The Bungle Bungles was the attraction I was most looking forward to on our entire trip. I have always had a fascination with them, since they were first became visible to the general public in 1983. The photos and videos astounded me – how could nature create something so vast and so beautiful? I just had to get there to see them for myself. Thus, it became a major “must do” on our trip.
So we excitedly headed off from Parry’s Creek Farm and drove the 250km to Mabel Downs, the station that adjoins the Purnululu National Park within which the Bungle Bungles reside. The park was built on station land by the leaseholder and a business partner. It is is only 3 years old, and due to the restrictions placed on pastoral leases, has a very temporay feel to it as no permanent buildings can be erected on site. It was however quite a nice camp, nicely treed, well spread out and with plenty of space. The amenities were rough, but adequate.
Campsite at Mabel Downs Station
Firstly, I booked my 40 minute helcopter flight over the Bungles. Deb was not too keen on it, and as it was also quite expensive, she was happy for me enjoy the experience. I managed to get added to another booking, cheaper for 3 people and the other couple were happy to upgrade to the longer 40 minute flight. An added bonus was they also were happy to let me sit in the front as it was my first flight in a helicopter! What an amazing experience. Very smooth take off, just felt like I was gliding or floating over the ground. There were no doors fitted, so it was very open, giving me a sense sense of being in mid air. For someone who is now a little caution of heights, I manged well, although whenever it wobbled sideways, and I looked down I felt some vertigo!
We flew across Mabel Downs Station and over the Halls Creek fault line, the third longest fault line in the world, but pretty well unheard of as it is extremely stable. Soon I could see the Bungles range ahead, stripey mountains and a plateau, not the traditional domes, although the tops were rounded. We flew up to the northern section first, and over the top of the plateau. The formations of deep gorges, and shallow depressions with palms was just incredible scenery. We then flew over the top of Piccaninny Gorge, a very long gorge that disects the range and is very spectacular. It was very deep and narrow in places. we followed it out to the Cathedral Gorge car park area at the southern end of the range, then flew over the domes, the traditional beehive formations. The stripes were stunning, very evident and very spectacular. We flew so low that I could see so much detail of the domes. The view of these domes from above is incredible. You can see the concentric circles of different colours and it looks like you are looking down on some huge aboriginal dot painting. The colours are beautiful, rich oranges and reds alongside the dark grey bands and the yellow earth. After circling the domes we headed back home across the property to the camp. A once in a lifetime experience, and very much worth the cost of $350 for 40 minutes.
Bungle Patterns
Bungle Patterns
Bungle Patterns
Spectacular view of the Bungle Bungles
We had thought long and hard about whether to drive ourselves into the Bungles, or to take the 4WD bus tour instead. We weren’t set up for car camping and wanted to see as much of the park as we could in a day. All reports we had from fellow travellers were that the road in was a shocker. Up to two hours to travel the 56 km to the visitor centre. We then had another 100km to travel to see the north and south highlights in the park, before heading home. I decided that 200km on very corrugated roads in a 10 hour day, as well as 7-8km of walking was not going to be pleasant, so we decided to take the tour instead. Not our usual preferred form of sightseeing, but the tour did visit both parts of the park, and we were to be given plenty of time to complete the bushwalks. Further we could do the walks “freestyle”, not in a group as most of the other tour groups do, which would be absolute torture with all the oldies! So the bus it was to be. We arranged for Molly to be dog sat at camp with a couple we met at Parry’s, and we extended our stay an extra day so we could dog sit for them as they were doing the day tour on Wednesday.
The bus (a 26 seater ex mining company bus) left at 7am. The drive into the visitors centre in the park took 1.75 hours. It was very slow going as we crawled over very rough corrugations, up and through the Halls Creek Fault line, through creek crossings and narrow, windy passes. The scenery was beautiful in the morning light. At the visitor centre we stopped briefly for a nature break before continuing on to the Piccaninny car park at the southern section of the park, where the famous “beehive” domes are located. To say the domes are spectacular is an understatement! They are the most amazing landscape I have ever seen. The orange and black bands are striking and give the domes their “beehive” appearance. There are masses of them in this section of the park. Some are standing alone to the south, away from the main range, some are clustered together in families near the main range. Still others are hugging the range, looking like they don’t want to break out from its protection. And finally there are the “almost” bungles, domes still being formed within the main range, already the distinctive beehive shape, but truncated where they are still attached to the range.
After a quick cuppa, we headed off on some walks. Firstly we headed to the Piccaninny Creek Lookout, a great view across the domes. The walk traversed Piccaninny Creek, along a flat rocky base before winding around some domes and up to the lookout. Then we walked into Cathedral Gorge, an amazing mostly flat walk along a creek bed, lined with Livistona palms, before the gorge narrowed into chasm with tall walls. It wound around, through the “waiting room”, a widened section of the chasm with seats, before finally opening out into a huge cathedral dome, worn into the rocks by a huge wet season whirpool. Very spectacular scene, high rock walls and a huge circular rock “cathedral”. After enjoying a rest and admiring the scenery, we returned back along the chasm. The final walk was a short stroll around the domes and back to the car park where lunch was waiting for us.
Piccaninny Creek Lookout
Piccaninny Creek
Piccaninny Creek
Piccaninny Creek
Cathedral Gorge
Cathedral Gorge
Cathedral Gorge
Close Up Bungle
Bungle Rock layers
Bungle tower
Bungle Domes
After lunch, we headed off to the northern end of the park to Echidna Chasm. This walk required us to walk across a very gravelly, rocky creek bed into a narrow chasm. As we progressed into the chasm, it became darker and darker and narrower and narrower. At its narrowest, you could easily touch both sides and looking up, it was up to 200m high. A short climb up a couple of ladders bought us to the end of the chasm. It was nice and cool too, which was a relief as we were now walking in the heat of the afternoon. We walked back and arrived at the bus hot and exhausted.
Entrance to Echidna Chasm
Palms in Echidna Chasm
Entrance to Echidna Chasm
Echidna Chasm
Echidna Chasm
Echidna Chasm
Echidna Chasm
The trip back to camp was long, a couple of hours of very bumpy driving. The road seemed rougher going back than the trip in this morning. We arrived back at 4:30pm. What a fantastic day with an excellent guide who was informative, not childish or silly. We were very pleased we took the tour as the day was exhausting enough without the added stress of driving the very corrugated road. That night we enjoyed the complementary dinner, pea and ham soup and beef stew in the camp dining tent.
Our dog sitting day was relaxing and uneventful. Mocha, Maureen and Jan’s young border collie was very easy to sit, and Molly enjoyed the doggy company. The park is also very quiet during the day. Most visitors only stay a couple of nights and leave early. During the day, everyone is out at the Bungles, so the camp is very peaceful.
Molly and Mocha
So, our trip to the Bungle Bungles was over. They are without doubt, the most spectaculer landform I have seen, and exceedingly beautiful. I feel priveledged to have had the opportunity to see them from the air, and to get down on the ground with them and touch them. We will certainly be back, and next time would love to walk the length of Piccinanny Gorge, right into the centre of the range! That will be a challenge, and will require camping out in the gorge!
From here, we are heading back to Lake Argyle and the Ord River dam.
Postscript
For those that are interested, here is a little more information about the Bungle Bungles.
The Bungle Bungle Range is one of the most extensive and impressive occurrences of sandstone tower (or cone) karst terrain in the world. The Bungle Bungles were a plateau of Devonian sandstone, carved into a mass of beehive-shaped towers by the effects of wind and water. The base sandstone material is actually white, but has regularly alternating coloured bands. The dark gray bands are made of a material that holds moisture, allowing the development of a cynobacterial crust (single cell photosynthetic organisms). The red bands are formed by the oxidation of iron and manganese in the stone. I always imagined them to be a smooth sandstone finish, but most interestingly, they are quite rough in texture. The plateau is dissected by 100–200-metre deep, sheer-sided gorges and slot canyons. The cone-towers are steep-sided, with an abrupt break of slope at the base and have domed summits. How they were formed is not yet completely understood. Their surface is fragile but stabilized by the crusts of iron oxide and bacteria. They provide an outstanding example of land formation by dissolutional weathering of sandstone, with removal of sand grains by wind, rain and sheet wash on slopes
Unknown to the general public for many years, the Bungles were only known to local station holders and local aboriginals. In 1973, the WA tourist commission was established and they commissioned a photographer to take photos of WA’s great scenery to help promote the state. The photographer met up with a colleague in Kununurra, who was one of the lucky ones to know of the Bungles. He was also a heli pilot and agreed to fly the photographer to them to get some shots. Naturally, his photos were stunning and attracted some interest in Perth, but as the property was in private pastoral leases, nothing further happened. In 1983, the state made a DVD presentation of WA’s natural beauty, and included the Bungles. It was a publicised around the world, and was a hit, inspiring interest from around the world. However, there was still no road in as it was hidden deep in private leasehold land. 4WD’ers would not accept that it was impossible to get there, and a couple of groups rose to the challenge and, much to the surprise of the station owners, made it to the Bungles and published their story in 4WD magazines. The floodgates had opened and soon more and more groups were trying to get there. The station owners relented to the pressure and agreed to push a road in, originally from Warmun. The rest is history. The WA Government declared the area a national park in 1987, extinguishing the pastoral lease and advising the pastoralists the size of their lease had been changed permanently. It is now one of WA’s prime tourist attractions and is jointly managed by the WA government and the two indigenous tribes who both claim tradional ownership over the area.
The following link takes you to the World Heritage Centres website where there are interesting descriptions of how the Bungles met the criteria to be accepted onto the register of World Heritage Sites
http://whc.unesco.org/en/list/1094
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