Saturday 16th August – Warm Sunny Clear Skies

Sawpit Gorge back to Hall’s Creek and up to Bungle Bungles

Halls Creek Shopping Area

We refuelled at Halls Creek and enquired about when the hotel opened, hoping to buy another 2L cask of red wine.  No wine or spirits for sale, only light beer at the hotel.  Apparently it has really changed and improved the town, no drunks or street fights because of alcohol.   WA has some very strict alcohol rules like the NT.  So, no wine, the other item on our shopping list was eggs which we forgot to purchase at the IGA yesterday – no eggs – all gone.  They did have a carton of eggs for $180, I don’t know how many individual cartons it held, but wouldn’t you think that you would open it and sell the individual cartons because the chances of selling that big box of eggs seems quite remote to me.

Heading out of Hall’s Creek on the Great Northern Highway, we crossed a very high bridge over Palm Creek and saw a track leading down and took it.  We had a great morning tea stop hidden from the highway in a little oasis.  There were a few pools of water and lots of birdlife.  There were 3 Brolgas wandering around and we saw a few new birds.

White Breasted Wood Swallow (that was all I managed to get a decent photo of)

 

 

There are plenty of rest spots which is very handy, plus lots of rubbish bins along the highway.  About 57 klms out of Hall’s Creek we saw our first Boab Trees.  A few were very very large and obviously very very old.

Today we stopped for lunch, yesterday we completely forgot about having lunch and only realized when we were getting dinner ready that we hadn’t stopped for lunch or an afternoon cuppa.  There is a rest spot on the Ord River dedicated to a young boy killed there on the original river crossing in 1999 aged 13. Lots of travellers had put 5c pieces on the story board poles as a tribute.  The significance of the 5c pieces are mentioned in the story board.

 

 

Around 12.30pm we were at the turn off for the Bungle Bungle National Park now called “Purndululu”

It is 53 klms in on a very twisty up hill and down dale road.  The road in just uses the natural route through the hills and mountains.  They say to allow 3 hours for the journey in which is around 18 km per hour, we managed a little faster than this and did it in around 2 hours.  There are some rules on what vehicles (4WD) and trailers (single axle off road) can enter the park.  There is a camp ground for caravans just a couple of kilometres in, but I think if you stayed there you would only come in for the one day and just pick a place to see, or do a guided tour or the helicopter flight over.

 

The drive in was scenic with the rich red of the rock against the green of the spinefix.  There were several water crossings, some natural springs which were quite pretty.  Unfortunately the crossing is muddy water due to the high traffic in and out of the park.  It would have been something to have seen it in the early days like the Leyland Brothers and you would have been the only ones doing the trail.  The park is a high demand tourist destination and with that comes some negatives.

When we arrived at the visitor centre a Kimberley Wild Tours bus had just pulled up and we managed to get into the office and confirm our booking before the horde.  It is interesting at camp grounds watching people find sites.  The less experienced the more they do the laps.  The point is that these camps sites are pretty much all the same, the only difference if at all is what shade cover you need and have. After our trip up and the 53 km leg in, we had the map, we turned into the first camping area (there are about 4), drove past the first site – it was shaded from the afternoon sun, level and had a tap and the camper trailer fits– that’s it – I wasn’t going to look at the other 105 sites.  We saw a back packer drive past our site 3 times – yes it still looks the same, how many laps of the camping grounds can you do?  There are toilets every where, I would say that there is a toilet for every 5 sites.  They are exceptionally clean – and they are pit toilets – no smell either.  There is water on tap (bore water – boil before drinking) we will be using it for washing up and showers, as we have our own drinking water in the trailer.

Tomorrow the hiking begins….. it will be good as we have had a few days sitting in the car