Purnululu NP

Purnululu NP is known by most people as the Bungle Bungles. This a spectacular national park and a World Heritage area. The road in has a reputation for being one of the worst in Australia. Many, we met, concurred with this. We found the roads however to be in very good order with some small corregations. Anything with duel axle and most caravans are forbidden to enter the national park.

The drive in takes you through Mabel Downs Station, a vast cattle station that has permanent water. You drive through five wet creek crossings in the way of Mabel Springs, Frank River, Bellburn Creek and Calico Springs.

We arrived early enough the be able to visit the north section first and visit the highlights of Echidna Chasm, Stonehenge, The Bloodwoods and Kungkalanayi Lookout.

The Kungkalanayi Lookout, gave us some perspective of the park as it was close to the middle of the park. From here you can get some sense of the geological formations that comprise Purnululu NP.

The northern part comprises escarpments with deep chasms, gorges, cliffs and deep valleys. The southern section is what the Bungle Bungle Range are renowned for; its striking banded domes, the world's most exceptional example of cone karst formations. They are made of sandstone deposited about 360 million years ago. Erosion by creeks, rivers and weathering in the past 20 million years has carved out these domes, along with spectacular chasms and gorges creating a surreal landscape.

The domes' striking orange and grey bands are caused by the presence or absence of cyanobacteria which grows on layers of sandstone where the moisture accumulates. The orange bands are oxidised iron compounds that have dried out too quickly for the cyanobacteria to grow.

Echidna Chasm

It is the home to more than 600 species of plants and more than 149 bird, 85 reptile, 32 native mammal and 12 frog species.

Unfortunately the wretched cane toad has now made its way to Purnululu and threatens the existence of many of these animals. In Walardi camp 40,000 cane toads were captured in 2 months. We met a guy who had gone on just one nights hunt of just two hours and in that time caught more than 400 toads!

These were some of the amazing places we visited during our two night stay at Kurrajong camp: Echidna Chasm; Stonehenge; The Bloodwoods; Kungkalanayi Lookout; The Domes; Picanniny Lookout and Cathedral Gorge.

We met a group of Dutch travellers, three couples each driving off road camper vehicles. They had had some trying experiences with equipment failing, car breakdowns and fridge problems. All of which had eaten into the precious little time that they had to spare for their holidays.

 

 

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Wolfe Creek Meteorite Crater

A leisurely start to the day with a swim in the lake and an easy, short drive from Lake Stretch allowed us to arrive at Wolfe Creek Metorite Crater early in the afternoon.

The crater stands out from the surrounding desert plains, a rusty red rim of scoria and small boulders, different from the sand around it. We expected a dry and dusty campsite, but were surprised to find that there were shade trees and greenery all around.

It is only a short walk up a gravel path to the rim of the crater. Signs ask you to not climb into the crater, but most people ingnored these, to clamber down to the inside of the crater over loose boulders and rubble. At the bottom the crater has filled with sand over the millenia. In the centre was a round circle of small green trees and white sand.

Wolfe Creek Meteorite Crater was created some 300 million years ago, by a meteorite hitting the earth's surface. The crater was originally 120 meters deep, but now, due to the sand being blown in from the surrounding desert plains, is only 20 meters deep.

 

 

 

 

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Gregory Lake System

We needed directions out of Mulan, so called in at the local clinic. This new facility was spotless and very well maintained. Indeed the whole of Mulan had little or no rubbish and was well cared for.

The road around the Gregory Lake system is just two tyre tracks, mostly over red and orange sand with a few small stony sections. Some ten klms out of Mulan we pulled in to Handover Camp site, one of three sites reserved for tourists to camp. The lake is quite a distance from the camp. The camp had new toilets and huge shady red gums. This campsite is situated on the largest of the lakes (known as Yampirri Yampirri) and is brackish.

We decided to proceed on to the next campsite known as Yunpu. The muster had just been completed and this is where the drovers had camped. The site again was spotless, with new composting toilet, makeshift shower cubicles and fire pit. No one was about, so we had the area to ourselves. Shady melaleucas grew from the white sand and gave shade during the day. A great place to camp.

The drovers had left some excellent logs for the fire, so we had a roaring fire over which we could boil water and create excellent coals for our camp oven. This night we cooked up the crocodile mince, purchased in Alice Springs and had it with vegetables. What does it taste like??????

We think it tastes like a mixture of chicken and fish, very mild.

In the morning we walked down to the lake, known locally as Palpaly, to collect water for a shower. Birdlife abounded on and around the lake. This was also raptor heaven. We counted at least a dozen Wege-Tailed eagles soaring in the skies over the grasslands. Two magpies swooped at and harrassed a young eagle, who was forced to land on the ground a couple of meters from where we were sitting having breakfast. He looked totally perplexed by us and by his situation of having to land in such an undignified way. When it finally flew off, the other eagles also left.

The road out towards the Canning Stock Route from Yunpu had been recently graded, as had the final 125klms of the Canning Stock Route leading to Billiluna. The trucks carrying the cattle from the recent muster had necessitated this occurence. We heard people conversing on the cb radio who were travelling that route from south to north, and soon we caught up with them. They had taken 17 days to complete their trip. A little while later, a convoy of another three vehicles came at us going the opposite direction.

The Canning Stock Route convoy, related a story to us about a mad Dutchman! This fellow had flown in from Holland and was riding his bike along the Route! He had been told in Holland before he left that he could get water from all the wells along the way. The old wells were evenly spaced apart to allow the stockman to get to the next source of water with their cattle in a day's drove, approximately 30klms. Of course, this young man didn't bother to get any local information before setting off into one of the harshest environments on earth, and carried just enough water to take him 50 klms per day! Now, only eight of the original fifty one wells are operational, so here he is, in the Great Sandy Desert, without enough water to get him from water source to water source. The Route is 1619klms long. Thankfully there is plenty of traffic on the route, so he has become reliant on the good nature and generosity of others to survive.

Two nights at Lake Stretch, some 15 klms south of Billiluna is a great treat! Clean fresh water, birdlife in abundance and time to rest the body from all the corregations and dust. The bush campsite again was clean and well maintained.

We had the area to ourselves, the first night, bar two motor bike riders, one of whom had limped along the Tanami Road, and who had been abandoned by his other motor bike friends, when his bike started to give trouble. These so-called friends also abandoned another of their crew after he fell off his bike and broke his collarbone, because he was travelling too slowly!

The second night, two lovely young women came to camp, Aria and Kirsty. They had both completed a year-long motor mechanic course at TAFE, which comprised of 22 days of full 8 hours work and included some bush mechancs. They were travelling by themselves in very remote areas, with spares and recovery gear. We thought they were very enterprising, highly capable and very interesting. They had been on the road since March.

 

 

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Tanami Road

Tilmouth Wells is an oasis, with large shady trees, bouganvillea and a swimming pool. Here you can camp on green grass that is watered by bore water, full of calcium, so leaves a white tinge to everything.

There was only one other group of three people and a long distance away from us. It was very peaceful. The amenities were spotless. We had a great camp fire on which we cooked two very small leg lamb roasts (which we had purchased in Alice Springs) and roast vegetables all in the camp oven.

We left early in the morning. The desert, was green because of the rain, no substanial trees, but plenty of quick growing vegetation, the gravilleas of which were all in flower. There was not as much variety in flowers and colours as the last time we had visited, maybe because this time we travelled some weeks after the rain, so the small shrubs, bushes and ground cover plants that we witnessed before had already flowered and now were shedding their seeds as they started to die off.

Some 180 klms east of the old Rabbit Flat Roadhouse, we found a track leading towards a bore. We took this track for about a kilometer and parked for the night. I was worried about the sand and was concerned that we might get bogged. But this worry proved to be unfounded as the sand was solid and we did not sink in even when we left the track to park at the side of it. Peter wanted a campfire, so he dug a hole in the sand. The wood we scrounged all came from burnt small bushes and shrubs and left tiny, annoying splinters in your fingers. It was very cold in the desert so the fire was a nice way to keep warm for some of the evening.

We saw only one gecko lizard and the tracks of dingo, camel and small burrowing spinifex mice but no sign of any human activity at all. We heard only one road train passing all night, otherwise there was no noise!

The Tanami Road this time is a very different road to the one we travelled on three years ago. Now, unlike then, we could see the surrounding countryside because the road has been built up. It was still sandy in places and corregated, but three years ago, we drove almost all of it, in four wheel drive, in third gear. This time we could average 80klms per hour.

The Gregory Lake system was on our list to see. This meant driving to Balgo and then to Mulan, to obtain permission from the Aboriginal land holders.

 

 

 

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Alice Springs

After Jervois we drove parallel to the East MacDonald Ranges. There are gemstones to be found along here. Every so often we would see a "fossicking" sign. Certainly at Gemtree Homestead, you can be taken on fossicking trips from the station.

Unfortunately we didn't stop to make our fortune as we had a deadline to meet. the car was due for service at 7:30am in Alice Springs on Friday morning.

Two nights in a Westerns motel and then into the West MacDonald Ranges.

These ranges are stunningly beautiful and after some rain were green and full of desert flowers.

We "lucked" all along the Namatjira Road. The first stop was Simpson's Gap. Here we noticed a sign that informed visitors that a ranger would take you for a guided walk at 10:00am. As we had arrived just before this time we decided to wait. Dale, a young Aboriginal man turned up and was very enthusiastic with his love of the country and his newly acquired learning from the elders of his clan. He was learning to make his tools using ancient methods, as well as learning to catch and hunt for food. He told us about how the original owners utilised the food and medicine, to be gathered from the surrounding areas.

We learned a great deal from this young man about bush tucker and bush medicine.

The next gorge was Standley Chasm, we think this was privately owned as everyone was charged a fee for taking the walk through the Chasm. Again a magnificent place. Water in the small gap with Cycads and ancient acacia trees and greeness everywhere. We mostly walked up the creek bed over rocky boulders and tree roots.

Serpentine Gorge was as the name suggest a winding gorge, absolutely beautiful and again with water. Swimming was not allowed, but was allowed at Ellery Creek Big Hole, Waterhole. Here we came across a Frenchman, determined to swim in the water. When we met him later he told us he had merely dipped his feet in. No wonder, the water was freezing and the air tempersture not much more!

By this stage of the journey, up the West MacDonald Ranges, almost all of the creek crossings still had some water left, in puddles and holes.

We had been advised that a specialised chef was brought in during the tourist season to cook in the restaurant at Glen Helen Resort, which had won four gold plates. So we opted to pull in here with the view to enjoying a sumptuous meal. We were directed to the futhermost campsite where we were assured that no tour operators would set up camp. We had only just opened the camper, when sure enough, WayOutBack Tours arrived to set up camp right beside us. There were 17 on board, a mixture of Dutch and German tourists and one Aussie.

We had booked into dinner by this stage so decided it wasn't worth moving.

The sun began to go down, and as it did, it hit the cliffs leading into Glen Helen Gorge. What a remarkable sight! The cliffs were lit up in yellows, oranges and purples. It was truly awe inspiring.

Dinner was ok, but certainly not as good as the references had indicated. We began chatting to a couple from Austria, who were travelling in the outback on their own, had made all their own reservations and really enjoyed an adventure.

On leaving the dining room, we were greeted by a wonderful singer- songwriter, Chris, who could play the guitar, mandolin and fiddle and "spoons", as well as sing. We thoroughly enjoyed this part of the evening and stayed until he packed up for the night.

In the morning we took our time to get up and have breakfast because the tour group took over the amenities. We went to see Glen Helen Gorge whilst the sun was just entering the gap. Heaps of water and birdlife abounded. Budgerigars were in abundance as well as water birds, small wrens and songbirds.

The owners of Glen Helen keep an aviary near to the homstead with Gouldian finches of all three colour types as well as other desert parrots and ground birds.

We drove back to Ormiston Gorge, as we had been told it to was magnificent. The park facilities are very well maintained and the path was an easy walk down to the river and on to the gorge. Swimming is allowed here, but again it was very cold.

We went back again towards Glen Helen to continue our journey on the back road through to the Tamami Road. At the end of the tarmac road we turned off onto a secondary road leading towards Papunya. This took us besides Mt Sonder, Round Hill, Haarts Bluff, Mt William and Mt Edward. These are giant mountains of red and orange granite sticking up out of a flat desert of red sand. The road was quite rough and we were glad to see no other vehicles as we had to drive across the road to avoid mud and water holes as well as wash outs along the side of the road from the recent rain.

 

 

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Jervois

From Boulia, we took the Donaghue/Plenty Highway across the northern part of the Simpson Desert. The landscape became drier and more barren the further west we drove.

This area has received no rainfall for the past 2 years and was then burnt out in bushfires.

So by the time we had reached the halfway mark and pulled into to Jervois Station, we felt morally obliged to stay on the property, just to assist the farmer with our $15 camp fee. As it turned out, it had great showers which helped clear the red dust from us and excellent barbeques where you could light a fire for cooking and warmth.

Moving towards Alice Springs the desert started to become greener. The area surrounding Alice, has just has 2" of rain. So we look forward to our Tanami trip.

The reason for coming into Alice Springs was the 40,000klms service was due on the vehicle. Halls Creek were unable to help and we thought that the closer we came to the mining areas the harder it would be for a service to be done and would result in a very long wait.

The service was done yesterday and we walked through the Todd Mall admiring the extraordinary Western Desert Aboriginal artworks! One particular gallery struck a chord with us because the work in it was exceptional. This was the Pupunya Tula Gallery. One work in particular by a Grace somebody was the greatest attraction. All the work was done on Belgium linen with Matisse paints.

 

Sturt Desert peas growing in the median strip of the Stuart Highway just outside the Toyota dealership.

 

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Bedourie and Boulia

Peter and I really like these two very small towns. Bedourie is the Shire administration area for the Diamentina Shire which boasts only 544 residents, but covers millions of acres.

Boulia is the administration of the Boulia Council, which has a few more residents.

Both towns take great pride in themselves. At Bedourie we swam in the hot artesian spa and had dinner at the very old (at least 100 year old) pub. Here we met Maxine who flies around outback Australia, traing council office workers in a document package that her company from Melbourne sell. She travels tosome of the most remote areasin the world!

We stayed in the caravan park at Boulia on the last green grass that we would see for some time!

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