What can I say about the Bungle Bungles? Vast! Alien Landscape. Beautiful. Awe inspiring.
Perhaps the reason we were so impressed by this place was due to the mammoth effort just to get into the Purnululu National Park - 64km of creek crossings (counted 20 with water and many others that were dry), corrugations, bumps, bends, blind corners and big stones - before we arrived at the Walardi campground at the southern end of the National Park. Travelling at a very sedate pace of 20-30kmh, the journey took us around 2 1/2 hours, and the Landcruiser and Eagle came out unscathed. Phew! So many people had told us the Eagle wouldn't survive so it only had to take two people who'd been in with similar setups to convince us that we could do it with careful packing and low tyre pressures.
It was about 5pm and almost sunset by the time we'd unclenched our knuckles and finished setting up, and we were greeted by a friendly fellow named Gene from Illinois who was the camp host, who invited the girls and us to come cane toad catching after dark. Sadly, cane toads have finally reached WA after spreading through NT from Queensland, and many native animals such as frogs, snakes etc are dying as a result of either eating them or competing for food. They each can lay 70,000 eggs twice a year!
After dinner and a few vinos, armed with torches, a big bag and gloves, we moved through the campground and around damp spots near creek beds catching as many as we could - think we got to around 250, but Gene says he can catch almost 1000 in one night. It was a hilarious evening and definitely a highlight of the girls' trip so far. If you don't hold the toads at arms length, they wee all over you, so the kids got pretty drenched. No harm done tho (to the kids anyway).
Very early the next morning (the sun gets up at 5.30 around here) we took off further into the park to the Picaninny car park, and walked 3km around the impressive 350 million year old beehive domes, through ancient creek beds, and arrived at the enormous Cathedral. We had the whole place to ourselves, so spent an hour paddling in the pool in the centre of the cave, having a very early morning tea and absorbing the amazing atmosphere. It was on our way back to the car park at around 9.30 that the bus loads of tourists arrived - Good timing!
As it was still early, and we had 900km to travel over the next few days, we decided regretfully not to stay (the girls were very disappointed not to go cane toad catching again) and headed back over the bumpy, windy, creek-filled road, (our successful journey made all the more miraculous as we'd forgotten to attached the tow ball clasp properly - oops!) and went straight through until after dark to Fitzroy Crossing. Although we only stayed at Fitzroy a short evening and morning, I have to say that the burger we had from the bar menu (just missed out on the restaurant's Sunday roast) was one of the best I've had!
On to Broome....