Wednesday, July 15, 2015

Kimberley trip 2015 - Purnululu national park

I made a post about the bungle bungle while we were staying up at the campsite but something has gone wrong and it doesn't seem to want to publish so there goes for the second time.

The others arrived just on sunset to the Leycester, Ord river camp. Out was awesome to see them and they were buggered after their long drive. Sam was especially excited and when he received a present from his uncle and auntie, they became the greatest people in the whole wide world. He is now fixated on his new DS and selection of games.

Everyone was fed and showered and appreciated the extra effort in getting there small comforts set up.

The next morning we had a bit of a sleep in and commenced the 2 hour drive into the national park. It was a stunning drive with the ranges appearing and 4 decent wet river crossings plus plenty of dry creek crossings. Frew and Candy lost their number plate in three first crossing. We couldn't find it on the way out.

We stopped at the visitors centre where the staff were so helpful with information on walks around and the best times to get there.  Candy had pre booked us all in and we were booked for Walardi camp set the southern end of the park. Gaz Sam and I were only booked for one night as our original plan was to make the next leg of our journey shorter and less tiresome. But once we got there...

We got to the campsite and found a great spot where we could all camp together. The shade was just right for the afternoon sun. Gaz and I left Sam with his newest favorite people/family and went back to the visitors centre to book another night.

We all then went to the airfield to book a helicopter flight for Frew and Candy, then kept driving into the southern side off the range for a sunset walk into cathedral gorge. The colors in the rock were amazing. I kept stopping to take photos every couple of steps.

We got back to camp and Frew and Cindy did dinner while Candy and Malcolm set up a shower tent and we all were fed and clean and then got to have a few wines before tucking ourselves into bed.

The next day we got a sleep in again and got organised to head up too the airfield before 9am to watch Frew and Candy take off on their flight. Sam loved this. Be got to see two helicopters and three planes taking off and landing while we were there.

Next on the agenda was the northern side of the range. The echidna chasm was best to explore between 11am and 1pm. We were in there around 11:30am and got to see the sunlight streaming down into the chasm casting and orange glow around the rocks. Awesome! Again lots of photos taken. I found the walk in a little difficult due to the instability on the rocks but I just took my time.

Then we did the escarpment across to mini palms gorge. I had to stop on this'd one and let the others continue without me as there was a lot more rock climbing scrambling which just wasn't happening for me but I had a lovely place to wait.

We got back to the cars around 2:30pm and then back to camp for a nice cold beer. Malcolm started boiling water so we could still have showers before dinner and before we headed off to watch the sunset across the bungle bungle range with wine, cheese and biscuits. We got a fantastic group photo taken courtesy of another traveller but it is on my other camera so will have to wait untili geta chance to upload their photos from my camera. The photos on the blog so far have been taken from my phone.

The bungle bungle range in the Purnululu national park is a must see for anyone travelling in the area.

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