Today's trip was an adventure, to say the least. Our destination was approximately 110 km away, and it took over 3 hours to get there.
First we had to get to the highway from Violet Valley, a rough dirt track with 5 water crossings. That 13 km took a bit less than half on hour, a quick spurt down the highway for around 23 km bought us to the turnoff to Purnululu National Park, home of the Heritage listed Bungle Bungles.
First task was to reduce tyre pressures as this road has a terrible reputation.
The 53 km road to the visitors centre is and absolute shocker, heavy corrugations, multiple creek and river crossings, some with very steep entry/exits, rocky outcrops on the road, wash aways etc. We left Violet Valley at 7.30 am, and arrived at the visitors centre at 10.15 am, had a cup of coffee, got a map, and carried on for another 45 mins to Piccaninny Car Park where walks to the Beehive Domes, and Cathedral Gorge commence from.
Despite the appalling road, the scenery is quite spectacular.
Along the way to the Domes, is Elephant Rock, a signposted photo opportunity.
Elephant Rock
The rear of Elephant Rock
Arrival at the Piccaninni Car Park, you can see the Beehive Domes are dominant.
There are two walking tracks that we are interested in, one is The Domes Loop Walk, the other is a walk to Cathedral Gorge both of which we feel we can do before lunch.
We start on the Domes loop walk.
The loop path takes you through groups of domes pretty much following the watercourse which would be flooded in the wet.
A side path looks like it leads to a gorge.
And here it is, with some intricate weathering of the sandstone on the walls.
Only a small pool remains of what must be a raging waterfall in the wet season.
The native plants and wildflowers are on show along the track
Holly Leaved Grevillea
The termites also like the area, with a few different types of mounds and some located high up on the domes.
The loop trail intersects the track to Cathedral Gorge, so we head off to the gorge and will complete the domes loop on the way back.
The track narrows into the gorge and steps and ladders are included to give access over some of the narrow areas.
A glimpse of the end of the trail ahead of us exposing the highlight of Cathedral Gorge, a massive atrium.
You can see where the waterfall would be in the wet season
We are a bit amazed that the base of the gorge is pure white fine sand. A few hikers decided to stop here for a picnic lunch and a bus tour arrived just behind us with the same plan. We took in the view and headed back
There are signs everywhere warning of the danger of falling rocks. You can see from these photos there are some serious fault lines in the gorge walls, some very big rocks could break away from these faults.
Once we were back on the domes loop it was only a few hundred metres back to the carpark.
Finally we arrive back at the carpark where shaded picnic tables are provided, so we sat down there and had our sandwiches whilst contemplating the boneshaking ride home. The travel time on these roads is so slow that we will not get a chance to go to see the other feature of the park, Echidna Chasm. It is a good 1.25 hr drive from here and is best seen at midday when the sun is directly overhead. We were advised by the staff at the visitors centre to make sure we were out of the park before dark which comes on quickly here just after 5pm. So we decide to head home, with a brief diversion to Kungkalanayi Lookout.
The one thing the lookout does highlight is how green everything still is
As mentioned a number of times on the trip so far, due all of the flooding a few months ago, water levels in creeks and rivers are a bit higher than normal. To get to Piccannini Carpark from our campground we crossed 24 wet creek and river crossings, each way.
This one across the Ord River was one of the more interesting ones
We were back at the highway by 3.45 pm, and pumped our tyres back up to highway pressure, then enjoying about 23 km of smooth bitumen before back on the dirt for our final 13 km.
Finally after 8 hours driving to cover roughly 220 km for the day, we are back home at our caravan, ready for a nice cold beer !
Comments
Post a Comment