Kimberley Adventures at the Bungle Bungles, Echidna Chasm, and Wolfe Creek Crater

In the last post covering Judbarra and Lake Argyle, I have to confess, I cheated a bit: the last two photos were taken in Purnululu National Park, home of the Bungle Bungles. But, I really think the Bungles deserve to be at the top of a post, so here we are again!

Here’s a map of what we cover in this post in green. Previous areas we’ve covered are in red. You can also always follow us live on our mapshare map, which is pinged frequently by our InReach satellite device!

The Bungle Bungles are a unique rock formation located in Purnululu National Park. They have a distinctive zebra-striping pattern which is caused by staining of the white limestone base by algae (the black lines) or iron (the red lines). They’re fragile, beautiful, and unique – and they weren’t a tourist destination until the 1980’s due to their remote location. Even now, visiting the Bungles requires coming out here to the east Kimberley through outback NT or outback WA, and then driving even further – about another 80km on a terribly corrugated dirt road through a cattle station and into the National Park.

You’d better believe they were on our “hit list”!

We arrived at our campground in Purnululu after sunset, quickly set up camp, had a quick dinner and went to bed. The next day we woke up with the sun at 5am and it was already 28 degrees Celsius (82F). When it’s this hot, you really want to be off the hiking trails and in your vehicle’s air conditioning by 10am at the latest, so we packed up camp quickly and headed out to the trails. Even the ground out here just radiates heat. My family and friends know I love the heat – but this is even too much for me.

Amazingly, you can get up close to the Bungles via a short hiking trail along a dry creek bed. I guess this is still possible due to relatively low visitor numbers out here – I’m sure this wouldn’t be the case near Sydney or any sort of populated area. You aren’t allowed to climb the Bungles or even touch them – they’re extremely fragile – but there are no fences or barriers at all. It’s an honour to be trusted with their preservation and I hope that all visitors take the privilege very seriously.

The trail among the Bungles ends at an area called Cathedral Gorge, where there’s a peaceful cathedral-like sheltered area with a permanent (though stagnant) pool of water. It’s very tranquil in there, and at this time of year (hot!) we had it all to ourselves which was pretty neat!

The Bungle Bungles aren’t the only attraction in Purnululu National Park, although to be fair they are certainly what drew us there. But, there’s also the amazing Echidna Chasm, a narrow gorge 180 metres deep but only a few metres wide, that’s been carved out by billions of years of erosion.

By the time we left Echidna Chasm it was 10am and seriously warm out, we were quite happy to hop into the Jeep for a few hours of driving before making it to our next destination, Wolfe Creek Crater. 300,000 years ago a meteorite crashed here, creating this crater which is almost a kilometre wide (850 metres, to be exact) and the second-largest meteor crater in the world from which meteorite fragments have been gathered. It’s actually not that big or that old though…Gosses Bluff in the NT, which we visited last year, is much older (143 million years) and much bigger (5km wide).

Sorry Wolfe Creek, not trying to get you down, you’re still beautiful to me.

If you’re Aussie or a horror movie fan, you’ll also recognise Wolfe Creek from the film of the same name (although they left off the “e” in their title), where a group of tourists is brutally tortured and murdered after visiting the crater. No, we haven’t watched the film, and we aren’t planning to either thank you very much!! There have been a few instances of tourists or backpackers being murdered in the outback in Australia but we’ve never felt in danger. Even when we were at a campground with one other vehicle, and the driver joined us at our campfire and asked if we were carrying any weapons… (before you get freaked out, he was an older gentleman and wanted to be sure that Nick was keeping me safe ?)

Leaving Wolfe Creek, we drove til dark and pulled up at a roadside free camp spot. These spots are everywhere in Australia, some nicer than others, but all are a very much appreciated refuge for everyone driving long distances…including the road train who pulled up at this stop after dark and ran his refrigeration unit until 3am ? Not that I can blame him when it’s in the high 20’s all night. Don’t worry, I packed ear plugs, and Nick sleeps like a rock.

Lake Argyle, the Bungles, and Wolfe Creek done, we were looking forward to the next big Kimberley adventure, and another one of those epic Aussie 4wd tracks covering 650km between Kununurra and Derby… the Gibb River Road

But first, we had to make it to Kununurra for one last stock-up, and if you’ve been following along, you know that 3 weeks later we’re still there…