The Bungle Bungles

Part of the rough road in

We left the van in Turkey Creek and drove into the Bungle Bungles. What a challenging rough road in from the highway. Some 70km to the campsite that took about 2½ hours to get there. It made Central Arnhem Road look good. We had lunch at the campsite and then went into the Piccaninny Gorge area.

Catherdral Gorge - watch out the rock is falling

We walked to the Cathedral Gorge and then around the domes. It is truly lovely. We then walked onto the lookout which was a beautiful vista over parts of the beehive striped domes and the ranges here. All up this took us some 3 ½ hours of walking over dry water beds, eroded rock formations and sand. A lot of exercise before heading back to the campsite last night where we slept in the car for the 2nd time on this trip (The other was back in Arnhem Land). The next day we went to the other end of the park. We made it to the Echidna Chasm around 11.45am which was perfect timing as you need the midday sun coming through the narrow gorge to get the best light effect on the chasm walls. There were maybe 20 people in the main part of the chasm waiting for the sun to get their photos. The chasm goes further though way less than half the people went the rest of the way into the chasm. Yet this next bit is by far the most interesting part. You scramble over big rocks and boulders and there are even a couple of small ladders to assist you but the play of light on the walls, the rocks stuck up the chasm as the fall down, all made it extremely interesting and very photogenic though we had low batteries and had to conserve battery power a bit. There are tall palms growing (starting) some 50 metres up the walls that must have been seed dropped by birds. It is amazing that they take root and grow in such inhospitable places.

The Domes

Here are Bob’s words in his journal...and he is not very eloquent in his words very often!

“Took to 10.15 to packup. Travelled to Echidna Chasm 27km 20km rough slow driving. To walk in following creek bed. Rough stoney path into chasm parts lined with tall palms. We arrived just in time 12pm for sun to shine into chasm. What beauty, Full colours then found small entry to end of chasm around large fallen rocks up 2 x 8 ft ladders to end. Sun shining in to show colours see photos. (Narrow 1m wide track in) Look back and saw 2 boulders jammed 7 metres above bottom. Travelled back along dirt road stopped ½ way for lunch at area between 2 rough creek crossings. NO DUST. Travelled on. Picked up van 5pm and finished hook up. Free camp at Leylesters Rest. Big camp area. Poor toilets. No seats or lid cover! Pee Wees (Birds) used front windscreen as slippery dip. Fun to see.

The bit about the pee wees was fantastic. We sat back as did some of the other campers nearby, to watch their antics on our windscreen for ages. This was back at the campsite in the Bungles..early in the morning before we took off for the day. The Bungle Bungles are well worth a visit – I just hope they upgrade the road before you get there – though I would doubt it.