11 April 2013 - Halls Creek Caravan Park, Halls Creek, Great Northern Highway, Western Australia

Kookaburras woke me before 6 am this morning and soon it was evident that everyone but us was out and about. Chris had not slept well at all, although I had done a little better. Lying awake in the middle of the night denying the call of nature is foolish, but venturing out into the land of nocturnal creatures seems even more so in the dark of the night. And yet that eventual trip was quite marvellous; here in the park so far from anywhere and with absolutely no light pollution, the stars hung heavily in the night sky distracting one from any lurking creatures. Still enough information here!

Needless to say we were on the road, breakfasted and camp tidy, well shod and ready for the next series of walks. The walks at the southern end of the park lie about seventeen kilometres east of the camp. Here at the Picaninny Creek car park, the Echidna and Mini Palms walks lie almost directly north but on the other side of the Bungle Bungle Range. And here on this southern side are the Bungle Bungles just as the books and brochures say they should be; banded sandstone domes unrivaled in their scale, grandeur and diversity of form anywhere in the world.

The Purnululu National Park covers an area of 239,723 hectares and has an adjacent conservation reserve of 79,602 hectares. The Bungle Bungle Range within the park covers 45,000 hectares. It is this corner of the park that visitors with only a small window of time to see these world famous forms, are sent. This morning we found ourselves the fourth party to arrive and make our way along the well formed paths.

The first is a short one kilometre loop walk winding around banded domes towering majestically all around, domes that had been viewed with anticipation during the last couple of kilometres of the drive.

Walking up Picaninny Creek

We continued on to the Cathedral Gorge walk, three further kilometres up a gorge filled with a chain of ponds, one of which had to be waded through. The walk into the gorge was lovely however the destination at the end which might have otherwise thrilled us, was a little disappointing after yesterday’s Mini Palms walk.

Returning back down the gorge, we turned up Picaninny Creek and walked up across the wide flat fluted rocks of the river bed, now quite dry. You can continue up the gorge for about ten kilometres, a walk that is said to take between two to seven days, depending how long you stand with your mouth open gazing at the wonders of the geology, but if you choose to do this longer trek, a permit is required from the Visitors Centre, for safety and rescue purposes, no doubt.

Instead we turned up another track to a lookout where we could see the cluster of domes used in promotional publication and back to the Bungle Bungle Range. To think that we could have so easily missed coming to this National Park, had we not chosen to linger in Kununurra! Today we spoke to several folk who have struggled with their tour agendas with the delay of the season. We are lucky to have time on our side.

The Bungle domes as you expect

Needless to say, we had polished all these walks off in the early hours of the day. We returned to the car park and sat with our sandwiches and bottles of water, in the end polishing them all off too before morning tea. We were joined by the ranger who was also there with a team of aboriginal workers. He sat with us and told us how he and his wife who come from near Gympie in Queensland come over for about six months each year to do the season here in the park. They work ten days on and then go back to Kununurra for four days to re-provision. They love the life and seem to have the best of both worlds. But then so many of us do.

Chris suggested we head back to camp, pack up and head off out. He was not keen on hanging about with bugs for the afternoon waiting for a repeat of the last evening. I did not object, so back we went. We were packed up by 11 am and headed for the Visitors Centre to see if the refund was for real. It was and so we were paid out for the night not stayed, something you don’t normally get for a change of mind.

We arrived back at the Bungle Bungle Caravan Park by 12.45 pm, hitched up and parked up at a rest area beside the Ord River on the highway for a very late lunch, or rather snack, and a well deserved coffee.

Halls Creek lies one hundred kilometres further down the highway, the long acre to the station owners. Herds of cattle wandered about the roadside not at all concerned about the few vehicles on the road. The roadside scenery continued to be lovely and not at all what either of us had expected.

One of our Caravan Touring bibles has been notated in pencil with hints from various fellow travellers, mostly from Uta and Lance whom we met during our first trip to Sydney. I recall sitting out late one evening scribbling in the margins of this book and one of the scribbles beside Halls Creek says “Avoid.”

And yet here we are, settled into the one caravan park of this town far more orderly and clean that we had expected. We called into the Visitors Centre and the local IGA for a few stores then checked in here. I am really glad to have had a very long shower and be in clean clothes and be looking forward to a good night’s sleep.