We headed to Derby after much deliberation to go or not to go. Once again we are glad we did. We booked for two nights. Derby is still part of the rugged Kimberly region in Western Australia. Along with Broome and Kununurra, it is one of only three towns in the Kimberley to have a population over 2,000. Located on King Sound, Derby has the highest tides in Australia, with the peak difference between low and high tide reaching 11.8 metres. It has a very high indigenous culture which is very evident. Derby is rich in cultural diversity, with the local Indigenous culture playing a large part in the community. Derby is also a major base for the Royal Flying doctor Service in the Kimberley region. I have forgotten to mention previously how when driving along the remote highways the Eyre highway (Nullabor) included you come across signs that say RFDS Airstrip ahead. Then signs "Planes landing". The road is marked out in places as an airstrip so that Flying Doctors can land if needed.

The Curtin RAAF base at Derby also presently houses refugees.

Derby Caravan Park was a great spot. It is a huge park with 240 powered sites. The owners are very pleasant people, amenities were spotless and looked new, and also the sites were long and wide and had easy access.

The jetty is located two kilometres east of Derby town site, the jetty experiences the highest tidal range of any wharf in Australia, the tide can reach up to an amazing 12 metres. The Derby Jetty is at the eastern end of King Sound, an area of water known for its shifting mud banks and swirling tides making navigation very difficult.

The jetty has an interesting history. Its current structure was built in the early 1960s and replaced a wooden jetty from 1885. Back then it was used for the export of live cattle to Fremantle. The last commercial ship visited the port in 1980. The jetty is now open to a unique barging operation. Lead and zinc concentrates from a mine near Fitzroy Crossing are loaded onto a barge which travels into King Sound to load the visiting vessels.

This jetty is different as you can drive all the way around it. The piles of the jetty are completely exposed during low tide and look like they are sitting completely in mud. The tides here expose mud not sand.

The Centenary Pavilion at the entrance to the jetty contains a large mosaic tile floor which depicts the history, seasons and flora and fauna of the area. Interpretive plaques describe the geography of King Sound and explain why the tides are so high.

A Boab Tree which is called The Prison Tree is believed to be around 1,500 years old and sits on the outskirts Derby. It is an incredible 14 metres in circumference. It is hollow in the centre with a door cut into its side, the Boab Prison Tree was once used by early police patrols as a staging point for prisoners being walked into Derby. See the photo. Because of the hollow centre it is not possible to determine how old a boab is because it has no growth rings like other trees. I am not sure how they estimate the age of the boabs, but scientists say they could be many thousands of years old

Today, the tree is a registered Aboriginal Site and is of cultural significance to local tribes. So unfortunately it has a fence around it, because people can't resist putting their names onto things.

We left Derby and headed to Fitzroy Crossing. Fitzroy Crossing lodge has a caravan park attached and what a surprise it was, beautifully kept grounds, lovely swimming pool, with clean as a whistle amenities block set high on a hill overlooking the caravan park. and all the buildings are on stilts Queenslander style due to the area being prone to severe flooding during the wet season.

On Friday 16th August we arrived at the Bungle Bungles Caravan park. it is a very rustic park to say the least.. They only have 14 powered sites so we are an unpowered site for today and tonight. No one told us it was going to get this hot- 37c. No power so no fan, no air-conditioner, no pool and to begin with no water on tap. I wet a flannel and put it around my neck and on my head to try to get cooler. Ross kindly took a photo!!! We then found a tap and attached our hose to it and had cold showers. At night the temperature dropped so sleeping wasn't too bad.
The next day we went on the tour in an air=conditioned 4wd bus to see the Bungles.

The Bungle Bungles are a massif ( according to Webster Massif is a term used in geography to refer to a large dense group of joined mountains forming an independent segment of a range. It also refers to a large portion or block of earth's crust that is more rigid than the adjacent rocks, and as a result, has been moved as a unit.) in the Kimberley's Purnululu National Park that has eroded into hundreds of dome-shaped, orange and black banded sandstone formations. Some of the domes are hundreds of feet high. it is also part of a fault line second only in size to the San Andreas fault line. The only difference being it has not moved for thousands of years. It is called the Halls Creek fault line. The fault line extends across much of northern Australia, from Darwin to the Great Sandy Desert
The massif formed some 360 million years ago, with the rivers and streams that flow out from the Kimberly Plateau. For millions of years these waterways carried eroded sandy sediment, depositing it over a flood plain that would eventually become the Bungles.
Rising from the middle of hundreds of square miles of remote, rugged, uninviting wilderness, the formations are well off the beaten path.
Where the name Bungle Bungle comes from is not clear. The Kija Aboriginal people, who have lived here for over 20,000 years, called the area Purnululu, the Kija word for sandstone. Bungle Bungle may be a mangled version of that name, or maybe it stems from the name of the bundle bundle grass that grows in the region. The clumps of spinifex growing everywhere in this area and covering the mountains which can be seen as you drive along the highway do look like little bundles so maybe this could be the explanation.
The name Bungle Bungle was first given to a nearby station in 1930. And in 1983, when the Department of Lands And Surveys had to call the range something, they named it after the station.
The range, though only 100 km from the main highway, was only "discovered" by a film team in 1983. The pastoralists and Aborigines in the area had known about it for much, much longer, but they sure had other things to worry about in this harsh country and they knew that once the government and the public knew about this phenomenon then their lives would be changed forever. Only when a national television documentary crew turned its cameras onto the astounding orange striped domes did the world take note.
The WA government recognised the botanical importance of the area and also its significance to the traditional inhabitants. Purnululu National Park was established in 1987. It skyrocketed to world fame in no time at all. In 2003 Purnululu NP was inscribed as a World Heritage Area, thanks to its outstanding geological value and its incredible natural beauty. The government asked the lease holders of this vast property now called Mabel Downs to hand over the section to be decreed a National Park, only trouble was it was in the centre of the property. The pastoralists agreed on the condition that the government would construct and maintain the road leading into it. The government agreed, but the terms of maintenance were not set down, so now the road is graded at the start of the dry season and that is all until the road becomes absolutely impassable with huge corrugations, then the pastoralists who also at present run a very basic caravan park and touring business, threaten to close the road and access to the park so that CALM will grade the road again. The trip on that road is not the most pleasant experience. It is so rough, but to see these huge domes and to walk amongst them was a great experience. Unfortunately the weather is becoming very hot very quickly. The winter up here in the Top End is coming to an end and the weather was so hot 37c that it was not possible for me to walk too far to see everything.

We were so glad we were on a guided tour so that we were driven to each section as close as we could get, but walking in to actually be among them was still part of the deal.

The main walk we did was to Cathedral Gorge

Cathedral Gorge The most famous of all the Bungle Bungles walks, which is also one of the easiest, is to Cathedral Gorge. It starts at Piccaninny Creek car park from start to finish it took us about one and half hours, which includes sitting in a huge natural amphitheatre, once you get there, on the rocks which invite you to sit down, and watch, and observe and cool down from the walk. The acoustics are fascinating. The voices are carried around and although some people may be some distance away they sound very close. Actually it is all quite a spiritual experience.

We viewed the orange and black striped beehive domes that the Bungle Bungle Range is so famous for on the walk to and back from the Cathedral Gorge and took many photos.

There are many other walks in the Purnululu National Park, but rather than walking to these places we viewed them from a distance which was great also as once you are amongst it all you lose the perspective of just how vast this phenomena is. Our tour guide told us that there is only one other place in the world that has this sort of thing and that is in Turkey,

On our return we were told we had driven 198km all on unsealed roads which were in dire need of grading. My bones are still feeling the after affects, but I am glad we went and saw this part of our wonderful country.

I found this Youtube video of a round-up on Mabel Downs. It gives you some idea of the type of country which surrounds the Bungles. The Bungles are approx 90km into the property which is in the millions of acres in size, so the roundup does not show you the Bungles, but it does give you an idea of the size. Mabel Downs is a property which is on both sides of the main highway, which accounts for the bitumen you see in the video.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5OoCypB5 _EA