Bungle Bungles

Our set up at Bungle Bungle but we didn't bother with the roof of the Kitchen as we didn't stay there long enough

Today was going to be a challenging day heading into the Bungle Bungles,it's a rough road in and it takes 2 hours one way. We headed out at 7.30am and that way we get there by 9.30am to the vistors centre, where you report and buy your pass for the national park. By now it was getting hot , a quick slip, slop, slap and had lunch by 11 am as we then had to drive another 27 km to Cathedral Gorge. There were many tours out and about too, it's cost of one of those is $250 per head but that includes lunch and dinner. We headed on foot out to the Cathedral Gorge, oh boy, with sweat already pouring down our faces, it was a good workout, 4 km walk as well as detouring off and walking the 'Dome walk'. We didn't walk the 'Picanniny Lookout' as this was another 1 km walk and we wanted to drive to 'Echidna Chasm' and do that one too. And guess what that was 47 km away.

Cathedral gorge, was like a Cathedral and  the sand was so white, and a small amount of water lay, stagnant with a few fish in there. There was alot of sand and the kids all started doing handstands just for  fun. It was out of the sun and really lovely and cool in there.You can see where if there was alot of water where exactly it would be flowing. Prior to getting to the Cathedral Gorge we walked the 'Dome Walk', now this is all rocks that look like small domes. We were saying they looked more like huge Beehives. We did go over to the start of the 'Picanniny Lookout walk' but decided against it. Although this spot at the start of the 'Picanniny Walk' was where the Qantas advertisement was filmed a couple of years ago with all the children in white shirts,singing 'We still call Australia Home'. And we all remembered that ad, even Dylan and Oliver. Back to the car and we hoped staright in the car , the car temp saying 44 deg. Mark felt he was on a mission and said I want to leave the National Park by 3pm as we have to drive another 2hours to get out of it.I agree, I don't fancy the roads and river crossings in darkness. We scooted off heading  towards 'Echidna Chasm', this took another 40 mins to get there and then ,you guessed it more walking into the 'Echidna Chasm, but this time it was shorter 2km return however the whole way was on big boulder rocks and small rocks and all different loose rocks. It was a little tricky on the ankles that tend to slip easily. A few tour buses were taking people through, the tours that cost $250 a head, but alot of the people were oldies. They were struggling getting through the rocks. I didn't hang around to see if they made it.

Cathedral Gorge

Oli doing his thing and perfecting it with some help.

Dylan doing his thing

Piccaninny Creek, and where they shot the advertisement for Qantas 

Re-enacting the Qantas commerical

Dylan standing between the two walls

Oliver down the narrowing of Echidna Chasm

Echidna Chasm and the boulder rock wedged in between

Echidna Chasm, was amazing when we got to the end it was like a an opening into the rocks or a crack in the rocks that you can walk down. Millions of years ago the wall cracked opening it up, and really quite amazing to be able to walk through it. I only went so far and the boys and also Lily decided to push on further through smaller and tighter cracks and came to the end, where a huge rock was wedged between the two walls. How it hasn't come down is hard to understand. Back to car and again glad to sit in airconditioning. We went back to vistors centre, checked out and bought a few things. Homeward bound but a 2 hour ride ahead. Back at camp at around 5.15pm, sun had just gone down. Dinner in the dark again. A really funny incident happened tonight, but wasn't funny at the time. As I had said, these bulls come into camp each night and graze around they don't hurt you in anyway, but they do drop their buisness up around the toilet area. Dylan and Oliver went off to the toilets together in the dark,while Mark was having a shower. They came running back in such a state, Oliver had stood in the big bull patty poo in thongs and as it was dark and he couldn't see much he bent down to pick his thong up, well he thought it was his thong but it was his inprint in the poo patty and had fresh poo all over his feet, hands and then Dylan comes to the rescue and picks up the thong for him and gets poo all over him. Dylan said,"Mum, I literally have Bull Sh... on me". Oh dear what a clean up we had. We do laugh now though. IT could only happen to Oliver,