Fletcher Creek to Purnululu NP, Western Australia
A short tow hour journey today into Purnululu National Park finds us in the Bungle Bungles, a fantastic sandstone range full of deep canyons, eroded domes, and sheer cliffs.
At 5:20am, the first road train went through on the road about 50 meters east of our tent... and it was definitely time to get up. After the morning cup of tea and a bowl of cereal, we were down the road to the junction with the road to the Bungle Bungles.
Now, there's a sign that says 'no caravans--4WD only'. In the US that'd read 'no trailers' and that'd be the end of it. But here in Australia, a trailer is not a caravan... a trailer is a small tray on wheels for carrying stuff, and a caravan is a large room on wheels that you can sleep in. And did we see a lot of trailers on that 50 kilometer road going into the park. In fact, we saw a lot of everything.
The road is only one track, so you have to pull over to pass people coming in the other direction. There was a lot of traffic; we had passed 22 other vehicles on the way in, and not all of them were easy to pass! The road was fairly rough in spots, and there were three crossings that were 40 centimeters deep and two that were about 60 centimeters. Still, people took their trailers in.
Once we got there, we stopped by the helicopter flights to see if they had any spaces for a flight. They didn't, but they had one tomorrow morning that we took. We'll be back...
We then figured we'd camp at Kurrajong campsite and do a couple of the day walks on the northwest side of the park. Our campsite was wonderful; rather isolated by a dry creek bed and under some nice shady trees. We made lunch, then felt real lazy and just read under the trees for a few hours. Finally, we decided to get off our lazy butts, and drove to Echidna Chasm, a short hike.
Echidna Chasm was great--you can see the huge gorge get narrower and narrower, until you're standing in a gorge a good 200 meters deep and only 2 meters wide. You can touch both walls with your hands, and you can't see the sky as the gorge twists and turns over your head! It's not a long walk, but we enjoyed it immensely.
We also took in Frog Hollow, which had a waterfall cascading into a pool. Unfortunately, with the very dry Wet season this year, there wasn't even a pool to look at.
Finally, on the way back to the campsite, we stopped at a lookout so we can see the Bungles mountain range. It was just getting to be sunset, and the rocks were taking on that glowing red look. We also had the lookout to ourselves. It was a wonderful, peaceful moment to be up there with Chris, just taking it all in, and a great way to end the day.
Weird Wildlife Sighting
The Victoria Fan Palm. These palms grow really tall, on really thin trunks... the trunks are about as big around as a grapefruit, yet the trees grow 30 meters tall! They're only really found in the Bungle ranges and in canyons near the Victoria River, and needless to say are very susceptible to being blown over.
And a tawny frogmouth.
