No Bungles in the Bungle Bungles

I know, corny title, but I just couldn’t resist, and it is better than the alternative (removing the word No)!
We ended up only getting into camp just on dusk, having underestimated how early the sun goes down, but it did allow us to drive in with the sun setting which was a fantastic way to introduce ourselves to the Bungle Bungles.
We decided that we would head out early the next morning, with the afternoon being set aside for rest and relaxation (and blog writing) before we headed back out to see the sun setting from another lookout.
First off we headed along the Mini Palm Gorge Walk, having decided that we would do the longer of the two walks first. Secondly was Echidna Chasm. I can’t see how I can describe these adequately, so we will do it in pictures instead.
Mini Palms Gorge

And we made it to the end

Now for the way back

Then Echidna Gorge

And finally (as far as the morning goes), from the nearby Osmond Lookout.

Following an afternoon rest we made it to Kungalanayi lookout for sunset.

The next morning we packed up as we thought we probably would have seen everything we wanted by lunchtime, which should give us a chance to be West of Halls Creek by night fall. After pack-up we headed for the Cathedral Gorge, which was at the opposite side of the park to the one we had stayed in and explored. This was also the area of the park that had all the iconic Bungle Bungle dome formations.
We started by exploring the gorge…



The state of max's clothes is explained by the number of dirt piles he insists on lying in!

and then to dome walk…

Following this it was a drive back towards the visitor centre and exit road. On the way my phone started making an alarm noise that I hadn’t heard before. On checking it we found that Liz had left a reminder regarding Fathers Day, which was lucky as we hadn’t remembered!! The drive out was fairly relaxed with a couple of stops as Max found he was getting a little car sick at times – it’s interesting given he had no problems on the way in. I haven’t worked out whether it is the weather or something else that makes the difference.
Final stop was Mary’s pool rest camp, mid-way between Halls Creek and Fitzroy Crossing. This is an overnight stopping point only, but we were amazed to find it absolutely packed there would have been in excess of 50 camps set up.

One thing that has been interesting is the difference between the Northern territory National Parks we visited and out time in the Purnululu National Park (Bungle Bungles). The camping costs were certainly significantly more expensive in the Bungle Bungles (it cost us more per night just for a site with a nearby toilet and some wood barbecue areas available than for camps that included showers etc. in the NT). Admittedly however none of them were so expensive that costs were likely to make a difference to whether and how long we stayed. Whether this would have been different if there had been 4 of us rather than 2 is another point altogether. Interestingly the national parks all seem to charge per person rather than per site, which doesn’t seem altogether fair – especially for large families.