A day at Purnululu

Thursday 9th July 2009
Out of bed at 5am, no brekkie, pickup at 5:30am from the caravan park, 6am take off from Kununurra Airport right on sunset.
The flight took us over the Packsaddle irrigation are to the proposed Ord Stage 2 area and then to Lake Argyle. This amazing expanse of water is actually considered an "Inland Sea" which means that boats on Lake Argyle have to comply with the same regulations as Ocean going vessels.
The Lake itself holds 10,000 Gigaliters of Water which equal to 10 Million Olympic Swimming Pools or 22 times the water in Sydney Harbour or 4 times the water in Lake Hume (when it's full). It's the largest manmade lake in Australia with a surface area of 1000 square kilomenter. It's also home to 25,000 fresh water crocs and a large population of catfish which is "exported" to Perth under the name of "Silver Cobbler".
After having passed the Lake we were in pretty remote country where 2 large cattle stations are located. One is the "Lissadell Station" with about 8000 head and the other is "Texas Downs Station" with 10,000 head. Texas Downs Station can not be accessed by road train due to rough terrain so their cattle are mustered up Cattle Creek and across Bow River to Lissadell Station's cattle yards.
The Bow River is the natural border between the two stations but in the dry season stock can cross the Bow. Cattle are branded and therefore can be indetified but those born out in the wild will belong to whoever brands them first.
Over a few more rocks and past the now closed Bow River Diamond mine and we could already see Purnululu National Park, a world heritage area, which contains the famous Bungle Bungles. The flight path takes us past these bee hive rocks and we appreciate their impressive shapes and colours.
The Bungle Bungles are formed round by a combination of the geology that makes up the rock and constant South Easterly winds blowing in from Tanami Desert which starts just here at the Bungles.
We landed at the Bellburn (dirt) airstrip and were greeted by our Aboriginal guide Jimmy who took us a short distance to the Wilderness Camp in a small 4WD bus. We were served a cooked breakfast before our departure (on Bus) to Cathedral Gorge. The walk from the carpark into the Gorge went through the dry creek bed all the way up the end where the gorge widens out to a cathedral like structure with a little lake inside it.
We learned that the striped appearance of the Bungles comes from the red (iron rich) Sandstone and the black cynobacteria which grows on it's surface.
After the walk back out of the gorge and another drive we consumed our packed lunches before walking into Echidna Chasm which is a steep valley surrounded by 200m high vertical walls. As we walked through the dry creek bed into the Chasm we encountered palm trees against the spectecular red backdrop of the steep sandstone walls. Further in the Chasm narrows down to one person width but still 200mt vertical walls. We walked all the way to the end of the Chasm before returning to our bus for our trip back to the airstrip. Along the way we stopped for a short walk up to Kungkalahayi Lookout before we had afternoon tea at the Wilderness Lodge. Around 4pm we arrived back at the airstrip and were greeted by our pilot who shoved us into the Gippland Aeronautics "Airvan" where every passenger gets a window seat. The flight back gave us another perspective of the Bungles before our track back to Kununurra. Along the way we checked out the Argyle Diamond mine which produces 25% of the worlds diamonds. They are best know for their pink diamonds with fetch a huge amount of money due to the "silent auction" sales method employed by the mine owners Rio Tinto. This mine produces 20 million carats of diamonds a year.
Back over Lake Argyle and in for a close look of the dam wall which is surpisingly small, only a fraction of the Lake Hume wall. Whoever worked out that such a small wall would capture such a huge amount of water was very clever indeed. We followed the Spillway Creek all the way back to Kununurra where we landed spot on sunset at 5pm. Needless to say that by the time we got back to the Caravan we were ready for bed - thank god that tomorrow's tour doesn't start until 11:30am.