With our unexpected need to stay close to medical service just in case things went wrong with the shower recess bite, we unfortunately had to change our original plans to spend 3 days camping in the Purnululu National Park. But I really, REALLY didn't want to miss out on seeing the Bungle Bungles, so we were able to splurged a day trip down to see them, for which we were all VERY grateful.
We started with an hour long flight in a 14 seater plane (it was VERY small, as you can see above!) which was the first official flight Josie has ever taken, so that was very exciting.
On the way down we flew over Lake Argyle, a large inland sea created in the 1970s to support the created of the Ord Valley Irrigation system. We did a tour of the lake a few days after this tour, so I'll have more details in a later post, but here are some photos from above. Its pretty impressive, although I can't help feel some kind of a way about the fact that it was created without any consultation with traditional land owners, and we heard from one local Aboriginal man that some community members who were still living on country were killed in the process of flooding the lake. It did sour me on the whole endeavour somewhat.
After landing safely (and vomit free!) we had a lovely morning tea and jumped on a bus with our two tour guides, a traditional owner Cory and a young woman from Brisbane called Kayla, to take the 30 minute drive from the airstrip to the entrance to the walk into Cathedral Gorge.
We were told that the Bungle Bungle Range was fairly unknown beyond the traditional owners, the Gira and Jaru peoples, and the local pastoralists until the 1980s, due to its remote location at the northern end of the Tanami dessert. A documentary crew were in the area filming 'Wonders of Western Australia', and heard from some locals at the pub about some interesting rock formations that might be worth flying over. They ended up being the main feature of the doco, and the rest is tourism history! Purnululu National Park was created in 1987, and it was listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2003.
Cathedral Gorge is at the southern end of the large range of amazing rock formations. The layered beehive-like structures have been formed over a millions of years (or 100 of millions of years - what is time?!?!) through a combination of sedimentation layering and then erosion, primarily due to the tearing winds coming from the Tanami dessert to the south of the national park. As such we saw some of the most defined of the famous beehives as we walked into the gorge.
We stopped along the way to learn about the geological formation of the ranges, as well some details about the local fauna and flora of the area. We got to hear from Cory about the rainbow serpent who created the ranges next to the watering hole which was its final resting place, and is now considered sacred to the traditional owners (so we didn't take any photos).
After about an hour's walk we reached our destination, the aptly named Cathedral Gorge.
After the walk back out to the bus we had a lovely afternoon tea at an eco lodge in the park then headed back for the plane home to Kununurra. We spent the return flight at a higher altitude, and I was super grateful for the smoother flight. Unfortunately it did mean that Josie had some shocking ear pain on descent, but we're hoping this doesn't put her off flying forever 🤞
This trip was a week ago, and you'll be pleased to know we eventually got the car fixed and successfully made it out of Kununurra. But not without some more fun adventures, which I'll post about asap.