Purnululu National Park

17 April 2012

April 14th

Sunrise is just as great on these cliffs, and pretty soon the few people who shared our campsite leave for their own journey, and leave us all alone. Great, we can test our shower then!
Well it’s not bad; it works quite well to be honest. Thanks Jeff.

At Halls Creek, fuel is already 1.80AUD, this is not a good sign for future refuel points. We pass the entry to the Tanami Road because we’ll push a bit further north to spend two days at the Purnululu National Park, home to the famous Bungle Bungles.

We reach the entry to the park after a 50km track through a private property. The road is not in great condition after the last rain season, there’s a lot of river crossings but Troopy does not mind a bath.

The Park Rangers are on Easter leave til the 18th so we self-register then share our lunch with a couple in their fifties. He’s Dutch and they’re from Melbourne. He talks in Dutch to Claire who looks at me “what did he say? Was that even English?”.

Only six cars at the campsite, a very quiet spot indeed. Well, the backpackers next door are Flemish and loud but that’s okay they’ll be gone tomorrow. Two kookaburras pay us a quick visit, then sun sets.

April 15th

Well, we said we’d get up early to go bushwalking; it’s 11AM when we leave camp. We’re all alone in the camp, this is awesome. First stop, some 40th km north of the park, the Echidna Chasm. It takes an hour up the dry riverbed to reach this mighty canyon, some 200m tall and no wider than Claire’s spread arms. The colors at this time of the day are just magical with the sun directly shining down the gorge. The rock goes from bright yellow to warm orange. Great photos!

Second stop at Mini Palms Gorge, again an exhausting 30min walk on soft pebbles, it feels like you’re not making any progress at all, but damn you can feel your legs working. At the end of the Gorge the view to this prehistoric natural amphitheater is magical. It’s even said there’s unknown DNA residue here…

I give Claire the wheel for the drive back, so she can feel how the car reacts when it loses grip on sandy patches or in a river crossing. Good job !

Just in time for sunset viewing on the Bungles, with a cold beer. Life does not get any better.

Distance to-day: 462km, total: 12624km.