Betten On Bike: DAY 34 - 12TH MAY 2013 - BUNGLE BUNGLE & PURNULULU NATIONAL PARK FULL DAY TOUR

Day 34 - 12th May 2013 - Rest Day – Full Day Tour of Bungle Bungles and Purnululu National Park

Up at 6pm – I was on the way though the bull dust & red dust of the caravan park to the basic demountable block which formed the amenities block when I thought I saw a mirage – An Espresso Coffee Van – I kid you not !!! right there adjacent to the amenities block. Dianna had decided to forego the pleasures of sleeping in the little tent the night before and had opted to take a safari tent with a bed so I happened to met her and we spoke to the kindly senior gentleman who was operating the coffee van. The owners of this caravan park are South African and this was one of their innovative ideas – more about these operators later. Di kindly ordered coffees for the 3 of us !!

We boarded the comfortable 4 Wheel Drive just before 7am together with 10 others and John (Radar) greeted us and on the way to The National Park Information Centre a 2 hour drive over rough steep corrugated and rocky roads with creek and river crossings he provided us with the most interesting of commentaries about the history, the operation of the properties under The Pastoral Lease Land by the W A Government, the geology, politics and so much more.

In sum 1.7 million acres makes up the land under this owner’s lease which is comprised of 4 cattle stations – Mabel (where the caravan park is situated, Texas,Alice and Springvale.) Another adjacent property managed by an Aboriginal community is currently under review as there are certain criteria which must be fulfilled under the Pastoral Lease arrangement and the Aboriginal community is not fulfilling the pastoral component of the lease and so are in danger of losing their lease. The South owner, Jack Burton of the 4 cattle stations is currently negotiating sharing the lease with this Aboriginal community who can retain the land for cultural purposes and he will take over the pastoral operations of the land which will bring his holdings to 2.3 million acres.

John also spoke a lot about the live cattle trade to Indonesia and how the sudden and complete halt had impacted on the cattle stations and the resultant financial hardship. He spoke about how the live cattle trade operates – the process of getting the cattle to ship weight (now 250kg per animal which was previously 350kg) before the live cattle trade issue and the resultant negotiations which had taken place to resume the trade and the outcome being a loss of $200 per head of cattle – significant decrease.

Also interesting was the cultural importance of fresh beef being sold in Indonesia – vacuum packed meat would not be accepted by the Indonesians because it had been slaughtered too long ago.

Much was also said about ‘Get Big or Get Out’ hence there is a huge amount of diversification taking place with tourism, caravan parks (such as Bungle Bungles which is now only its 3^rd season – we were told that under the lease no permanent buildings are allowed to be constructed hence all the demountables.)

We were also told that this northern part of W A had just experienced its worse wet season in 40 years with only 300 ml instead of 800 – 900 ml of rain having fell this year. This was evident in many of the creeks and rivers we crossed which in normal years the water level is well over one metre higher than the current level.

In due course we arrived at the park information centre and had a look at the various sites / walks / attractions that could be visited. The plan today was to drive to the southern end and everyone have the opportunity to do whichever / how many walks they wanted to do.

Walter & I opted to start with the longest walk to Cathedral Gorge – spectacular

Then to Piccaninny Gorge – look-out – first a walk along the amazing dry solid rippled rock of the creek bed and then onto a track winding around the beehive formations and a short climb to a look out.

Finally The Domes Circuit walk winding around banded domes towering majestically around you and ending at a small round grotto cave where I spotted a group of tiny Kimberley black frogs amongst the rocks.

After lunch & cool drinks we drove to The northern end of the park to enable us to do the Echidna Chasm walk – 2 km firstly along a very rocky dry creek bed and then into the 200 mtr chasm with varying colour hues and amazingly looking above a large boulder which had fallen and wedged itself in the chasm – a bit eerie as you walk through.

Then up to the look-out to view the ancient Osmand Range and views out deep into the valley.- - quite spectacular !!

Then the long 2 hour drive back over the rocky, corrugated steep narrow track – Arrived back at 5.30pm and it was already almost dark - luckily a hearty dinner was included in this tour back at the caravan park - fantastic way to finish this long day of walks in the special part of The Kimberleys.