After the bliss of a few hundred kilometres of tar it was a rude shock to take the turn off into the Purnululu National Park. The camp sites were not much more than fifty kms in but even our maps said “Allow 3 hours to reach campsites”. Surely not!

The first glimpses of the legendary Bungle Bungles…

Like many other precious things in life, the reward at the end is not without some effort and perseverance to attain. Having booked on-line (you have to for many National Park Camps now) we did not have to scurry down to the campsite to “stake our claim”. Instead we headed straight to the north end of the Bungle Bungles to walk into Echidna Chasm. (Note to travellers – starting at the north end of the park is the way to go… the south is the grand finale!)

It’s not wildflower season but beauty is growing everywhere in the Kimberley.

The final approach to Echidna Chasm

I hope the pictures convey a fraction of the experience as our words will struggle to describe it. After a tricky walk in (1 km) over a very pebble strewn creek bed you enter into an increasingly tightening chasm that opens a couple of times to larger caverns. As it late morning the sun was nearly overhead and here and there it penetrated the orange sandstone cliffs that tower 200 metres on either side. The result is areas of shadow and cool, then around the corner a huge vertical crack with a view to rock that is glowing like it is molten lava!

A Bower Bird nest at the entrance to Echidna Chasm. Read the description below…

Hmmm… seems like their “Bachelor Pads” work pretty much like human ones 🙂

Ginnie is dwarfed in the Echidna Chasm entrance

Looking up…

Looking through into the next cavern…

At the final accessible point the cracks above have huge boulders that have fallen wedged in the crack. Would have been amazing to be in there when a couple of tons of rock comes tumbling down and stops in the pinch above!

Our second walk that day was to homestead Valley which is a large open area with stunning cliffs and rocks all around.

The view at Homestead Valley

Our camp site was a cracker – on the banks of wide river bed and private from the neighbours due to trees. The experience of a hot shower under the open, starry sky is something everyone should experience in their lifetime. As with every stay more than 1 night the solar panel is assembled to fully charge the camper batteries the next day free of charge 🙂

Day two saw us motor to the southern Bungles which are iconic shapes and colours you may have seen in the advertising brochures and ads. Scientists world-wide have declared this place a geological masterpiece and, as a result, it has attained World Heritage Listing.

There are still a few pools of water left from the river that flows through here in the wet.

The Window.

The colour banding of these unique beehive shaped formations is created by layers of silica (orange) and fragile white sandstone which is black because it is covered by a lichen from the constant cycle of wet seasons.

One the return walk we veered into the Cathedral Gorge so named because at its conclusion it present a large water pool framed by an amphitheatre of overhanging rock walls. Visitors seem to instinctively know that any sound will be magnified so there is almost no conversations except for a few hushed whispers.

Looking into Cathedral Gorge Cavern

Looking out of Cathedral Gorge

Elephant Rocks – 2 of them!

With many kilometres completed in the blazing sunshine and heat of the Kimberley we returned to camp for a lazy afternoon: washing some clothes, reading & snoozing before heading to the sunset lookout for wine and nibbles and our last evening here.

The sun setting on the Bungles… it’s racing up the rock face.