Miscellaneous stuff

This is just some extra information and photos which didn't fit in the Blog.

On our travels we have come across a fellow driving a F250 with a huge trailer on the back. All decked out in pretty colours. we have seen it at Derby and in Kununurra and the other day at Victoria River Roadhouse. He is travelling around Australia doing videos of his travels.
When we went on the Horizontal Falls trip there was a guy doing a video and he had a little helicopter on the boat. Well it was this same fellow. He built a helicopter from a kit and is moving around Australia with the chopper in the back of the truck. At Horizontal falls he took a video of the area and ray and john are in it in the shark pool. It is on You Tube. Look for Horizontal Falls Seaplane Adventures by a fellow called Graham Harrison. He also has a lot of stuff on his Blog  www.aussieheliadventure.blogspot.com

Now here are some photos of some of the wildlife signs we have seen.

The Bungle Bungles Part 2

 

I had to divide the Bungles into 2 parts as there are quite a lot of photos. This part is about the drive we took into the national park. We left the caravan park about 8am and got to the visitors centre about 9.20am. It is 53 km from the caravan park to the visitors centre. The road is quite corrugated in places and there are quite a few creek crossings. There were a few people coming out as they had camped in the park overnight.
After paying our money at the visitors centre we headed to the northern end of the park. First stop was Bloodwood Lookout, or so we thought. It turned out that we walked part of the way to Homestead valley before turning back to find Bloodwood lookout.

This is a view of the escarpment on the way to Homestead Valley.

This is Echidna Chasm with the midday sun shining down into it. The chasm walls are about 200metres high with a narrow opening at the top. The sun gets in between 11am and 1pm each day lighting up the area with brilliant colour

This is the narrow entrance to a deeper part of the chasm. It is only about a 2km return walk into the chasm.

Another chasm view where you have to walk up a small ladder to reach another level of the chasm

You can see in this photo how narrow the path into the chasm is. In the wet season the water would be thundering through here.

Looking back towards the entrance to the chasm from the narrowest part

Maura on the walk back out of the chasm

Ray in Echidna Chasm

This is a view of the escarpment just as you enter the chasm

This is the path into the chasm. You are actually walking on a dry river bed on smooth pebbles of varying sizes. A bit hard on the ankles. You can just imagine what it must be like in the wet season. Completely impassable.

This is an area of the park called Stonehenge on the way from the Northern end of the park to the southern end.

This was our first view at ground level of the Domes

A Dome close up. You can see clearly the coloured bands

A view of the domes on the walk into Cathedral Gorge
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Cathedral Gorge

Cathedral Gorge with a pool in the foreground. It opens up into a huge amphitheatre with wonderful acoustics

The pool in Cathedral Gorge

A termite mound in the park



























We got back to the caravan park just before 5pm but we had a great day.
The next day we left to head towards Katherine. We stopped overnight at a free camp called Saddle Creek about 100km east of Kununurra. It was packed but we squeezed in and the next day headed to Katherine and back to the Low Level Caravan Park. We are staying here for 6 nights as we are going to Katherine Show on Friday. I hope it is better than Longreach Show.
Then we are heading to Mataranka. I will do more Blog there.

 

 

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.