One of the highlights of this trip is the visit to Purnululu National Park and the Bungle Bungles. The park is World Heritage listed. The driving is rough and a high- clearance four-wheel drive vehicle is a must on these roads and you need to feel comfortable to navigate river crossings.
The area is dominated by the 350-million-year-old, black and red striped sandstone domes of the Bungle Bungle Range resembling enormous beehives.
Hard to believe that the Bungle Bungles were only discovered in 1983 when a film crew shooting material for a documentary about the Kimberleys („Wonders of Western Australia“) was tipped off by a muster pilot to the formation.
Todays visit to the Bungle Bungles started with a hike to Piccaninny Lookout from where we hiked across the dry river bed towards Cathedral Gorge.
Cathedral Gorge is a special place to the Aboriginals living in the area. Bec, the indigenous lady who looks after the camp we slept in last night, told me that to them it is a place to initiate the boys to manhood and it is a place for dance and song. She told me to take off my shoes when I get there to connect to country. So I did. Our whole group fell silent when we arrived at Cathedral Gorge and we sat in contemplation and awe.
From Cathedral Gorge we hiked to the Domes. As the bee hive like rock formations cast a shadow over part of the hike it was quite pleasant to do this walk, despite the heat in the area in August.
As we are fast walkers we were able to reach the next point of view, the Osmand Lookout, before the rest of the group and enjoyed the beautiful birdsong overlooking the Osmand Range before the rest of the group interrupted the silence with their chatter.
For lunch we returned back to camp and afterwards immediately headed back out for another hike to Echidna chasm. This is just a 1.5km return hike through an area that reminded me of the movie “Jurrasic Parc“. You almost expected dinosaurs to come walking out of the trees in this area.
Happy and tired we returned to camp for a nice dinner under the stars of the Southern skies and cold beer in hand concluded the evening at the camp fire.
