Day 120 – Friday 3rd May 2024

Has 04:30 become the new 06:00? Once again I was wide awake very early, but this was a positive today as I was able to add photos to yesterdays blog as the internet was a lot quicker than last night. It’s a little frustrating to come to several locations on the bounce where wifi hasn’t been ideal.

Today is the day of the most expensive excursion of the trip; a flying visit to Purnululu National Park and the Bungle Bungles. Picked up from the front gate of the resort at 08:15 and delivered to the airport in time for our 09:00 departure. Loaded onto the plane that held just 12 passengers, and we were off. We departed over the camp site where I’m staying, and proceeded on southwards and over Lake Argyle where I was yesterday.

I could clearly see where we went on the boat trip yesterday, and it was interesting to give that trip some perspective. It was interesting to see what an insignificantly small part of the lake we had explored.

We continued beyond the southern extent of the lake and flew over a couple of cattle stations before entering Purnululu National Park. We had a flying tour over the southern part of the park and the Bungle Bungles before coming into land on the unsealed airstrip at Bellburn.

We transferred to a 4WD bus after collecting lunch bags, and made our way into the park to explore at ground level. We had a stop for photos, and an explanation from the guide of how the Bungle Bungles had formed over the millennia. About a half hour after leaving the air strip, we pulled into a car park and set off on our walk for the day.

First, we followed the path to the Domes Walk which took us deep into the beehive shaped rocks, coloured in orange and black horizontal bands. We turned off of the main path for a diversion to what was referred to as the ‘Mini Cathedral Gorge’ where we stopped for photos.

Then back to the main track, we continued along the Domes Walk until we reached the path for our target for the day; Cathedral Gorge. We followed a mainly dry creek bed into a gorge that became increasingly narrow. We were in the full heat of the sun, and one lady in the group started to feel unwell, so she and her partner stopped in some shade with one of the two guides.

The rest of up proceeded past pools of water and up ladders as the gorge became increasingly narrow, until we turned a corner and our destination was in sight. The gorge widened to a large round chamber with sheer walls reaching high above our heads. I usually try to get photos with no people, but today I needed something to show the scale of the place.

We spent about a half hour here where we enjoyed the packed lunched we’d carried in, and then returned out of the gorge and back to the bus; there were some people on the tour who were also doing a helicopter tour, so we returned to the airstrip so that they could do this. Those of us not taking the helicopter were taken to a nearby resort to enjoy tea and cakes (and a beer if the mood took us …. which it did!).

After 45 minutes here, we returned to the airstrip once more, and we were ready to leave. Back onto the plane, and away from the gravel runway; we turned after taking off and crossed the runway that was still obscured by the dust we had made. We did a flying tour of the northern part of the park, flying over the deepest canyon in the park and wondering at the scenery unfolding below us.

We turned northwards, and left the Purnululu National Park, and 20 minutes later were over a diamond mine that closed a few years ago. We heard stories about the volume of diamonds found here, and the work being done to return the land to a suitable condition now that mining operations have finished.

We then headed back to Kununurra; landed and transferred back to the resort by 17:15. After last night, I figured I’d cross the road early for dinner, so I dropped off my bag in the room and was straight over there. Back to the room, and then time to load the photos off of the cameras, and write the blog …. which is where the wifi issues started to raise their head again.

I couldn’t get to the blog site, so I wrote the blog in Word before transferring it when I did get a signal. If there are no photos when you see this, I’ll add them when I have sufficient bandwidth ….. could it be another 04:30 start tomorrow? Not deliberately it won’t!