purnululu national park
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bungle bungle range west australia (WA)
australia
about purnululu
the way into purnululu national park is a 53 km, 3 - 4 h drive on a bumpy gravel road with heavy corrugated parts. (ok, we did it in under 2 h... but after a week hard training on the gibb river road)
4WD with permission to go there is required and the road is only passable during dry season.
the bungle bungle range
if you want to spend more than one day in the park and it is absolutely worth to do so, you either have to drive in and out every day, or you take some money in your hands and book a room well in advance (8-10 month) at "bungle bungle wilderness lodge".
a room.... is a tent with shower and toilet. beware of very cold nights and take a warm sleeping bag with you, otherwise you end up under tons of heavy blankets!
a big dinner, breakfast and a warm camp fire in the evening is included. there you meet a bunch of interesting and friendly travelers, mostly australiens (sometimes nice swiss from your village back home).
bush camping is forbidden and there is no campsite in the park.
nearby is bellburn airstrip. northern heli-spirit offers different sightseeing flights. not cheap, but it gave another fantastic dimension to our trip.
the bungle bungle range is a big plateau with long cracks and canyons. rest parts of a jungle with mini palms and lots of other plants grow in the 300 m deep shady canyons.
tanami desert can be seen in the distance
erosion formed the typical domes of purnululu at the edges of the plateau. (see about purnululu)
echidna chasm and mini palm gorge
echidna chasm is a "crack" in the bungle bungle range. you can walk around a kilometer into this fissure, that is sometimes less than a meter wide. depending on day time and sun position the colours change from orange to purple. on a hot day it`s a cool place to stay as long you don`t suffer from claustrophobia...
small palm trees (livinstonia) are growing in the canyons of the bungle bungles . according to less water and nutrition they grow smaller than usually and are called mini-palms. therefore the name "mini palm gorge".
the palms are rather big outside the gorge. eucalyptus and spinifex are everywhere in the bungles, the kimberley and all over australia ;)
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