The Bungle Bungle

Although known to local pastoralists and indigenous folk, the Bungle Bungle was unknown to the outside world until the mid 1980s. It did not appear on maps - not even topographical maps - nor was it photographed, not even named. A helicopter camera crew discovered it by accident, making it's dramatic scenery known to Australians and the rest of the world.

The Bungle Bungle, Purnululu National Park, WA

The local pastoralists saw it only as a source of a river, the business of cattle kept them occupied. Gold was discovered in nearby Halls Creek in the 1880s, but still the Kimberley held the secret of the Bungle Bungle. To the indigenous folk it had special meaning, but we know they like to keep their secrets sometimes, and why not?

If I share, too many white men will come all right, and they will go on doing this. Sticky beak all right, and look for something. If they find something goody goody, they'll take it.

-- source: interview on ABC's Stateline, 28/5/2010, concerning rockart in Kakadu (url http://www.abc.net.au/news/video/2010/05/28/2912636.htm)

Some stuff is still a well guarded secret by the indigenous folk. Their rock art, which includes depictions of crocodiles, and burial sites.



This is one of the iconic places I wanted to visit on my four month trip, I think you will see why in some of the photos. To enter Cathedral Gorge one is filled with awe. Walking through a narrow gorge, the shear cliffs towering 200 metres above on each side. The gorge floor is occupied by a flat creek. It feels like you are about to stumble upon an ancient city in the desert, Petra maybe. Not a noise can be heard, it's one of the places in the world that seems to call for silence. Walking several hundred metres through this narrow space, the gorge suddenly opens up, revealing a huge amphitheatre formation. The area, made round by rolling boulders as the water runs down the cliff above, open to the sky in a narrow opening. The middle occupied by a shallow pond, a reminder of how much water would be here during the wet season. The roof ceiling provides a perfect environment for your echo, the place calls for silence but at the same time wants sounds to reverberate around it's walls.

Naturally the Bungle Bungle has more to reveal than just this one special place. The drive from Kununurra down Highway One is spectacular in itself, but it is merely setting the scene for the Bungle Bungle. The 50km 4WD road in from the highway hints a little more, only very close to the park does one see for the first time the mountains of the Bungle Bungle. The orange cliffs rise abruptly from the plains. Dramatic as they are though, they are not the Bungle Bungle one sees in photos. It is only when you drive further in, or better still, walk further in, that one sees their iconic and true beauty -- the stripped beehive formations. These are the most exceptional examples of sandstone cone karsts anywhere in the world. Standing up to 250 metres tall, they create an intricate maze of twists and turns, almost a city of rock sky-rises (to borrow a phrase from the national park literature.)

The sandstone is an ancient riverbed, uplifted high above the surrounding plains. Weathering and erosion slowly formed the distinct shapes we know today, as new rivers were formed through the old riverbed. The sandstone is sedimentary, layers of gray or orange rock. The grey rock has a high clay and moisture content, allowing cyanobacteria to grow on the surface. The orange bands have a lower clay and hence moisture content, preventing the cyanobacteria from growing. This layer oxidises forming the distinct rusty orange colour. Occasionally recent landslides reveal the true colour of this band - a bright silver white colour.

It was through this that we undertook a two day hike. If we did not have a new radiator awaiting collection in Katherine, to be fitted to the crippled car, I think we would have spent three days on this hike. We spent a day hiking along the Piccaninny Gorge, camped beside a rock pool, then hiked back. Had we a third day, we could have explored some of the five side gorges that are present in the upper gorge beyond our campsite. Although only a 14 kilometre hike in, it is a difficult hike. Following the creekbed, it is either sandy, soft gravel, navigating eroded rocks or large boulders.

On the first day we had lunch at the distinct Elbow in the gorge, well, so we thought, until we came upon a more distinct Elbow further upstream. It really was slow walking.

We had the gorge almost to ourselves, beyond the tourist bus groups near the very start of the gorge we passed only two other parties. Both had chosen to hike in and out in a single day, both were jealous we would have so much time to explore and have such a magnificent campsite. The campsite we chose - we could camp anywhere we liked - was beside a rockpool. Cliffs soared high above us, the rockpool being in the corner of the gorge. During the Wet water would cascade down the cliff, filling the rockpool and overflowing into the main gorge creek.

During the day the gorge was filled with a cacophony of bird sounds, echoing up and down the gorge. As night fell, silence descended. Our voices could be heard echoing far up and down the gorge, in the silence we could finally appreciate how far the echo travelled. Our campsite was fitted with a security device, not that it was needed in this isolated place. The cliffs the other side of the rock pool amplified the sounds from the main gorge creek, we could easily have heard footsteps as they approached from either upstream or downstream.

After the hike, we visited nearby Echidna Chasm. We had missed the best time of day to visit, the narrow chasm, sometimes only shoulder width wide, was best seen at true noon, the only time the sun could shine down into the narrow space. The chasm is a fracture in the rock mountain, snaking it's way from the palm entry deep into the mountain, gradually narrowing until it's eventual abrupt end.

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Stats	Piccaninny Gorge, Bungle Bungle, Purnululu National Park
	Wednesday	Thursday
	7/7/2010	8/7/2010
	Carpark to Gorge 1	Gorge 1 to carpark
Distance	15.2km	13.1km
Start Time	9.27am	7.33am
End Time	2.52pm	11.27am
Moving Duration	3h33m	3h02m
Stationary Duration	1h56m	56m
Moving Average	4.3km/h	4.3km/h
Overall Average	2.8km/h	3.3km/h
Oodometer	15.2km	28.3km

Karijini National Park

Jaw dropping. Gob smacking. This park is simply stunning: it's deep gorges, it's cool permanent swimming holes, it's coloured shaped rock.

Karijini National Park

My introduction to Karijini National Park was Hammersley Gorge. "Going to a swim at the bottom, " asked a woman in the car park as I was getting ready for the short hike. Oh my goodness yes I am! The pools are refreshingly cool in the heat of the day, nestled in a gorge lined with the most beautiful rock.

The park really is a series of jaw dropping, gob smacking moments as one sets eyes on each gorge or it's cool swimming hole. Deep gorges, maybe over a hundred metres deep. The day I hiked up Mt Meharry, I was able to come into the park in the afternoon and have not one but two gorgeous swims in pools, each at opposite ends of a gorge. A short half hour walk along the gorge between them. A peak climb, a gorge walk and refreshingly cool swims! The best day ever!

Kalbarri National Park

The Murchison River finishes it's long journey at Kalbarri. In the national park, the river winds it's way through deep gorges, seemingly in a series of straight lines.

Kalbarri National Park

The red Tumblagooda Sandstone that makes up much of this area has a series of straight fractures running through it. These straight, vertical joints allowed the Murchison River to deeply incise the rock layers and form straight river segments. At times the river is up to 170 metres below the cliff tops. Wherever the joints intersected the river could change it's course.

It was here that I could do a short 10 kilometre circuit hike, aptly named The Loop. The river here loops back on itself, separated by a narrow cliffline. The walk starts from a place called Natures Window, a high cliff featuring a prominent arch within the cliff, and follows the clifftop east before descending down into the sandy riverbed to loop back to Natures Window. The layers of rock within the cliffs form striking bands of stone in contrasting brownish reds, purples and whites.

I drove down the road to access The Loop and the Z Bend - a road to rival any of Kangaroo Island's dirt roads. I thought I had set out early, but when I arrived in the carpark I found half a dozen cars already there. Doh. When I completed the hike though, I discovered that it had been an early start, the day was getting hot by now but the carpark was full. This was no time to set out on a hike!

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The Shifting Sands have Revealed...

Hidden from view for the past 6000 years, the shifting sands of the desert have revealed the remarkable limestone Pinnacles.

The Pinnacles, Nambung National Park

Exactly how they are formed is a bit of a mystery, one theory suggests they are the eroded remains of a sand dune layer thick with the roots, the other theory suggests they are a petrified forest.

Archaeological evidence suggests the Aboriginals were here around 6000 years ago, but there is no evidence of their presence since this time. Mapping the coast in the 17th century, the Dutch made no note of the Pinnacles, but did note the two low hill ranges either side of the Pinnacles desert. All this suggests they have been hidden and recently revealed again.

They are quite awe inspiring. Aside from the family of four Asian tourists, including two children, all armed with their own camera pointed at each other and arguing as to who was going to take the photo of the other three beside one of the Pinnacles, it is quite an interesting drive and walk. The rocks vary in height and some take on animalistic shapes.

Good Things Come in Threes

I met Andre and Jeanette on the Nullarbor at a roadside camp, we were admiring the sunset and anticipating the sunrise in such a fantastic spot. Andre and Jeanette were a couple of Germans (or Deutschers as they would prefer!) also travelling west. We were to travel together for the next three days.

Adelaide to Esperance via the Nullarbor - 7 days

I had stopped here early, I was overcome with the beauty of this desert meeting the sea just here. Whilst in South Australia the road follows the close to the sea, occassionally one catches a glimse or gets a better look at a rest area. At the Head of the Bight the white sand dunes suddenly give way to sharp cliffs.

Some things struck me about the Nullarbor, it is not treeless or featureless, the end-of-the-world abrupt meeting of the desert and sea is breathtaking, the road is not particularly straight, the plains not flat, and frankly, the drive not that boring. Every Australian should do it once (but maybe not twice?) Also, it is not one plain, but two. Beyond Eucla, at the WA/SA border, the road descends from the main plain to the lower coastal plain.

I started out from Adelaide on Monday, almost reaching Port Augusta. I slept in the car - which was hot and a little claustrophopbic - woken several times in the night by passing trains. Since then I have always slept in my tent which is so much more comfortable and, so far, well worth setting up.

On Tuesday I spent half a day in Port Augusta getting the transmission fixed, there was a minor fault which was causing some dramas, my car people in Adelaide thought it was fine but the Pt Augusta mechanic found and fixed the problem. As a result, I didn't have time to reach Port Lincoln by sunset, instead camping in a free campsite near Port Neil. Wednesday, after a morning swim and a chat with a local walking his dog, I set off into Lincoln and beyond to Memory Cove Wilderness Protection Area. After a 35 kilometre sandy 4WD track into the cove, I was presented with a magical cove. Scratched into a rock at the end of the beach is a sign made in the 1800s by whalers, they left messages here for each other - it was their post office. The offical parks brochure is interesting though, it notes the rock inscription as being "1.2m ^" rather than "4ft ^".

I decided not to spend further time on the Eyre Peninsula, eager to spend time instead in the south-west corner of WA, the Eyre Peninsula being relatively close to home. So on Thursday I skipped Coffin Bay National Park, stopping only at a few monuments (why not?) and a look-out over some cliffs - our very own Great Ocean Road coastline. I couldn't resist stopping by Locks Well, a favourite beach of mine.

Beyond Ceduna I camped in Point Bell Conservation Park, the drive out was a bit of a 4WD experience, not so keen on them I think. Beautiful beach, absolutely no-one there, although the mice kept me company all night long running over my tent (exactly what was so interesting about the tent to them?)

Friday was all new territory, I had only been as far west before as Ceduna. Fowlers Bay was interesting, I enjoyed reading all the history boards. Eyre made a four month expedition from Port Augusta to Albany droving sheep, the first crossing of the Nullarbor by Europeans. Can you imagine four months? There are monuments dotted along the way.

After the windmills of Penong - it was not art but function for all those windmills to be in one place - I succumbed to turning the iPod on. So far I had swapped between Triple J reception where possible, and silence, saving the tunes for the long Nullarbor drive.

The Head of the Bight was special, it is where the dramatic cliffs of the Nullarbor begin, ending the huge white dunes from Fowlers Bay. It was here I saw something I have not seen in a national park before. Someone saw a snake near the visitor centre, immediately the two ladies manning the counter ran out with a piece of polypipe and hit the snake. After several strikes, the lady asked the person if they minded her killing the snake. Not waiting for a response, she continued with, "hang on, let me finish the bugger off."



There were no whales to be seen yet. All the brochures say May to October is the whale season, but the sign on the road says June to September! Just to get you there...

My friend Kev has joined me for my four month trip. He was feeling a little deflated at first, but when he sat up front he perked right up. He was distraught at seeing so many of his friends on the side the road (roadkill), well to be frank, he is feeling a little let down by the whole experience. So he has retreated to his little pouch behind the front seat. I'm sure he will get back into shape soon and enjoy himself.

The price had petrol had been steadily rising from $1.23 per litre in Adelaide to $1.41 in Penong. The next roadhouse, at Nundroo was the same, but at the next one, Nullarbor Roadhouse, it was $1.71 per litre. The border was cheaper at around $1.61, but further west it rose again past $1.71, not falling to the $1.41 level again until Norseman. Ouch. But what can you do? None of them advertise their price on the roadside, why bother, where else are you to buy it? You just need the stuff. The Nullarbor provided ideal economy testing conditions, straight flat bitumen road with constant speed abilities.

Here I discovered that my car uses three litres per 100 kilometres less when driven at 100 km/h compared with 110 km/h. Upon leaving Adelaide I had resolved to limit my speed to 100 km/h, in four months what difference would 10 km/h faster make? None I'm sure, but the petrol bill will be smaller.

After spending the evening with Andre and Jeanette, we bid our farewells the following morning. Not for long though, I went off the main road at Eucla to check out the sand dune overrunning the telegraph station ruins whilst they ate their breakfast outside a nearby roadhouse. Here we met again. From here we were both going to be driving as far as we could, until almost sunset.



I reached Norseman, pushing a little further south to Esperence. I pulled over just before sunset at a rest area, the first one filled with other campers. After dinner who should pull up but my two German friends! We sat around and chatted and made plans for Sunday.

We rose early, driving south through the fog to Esperence. After a quick fruit and veg restocking - oh the grief of having it all confiscated at the SA/WA border - we drove out to Cape Le Grande National Park. Here we walked the 15 kilometre Coastal Track, well most of it. We walked from Le Grande Beach to Lucky Bay, maybe some three to four kilometres short of the full trail. Somehow we still managed to walk 14.8 kilometres though! The park is spectacular, it is mainly low lying but interspersed with huge granite mountains rising some 200-300 metres.



The beach sand is white, the water azure blue. I had seen photos in magazines, but in real life, with the sun shining, the sand is white and the water azure blue! We ate lunch sitting high above Hellfire Beach, watching four dolphins play in the surf.

We shared a bbq meal together that night, the following morning we parted ways again. So sad, but nice to meet such travellers!

Now I have done some 3000 kilometres of driving, it is time to slow down and enjoy the south west corner of Western Australia.



Coastal Track, Cape Le Grande National Park

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Drive from Adelaide to Esperance

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