possibly the best day of our entire trip, our visit to the bungle bungle ranges was also the hottest day of our trip, and was the only day in which we didn't throw ourselves into any bodies of water. come to think of it, it may have been the only day sans FKK...so all of you closet conservatives that have been emailing me to express your shock at seeing our bubblebutts in previous blogs can rest assured that this entry (and perhaps only this entry) will contain no such delicacy.
from a distance, the area around purnululu looked green and lush, like pasture. when we got closer we realised that the earth was bone dry and nutrient poor, but covered by millions of little tufts of spikey hard grass that would cut you as soon as look at you. it was quite beautiful. we didn't have time to dilly-dally though, as we had a date with the pilot of a flying machine at 0900 sharp!
what can i say? it was glorious! there was only enough room for g and i to squeeze in behind the pilot, and the lack of doors or windows - just a frame that held the helicopter together - meant that we were literally hanging out into the air with nothing but our seatbelts protecting us from an unfashionable descent to the rocks several hundred metres below. it was such a soft way to travel - we felt that were were hardly moving, just bobbing gently on a gust of air, even when we were choppering about at 150kph! it was the first time that either g or i had been in a helicopter, and it was fucking incredible!!!
still breathless, we then set about exploring on foot the famous beehive-shaped sandstone domes that we had seen from the sky! we started at the southern access point...
the heat led to tensions and temper tantrums from time to time...
the photo below was from the formidable cathedral gorge. for the sake of perspective which is lost in this 2D image, i have drawn an arrow on the photo indicating a man kneeling on the opposite bank of the pond. he can barely be seen (!)
we wandered up the lava flow bedrock of the piccaninny river
and then jumped back in jasper and made our way to the northern access point.
there were two walks here. the first was into echidna chasm - a crack in the 200m high cliffside that continued inwards over half a kilometre, at times only a metre or so wide!
there was no water there, so i'm not sure what this little fella was doing deep in the chasm...? searching for butterflies perhaps.
the second walk was the little palms walk, around some stunning rocky outcrops and up a gorge filled with a unique species of livistona palms. apparently these palms are the only remnants of the tropical rainforest that used to cover much of the top end. they cling to every surface!
just in time, we got back to the car and sped over to the walanginjdji lookout - a perfect little spot perched on a hill directly between the setting sun on one side and the bungle bungle range - shimmering with its spectrum of yellows and oranges and reds in the day's last rays - on the other.
as if the day couldn't be any more perfect: g made wedges for dinner!
join us in the next entry as we tail it out of WA and start the second instalment of our holiday: G+O's NT roadtrip!
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