The Bungle Bungles

We stopped at a roadside stop about 100m from the Bungle Bungle turnoff and found the Walker family. We had a message from them just before we went on to the Gibb that their bus had broken down and they would be waiting at least a week for a part. They didn't get much help from mechanics in Kununurra or Halls Creek who basically told them they couldn't help. So they had to ring a friend in Brisbane who sent the part they needed to the Warmun Roadhouse about 50km from where they had broken down.



We pulled up behind them and stayed the night.

We left the van the next morning, packing the tents again (yay!) and started the 53km road into the Bungle Bungles. It was a really difficult drive in, lots of water crossings and a really rough road. Made the Gibb seem smooth by comparison! It took about 2 hours to get in.
Our first stop was Echidna Chasm. We started the 2km return walk in the searing heat and luckily found that it was much cooler once we entered the chasm.











It was pretty spectacular in there, and the surrounding scenery is also amazing.






We then drove to one of the campsites and set up the tents. We couldn't do much until the sun started to set as it was SO hot, close to 40 degrees I think with no breeze. Luckily it cooled down a bit at night so we could sleep. We were all in bed by 7:30pm! Which was lucky because we were all up by 5:30am! We were on the road by 7:15, a new record, and drove to the Cathedral Gorge walk. Even this early it was stinking hot. We walked around the Bungle domes noticing the termite mounds clinging to the sides.



The boys found some ochre which they had learnt about in Alice Springs and proceeded to copy the Aborigines and rub it on themselves.



They were so filthy to start with it didn't make a lot of difference! They have got what is known as the Kimberly tan which will hopefully wash up once they have a shower. They all look like street urchins or chimney sweeps from Oliver Twist at the moment.



It was a pretty easy walk into the gorge which is where they have filmed a Qantas ad before apparently. It is very hard to capture how large the gorge was but if you look at the bottom of the following photos you can see the boys playing in the sand.












We found some wildlife on the way in too.



This was the view on the way out.









We then thankfully got back into the air conditioned car and drove all the way back to our caravan.
I also managed to spot a few wildflowers on the drive out. Hard to believe there are so many flowers growing in this heat! These first ones are like a carpet in many places, covering huge areas.