Betten On Bike: DAY 33 - 11TH MAY 2013 EMMA GORGE

Day 33 - 11th May 2013 Emma Gorge – Bungle Bungle Caravan Park

Up at 4.15am – Today’s plan was for the three of us to drive to The Hall’s Creek turn-off as Walter had already cycled the section from The Gibb River Road to Emma Gorge so we were in fact back-tracking to get to the turn-off where today’s ride would begin.

Arrived at the Hall’s Creek turn-off at 5.35am where Walter cycled off to begin his ride. Dianna & I had breakfast there at rest point.

Cycling Stats: 205 km

Cycling Average: 32.5 km per hour

Lots of interesting points of interest today – Brahmans, birds, & Boab (bottle trees) trees by the hundreds some of which were huge - up to between 6 & 8 metres around the interestingly formed trunks. The rocky landscape and various spinifex grasses in clumps in all hues from whites / creams / silvers to pinks and various shades of green.

Made a stop at Warmum (where we originally planned to stay the night) for fuel ($1.97 per litre – we have actually paid up to $2.05 per litre in some of the remote roadhouses) & some groceries – The temperature was once more in the mid thirties and Walter took the opportunity to grab an icy pole.

Arrived at Bungle Bungle Caravan Park and at first sight we were a little taken aback as there was virtually no shade and so we were parked in the full sun at early afternoon. As mentioned before this was not our original plan – We had decided to increase the day’s kms by 50 kms acting on the recommendation of some fellow travelers we had met at Emma Gorge. They had raved about the fixed wing plane tour over the Bungle Bungles they had done as well as the full day tour of the Bungle Bungles in the Purnululu National Park which is world heritage listed. Our plan had been to stop at Warmun and do a helicopter flight over the Bungle Bungles and move on the next day. So we were a little concerned as to whether our decision had been wise. That afternoon though at 3.30 pm we were taken by bus to the tiny red dust airstrip to board a 7 seater fixed wing aircraft for our booked flight.

The half hour flight gave us a great overview of the national park and the 4 huge cattle properties and we saw the magnificent and famous Beehive sandstone formations, the around 35 km long Bungle Bungle Range (only around 300,000 years old) and the ancient Osmond Range which is 1.6 billion year old and was originally higher than The Himalayas. We saw the huge deep crevices of the many gorges and the worlds 3^rd largest fault line Hall’s Creek Fault line which is 600 – 1000 kms long but, because of its vast age it is very stable. It is thought to be around 1.6 – 1.8 billion years old.

This view from the air certainly wet our appetite for the following day’s 4 Wheel Drive small bus tour into The Purnululu National Park.