Purnululu National Park (The Bungle Bungles)

John and Margaret flew back to Sydney on Sunday 6th July. We thought their flight went at 1pm so we went to the airport in plenty of time only to find out the flight wasn't until 3.45pm. Virgin hadn't bothered to let anyone know. So we went to Ivanhoe Café for lunch then back to camp for a while until closer to the time. But they did finally get away and got home at last on Monday morning only to find out they had picked up the wrong case at the baggage collection and had to go back to the airport from Penrith to return it. But they are home safe and well and back to work again.

We stayed in Kununurra for another few days to get some shopping and do washing.
We left Kununurra on Wednesday 9th July for the short trip down to the Bungle Bungle caravan Park. The caravan park is a part of Mabel Downs Station and is just off the main road. From the caravan park it is about 53km into the visitors centre of the Purnululu National Park and this takes about 90minutes as the road is pretty corrugated and there are a lot of creek crossings.
We have a great camp spot down at the back of the park. Very quiet.

This is our neighbour at the caravan park. A huge Brahman bull. All he does all day is eat and rest

Here he is on another day having a little rest.

This is our campsite from the air. If you look closely you can see a ring around a caravan on the right. That is us.

This is the road into the National park from the caravan park

 

This is another part of the road following the range

Looking down into one of the gorges from the air. The Bungle Bungle range is renowned for its striking banded domes, the worlds most exceptional example of cone karst formations. They are made of sandstone deposited about 360 million years ago. Erosion by creeks, rivers and weathering in the past 20 million years has carved out these domes, along with spectacular chasms and gorges, creating a surreal landscape.

Looking into the walk into Picaninny Gorge

The Ord River winding through the open country near the Bungle Bungles

Looking towards the ranges from above the caravan park.

 

Looking down into one of the gorges

Crossing the ranges before getting to the actual Bungle Bungles.
Purnululu National park is 304 km from Kununurra. It covers an are of 239,723 hectares. The Bungle Bungle Range which includes an extraordinary array of banded sandstone domes, covers 45,000 hectares of the park

This is Picaninny Gorge. Overnight trekkers camp on the beach below the range. There are no facilities and no directional signage into this part of the gorge so it is for hardy trekkers only

This area of the park is known as the China wall and stretches to Darwin.

This was our first view of the domes. The domes striking orange and grey bands are caused by the presence or absence of cyanobacteria (formerly known as 'blue green algae' ). Dark bands indicate the presence of cyanobacteria which grows on layers of sandstone where moisture accumulates. The orange bands are oxidised iron compounds that have dried out too quickly for the cyanobacteria to grow.

Looking down into another gorge. The colours are amazing.

And another deep gorge.

You can see where the creek would run during the wet season. During the dry season there are only a few ponds.

This is a mustering yard on the Mabel Downs property

Another view of the Ord River from the air

This is the helicopter we did our flight in. Note that there are no doors. Great for photo taking but pretty windy.

 
I'll publish this section and do another next as there are a lot of photos.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 



 



 
 

 
 


This is our campsite at the Bungles.