Eleven days have passed, eleven bright mornings, cold nights and cocoon-like sleeps I have had since I left home to go on this journey across the top end of Australia. Today was a grand day for me; my dad and I were to go on another walk through the wondrous rock formation known as the Bungle Bungle Range in Purnululu National Park, Western Australia. We set off at 7 am, just after sunrise.
We headed over to the northern walks starting point where we chose to take the Mini Palms Gorge walk. It was a 4.4km return walk; 2.2km in, then the same path 2.2km back out. About half of the walk in consisted of a smooth rocky river bed that had been dry as soon as the wet season had stopped this year.
The other half of the walk in consisted of large boulders that had long ago fallen from up high and blocked the path. The track twisted and negotiated its way through, around, over and in between these obstacles. About 200m from the end of the walk a set of new looking stairs greeted us and aided our climb to the lookout at the end. More of these brand new looking stairs lay before us toward the end.
The view from the lookout was somewhat disappointing considering that there was supposed to be a natural amphitheatre at the end. We took some pictures and headed back down the track and about 200m down we ran into some other walkers who were on their way up to the lookout. We said hello and they said that the walk we were on opened yesterday.
This means that we set up camp the very same day that the walks were officially opened up again; that’s lucky!
Anyway that explains the new-looking stairs on the walking track.
We made it back to the car and drove back to camp at around 9:15am (local time) and when we arrived, the rest of the camp had awoken and were ready to go on the Cathedral Gorge walk. Dad and I said we needed about half an hour to rest before we went on the next walk.
At around 11 am we arrived at the start of the walk and set off toward the Cathedral Gorge. It took about half an hour to walk all the way to the turnaround point. We all walked through the path that was sandy, rocky and at times holey. It was pretty in itself but the Cathedral Gorge at the end was quite spectacular. Extending at least 200 meters above us was a mostly circular hole through the rock that, in the wet season, would have a magnificent waterfall cascading down the smooth side of the hole to the sandy pool at the bottom.
Unfortunately this is the dry season, so the pool at the bottom was green and stagnant; dang.
We took some pictures and video and headed back out towards the car park, taking a small detour on the way back to see “The Domes”. These were smaller rock formations that were all topped with a somewhat domed shape. Not as grand as the Gorge itself but pretty nonetheless.
Once back at the carpark we all had a break and something to eat and at the same time, my uncle grabbed out his quadcopter. This thing is awesome, mostly because of the camera; it’s a 4k Sony camera on a 3 axis gyroscopic stabiliser situated just underneath the main body of the copter. The drone is legally limited to 400 feet (121.92 meters) above the ground directly beneath it, but that’s a whole 394 feet that I can’t see from! The footage looks spectacular.
That’s pretty much all that happened today, here’s some pics, enjoy!
Thanks for reading,
Trav.
