El Questro to Kununurra to Bungle Bungle - Purnululu National Park 12-15th May 2021
Well we decided to head back to Kununurra for a couple of nights to clean the car and restock our pantry. At that point we didn’t know that what we were really going back for was a couple of tyres. On our way out of El Questro with caravan in tow we went over the river crossing and Jeff said he felt one of the tyres slip off a big boulder under the water and yes you thought right – FLAT TYRE !!!! So here we are parked on a bend, on a dirt road and up a hill trying to change a flat tyre on the Jeep. After a bit of swearing and cursing we set off to Kununurra in search of another tyre as the flat had a huge split in the side wall. Of course being 20” tyres this was not an easy feat. All the tyres dealers in Kununurra said they would have to order one in and it would be about 2-3 weeks wait!! But when we got to Kununurra with the spare on we noticed it was going flat also, so we went straight to the Tyre place and luckily enough the guy found a couple of 20”tyres that he had ordered for someone else but they hadn’t collected. So $900 later – What The !!! The stupid part it that when we were driving to Broome Jeff said the tyres were not right and when we went to a tyre shop in Broome they said those tyres are not rated to tow a caravan – OMG !!!
Anyway we spent a couple of days in Kununurra and also went back to Hoochery Brewery with some friends we had met at El Questro – great afternoon sampling the local beverages – Thanks Penny & Al.
We left Kununurra on the 14th and headed to The Bungle Bungle Caravan Park, about a 250km drive. We spent the night in the caravan park which is a great little park that has a restaurant and bar and offers quite a few scenic tours over the Bungle Bungles. As the Bungle Bungles are about a 53km drive in on a pretty rough road from the Great Northern Highway (caravan Park) we decided to get up early the next morning and spend the entire day exploring the national park. You can camp in the national park but are only allowed to take single axle campers and tents. The drive into the national park takes between 1.5 – 2 hours to arrive at the visitor centre where you have to check in on arrival. The drive in is very scenic and there are numerous creek crossings, probably not somewhere i would drive my a 2WD car. We visited the southern side of the Bungle Bungles first which is where Cathedral Gorge is. OMG these magnificent dome shaped rocks are just truly stunning with there orange coloured bands around them. You just can’t help wandering through them just staring in amazement at there beauty. The Cathedral Gorge is just stunning and you are just stunned by the magnificence of it. After spending a couple of hours walking through the southern end of the Bungle bungles we headed up the Echidna Chasm, which is about an hour drive. We couldn’t help thinking how different the northern end was to the southern end, but both as amazing as the other. The Echidna chasm is just stunning also, but so different from what we had already seen, the climb through a narrow cutting in the rocks is just truly amazing and the colours are amazing.
We are so glad we did the flight over the Bungle Bungle as well as seeing them up close as there beauty is truly amazing from both air and ground. I would highly recommend that everybody should put in on there bucket list of places to visit.
Next stop Derby and the Horizontal Falls………..
