Day 41
Ord River Camp - Bungle Bungles National Park
" I'm on a foggy highway, I'm on a lonely road. I can't see the road ahead. I'm on a foggy highway...."
The fog is the Kimberley fog and it was everywhere today !
We woke up at 5.30 to get ready for a full day in the Bungle Bungle National Park. We left our campsite at Ord River just after 6.30 following a quick birthday breakfast for Corinne, ready to drive into the park. They have a new caravan park on the station just at the entrance to the park now which meant we could leave the van and pick it up later to stay there.
We offloaded the van and headed off just after 7am on what was to be an awesome day for everyone.
The Bungle Bungles is a 4wd only road. You drive through Mabel Station first before entering the National Park - and you notice a real difference in the roads!! Farmer Joe who owns the pastoral lease to Mabel really dosent care about his roads on the station and so there were ruts and washouts and holes everywhere.
About 5 mins into our drive we encountered a station owned Toyota land cruiser ute travelling way too fast around the corner and he was so very lucky not to roll it into our Disco. How he recovered from the fishtail I won't ever know- but he did and gave us a wave as he drove on with us still scratching our heads !
We drove just over 170 k's today - all on 4wd tracks. According to our statisticians in the back there were:
44 water crossings we drove though and 156 dry river crossings to get into the Bungle Bungles and back again!
I loved being back in 4wd mode today - even though we didn't even need to use low range - the Disco just lapped up the terrain easily! The only real concern about the track was the amount of blind crests, corners and hairpin turns where you were really just hoping not to meet a big 4wd bus head on. They just dont stop or care about other traffic. We managed ok though there and back.
The kids loved driving through the creek/river crossings too!
The Bungle Bungles are spectacular - its an effort to get there but when you arrive it's just an awesome sight. We first drove to Cathedral Gorge which opens up into a massive ampitheatre where the collected water masses at the end of the waterfall - of course we are in the dry season and so it’s just a huge bowl with a small stagnant pool now. The rocks are easily 200m high above our heads!
We did the dome walk on the way back to the car which takes on a number of the dome vistas on offer.
We then got back in the car to drive another 20ks to the other side of the park to Echidna Chasm. This place is really amazing. You need to be here in the middle of the day to see the sunlight shine down through the chasm onto the floor - the colours are just amazing . Lots of pics take here - the sunlight colours, the narrowness of the chasm walls that you squeeze through, the boulders that have fallen only to be wedged in the chasm walls!
It was hard to beat Echidna Chasm but we walked to the Osmond Range lookout on our way back to the car which have a 360 degree view of the chasm and the lush green Osmond Ranges of the Kimberley.
After lunch we drove to another lookout near the Visitor centre which gave a magnificent 360 view of the Bungle range as well as the Osmond ranges. We then had a look around the visitor centre before driving the 53ks back on the dirt to the caravan. On our way back we saw a head on between a flatbed service truck for the tour groups and a tour group 4wd. No major damage but the dust and speed are big factors.
We made it home just in time to see the sunset - pretty beat after a full on day. The Disco needs a rest after today as well!!
On to Kunnanurra tomorrow .