The episode where Zippy was caught touching Bungle’s bungle

We awoke at our normal time of sunrise in the private campground just outside Purnululu NP (formally the Bungle Bungle). We wanted to get going as quickly as possible, since it was a little over 50km to the park entrance, along a dusty, slow 4wd track. It took almost 1.5hrs to drive to the entrance, where we paid the $88 annual WA national park fee on top of $24pp per night for simple bush camping. And we thought NT was expensive!! Although you don’t get much for your money, it quickly became obvious why they can get away with it. The place was nice, and I mean nice, nice.

Our first main stop inside the park was the Echidna Chasm, at the very north of the park. The walk is listed as 2.2km return, so easily within our limits. It was spectacular, and well worth a visit if you ever find yourself in outback WA, with a 4wd and a wad of cash.

I wonder how this was formed?

You wander from the carpark, following a dried creek bed, into the chasm. It is formed by blah blah blah. I did read the interesting information about it, but have no memory of what it said. It looked nice, so who cares, really?

I hope someone starts singing Ultravox - Vienna 

As we were wandering along, a German (of course) woman also exploring the chasm started singing some hymn (I over heard her mention it was Russian to someone else). The acoustics of the chasm really enhanced the beauty of her voice and the few people there agreed it sounded great… but to be honest it did annoy me that she just started warbling without asking. I mean, it was nice and all that, but maybe I don’t want to hear a stupid Russian ditty. It’s the assumption that gets me. It's like backpackers around a campfire; nobody wants to hear Tarquin's acoustic rendition of hit me baby, one more time. Regardless, it was an amazing place.

Big crack

After the walk we thought we’d go set up camp. It was a blistering afternoon, but with no swimming holes, so we found a spot and slumped under the awning for the rest of the day. The only break from the heat was a tap close to our camp, from which we got cold water to pour over our heads.  

The next day, we woke up at sunrise to find the temperature had dropped to around 12 degrees, which is fucking cold when you live in a tent. We’d decided that we were going to do the whopping 10km return walk to Whipsnake gorge, taking in Cathedral gorge and the Domes on the way. This would take us into Katherine Gorge walking distance, but we’d come all this way and I had new trainers and all that, so we decided to give it a go.

The views from the drive there were extraordinary, and we kept stopping every twenty metres to take photos.

Lucky traffic was light

The best thing about coming to the Kimberleys at this time of year is the number of people in the park is declining, due to the temperature starting to rise in August. This meant as we walked around the Domes and Cathedral gorge we were all alone.

At these temps even stagnant water looks inviting

As we were leaving the German woman turned up again, but she wasn’t singing today. We had a conversation with her about the weather before moving on. 

The walks follow creek beds, and are very exposed but easy to follow.  My trainers have a mesh top, and every so often, as we walked over a sandy bit, my trainers filled with sand. So, I was hot and my shoes had sand in them. To be honest, I’m just trying to find things to moan about, as the backdrop along the walk was pretty great.

Hard to be grumpy here

Becky loved it, despite the distance we were walking and went snap happy, and that got tiring too. How many selfies do you need?

I think I know what to get Becky for Xmas

When we'd reached the Window (about half way) we were starting to get sluggish and overheated. The Window is listed as a place of interest, but it didn’t really stand out over anything else, and I’m not sure why they highlighted it. It was just a rock with a hole in it. Still, we took a picture, so one for the album.

No Windex needed here

By the time we’d reached Whipsnake gorge our enthusiasm had started to wane, so we didn’t take any photos. We just had some peanuts, rehydrated and emptied the sand out of our shoes. We were just about to empty our bladders, when some other people entered the gorge. They mentioned some German woman singing in Cathedral gorge, and how wonderful it sounded. We mentioned we’d heard her yesterday… I think once was enough.

The walk back was slow and in order to cope with the heat I adopted a fashion choice of early 2000’s. I don’t think it helped cool me down, but it felt gooood, and as you can see, my upper legs need a tan.

I think I can carry this off.

We’d had a fantastic morning, and headed back to our camp to resume slumping in our camp chairs, and occasionally walking to the tap to pour cold water over our heads. We were also joined by a very brave magpie lark, eating peanut scraps we’d dropped. Becky tried to film it, but after she followed it to the tent it flew at her aggressively. How could a little pippifågel attack her, I'm the one the animals get annoyed by, not Becky Doolittle?

As the sun started to set, and our energy levels increased, Becky cooked dinner as I tinkered under the car bonnet. I’ve been meaning to clean the air filter for a while, after all the dusty roads we’ve been on. I’d watched a video on YouTube on how to do it a while back, so removed the cover and took the air filter out. It was at this point that Becky reminded me that I’m not a fucking mechanic and watching a few videos and replacing the windscreen washer pipes doesn’t change that. I’d now removed an important engine component while we are over 160km from the nearest town and if I fucked anything up it would be a very expensive mistake. I suddenly felt like a child that had taken apart his favourite toy, and realised he might not know how to put it back together. I carefully placed the filter back, and locked everything down without breaking anything.  Lesson learned…for now.

Another early start was needed as we were heading to Kununurra in preparation for the Gibb River road. The Gibb River road runs over the upper part of the Kimberleys and is notorious for the terrible corrugations on the roads and remoteness. Although it has become a very popular tourist route in recent years, it still needs some planning, particularly in regard to food and fuel. We decided to spend a few days in Kununurra stocking up, washing clothes and readying ourselves for remote WA.

I was first out of bed, making myself a lovely cup of instant coffee. As I was ripping open the last of the sachets of coffee Becky had taken from the hotel in Darwin, something smacked me on top of my head. That fucking magpie-lark Becky was filming the day before had dive-bombed and scratched the top of my head. I was shocked and vowed my revenge, which ended up just being me throwing a few stones at it, and cussing every magpie-lark I’ve seen since. We still don’t know why it attacked, as it had no young in the vicinity and seemed fine with us the day before. My mum suggested he might have seen its reflection in the top of my head and attacked it… seems plausabile.

The rest of the packing went well, although I did have a little PTSD and flashbacks. I don’t think I’ll ever be able to trust another magpie lark. The 60km drive out of the Bungle Bungles was slow, and included a few new obstacles in the form of cows at one of the creek crossings.

The cows tried to recreate a country version of the Beetles Abbey Road cover

Near the end of the track we saw some wheel blocks from a camping trailer or caravan. Our handbrake is pretty shit, so we stopped and briefly considered taking them. However, they were very bulky and seemed a little unnecessary. Luckily we didn’t as another 100m down the road we met the couple whose camper trailer had broken under the terrible corrugations. They were strapping up the back when we stopped briefly to tell them about the blocks we’d seen, but I didn't want to offer any further help because I’m not a racist. After hitting the tarmac, it was an easy 250km to Kununurra.

Kununurra was a pleasant surprise, and a much nicer place than Katherine. The campsite was quiet and the ensuite showers were a welcome relief, particularly after two nights of bush camping. After spending the afternoon and part of the next morning washing clothes and rearranging our stuff (something we haven’t done for a few days), we decided to visit Lake Argyle, which is only a short 70km drive away.

It is a man-made lake, but has become the largest body of fresh water in Australia. That’s what the bumf says, and who are we to argue. It was pretty spectacular.

A big lake

We had brought a picnic lunch that was ruined by a disgusting and dry roast chicken, from Coles. It really wasn’t pleasant at all, even I could not finish it all and that says a lot.

Dry chicken lunch, well that's my day ruined

After that we went to a few lookouts before heading back to Kununurra.

Takes more than dry chicken to faze Becky

The rest of the afternoon was spent packing, washing clothes, shopping and writing blogs that’ll be posted while we’re on the Gibb. Becky finally realised that she won’t be doing any baking and threw the flour out. A bit spilt on the floor and a big, male Kangaroo started eating it. It looked like he was sniffing coke and when he looked up his nose was all white, like a kangaroo scarface.

Say hello to my lil friend

We quickly threw the rest away, because we’re conscientious like that, but who knew Kangaroos would like flour?

We left for the Gibb River road on the 26^th August, and we were planning to spend 10-14 days driving to Broome. The last two blogs were spaced (and also very rushed) as to try to have something post while we are out of wifi range. Maybe we’ll finish it quicker, in which case this last paragraph is pointless… You’ll find out this and more in the next, riveting post of the midlife adventures of Tom and Becky.

UPDATE: We are off the Gibb after seven days, due to reasons that will unfold in the next few posts. How's that for a cliff hanger?