Bungle Bungle National Park

On the 8th June we woke up early, left Halls Creek and drove to Warmun (Turkey Creek) 52km past the Bungle Bungles turnoff, to put our caravan in storage overnight. We packed our tent, swags and overnight provisions into the back of the Landcruiser and drove back the 52km to the Bungles turnoff and took the slow notorious 52km drive into Purnululu (Bungle Bungle) National Park, which took over one hour.

A further 20km past the visitors centre we approached the Echidna Chasm Walk. As we walked the 2km return hike we were impressed by their size and striking colours of the chasm. We read about rock conglomerate and Livistona palms.



We also took a short walk to Osmand Lookout which looked over the Osmand Ranges, before heading back to the Walardi campground to set up camp. We met up with some guys we had met previously in Freemantle, and sat around the camp fire chatting about our respective trips so far.

We were off to an early start the following morning, hitting the Mini Palms walk at 7am. The 5km return trip was interesting and required negotiating some tight spots and climbing over boulders. The pebbly, dry creek bed lead to high cliffs and then into a high narrow amphitheatre – the Mini Palms Gorge. The Livistona palms grew high on the rock walls which insured their survival against bushfires and floods.



From the northern end of the park we drove to the southern end, where the renowned beehive shaped rock formations were. What an impressive sight! The sandstone that makes up the beehive formations were laid down in ancient river beds, some 360 million years ago, forming sendimentary layering in the sandstone. The beehive description comes from the orange and grey bands which alternate from the bottom to the top of the dome rock formations. The orange colouring in the rock comes from iron oxide and the grey bands are evidence of cyanobacteria.



We walked the 4km return trip through the Domes and then onto Cathedral Gorge. Walking amongst these huge rock formations was a special experience and one I’m glad we didn’t miss!

We drove back to Warmun to pick up our caravan and then onto Kununurra again to spend the night and then pick up our mail which was waiting for us the following morning.