lunch at the picnic area, surrounded by these enormous striped rocks, before walking through them to the magnificent Cathedral Gorge.   

The huge cavern is so big that it’s hard to capture in one photograph.  As expected, it has great acoustics and we were able to turn it into a science lesson for Ben, explaining how sounds waves and echos work (as well as a bit of info on architecture as we explained what a Cathedral was.)

We left at sunset, which was a bit later than sensible people with 2 hours to drive would leave but meant that we got to see the ranges bathed in the late afternoon light and glorious orange rays as the sun went down.  It was well after dark by the time we made it back to the van but we had had a fantastic day, which was co-incidentally Jenny's birthday.