It was slow going & took us about 1 1/2 hours. Compared to the roads we have been on lately, we thought it was overall pretty good. We arrived at the visitor centre only to find out it was closed for lunch, we read the information boards about camping & it seemed if you hadn't booked online you had to wait to be allocated a site or go to one small loop of the campground & try to get a site there. We decided to have some lunch ourselves & wait for the centre to reopen. The office finally reopened & when we enquired about camping we were told by a not very friendly staff member to just self register & then choose any site, so much for needing to be allocated a site!
The Domes above & 4 photos below
Cathedral gorge above & 2 photos below
The window
Walk into echidna
View from Stonehenge walk
We travelled the 7km or so to Kurrajong campground & found a site in loop 2. It was near a fire pit, with two available sites beside us. We set up camp & decided to just stay around camp that afternoon as we had plenty of time to explore in the next few days. We were sitting there enjoying the serenity & a very quiet campground, when that all came to a crashing end. A group of campers decided to camp next door, out jumped 5 kids & the music was blaring. What ensued was the worst neighbours we have had at any campsite. They were just so loud & inconsiderate the whole time & they stayed for 3 nights, damn it!
The next morning we were up early & headed to the southern end of the park. We parked the car & did the Domes walk that takes you right in close to the beehive domes that make the Bungle Bungles famous, it was a lovely walk & the sunlight on the domes was amazing.
We then continued onto the Cathedral gorge walk. You made your way up a stony creek bed & into the gorge, again the light was amazing. At the end of the gorge you are confronted by the Cathedral itself. It was an amazing round end to the gorge that acted as an amphitheater, that had an amazing echo & everything seemed so loud. It is one of the only places that I have ever seen people trying to be quiet in, it just had this feel about it. Even as you walked to the end of the gorge, the rocks beneath your feet made a very loud echoing sound. There was a pool of water in the bottom, but it was stagnate, so no swimming. We sat & ate our morning tea & had a great time watching people trying to be quiet.
It was still early as we walked back out so we decided to do a walk called the Window walk, that took you along a creek bed to a natural hole in one of the sandstone cliffs. The walk was over a lot of sand & rocks & it was hot with very little shade. We finally made it to the window & I have to say it was pretty disappointing. Yes there was a hole in the cliff, but you couldn't actually see anything through it just the blue sky. If it had of framed the landscape it would of been pretty cool, but all you could take a photo of was the sky.
Not really worth the 6km return walk, as we trudged our way back, we decided to also call into the Piccaninny Creek Lookout another 600m detour. We made it to the lookout & were once again disappointed, yes it was beautiful, but not really anything you can't see everywhere else in the park. So we made our way back to the car park. About 8km of walking for the day. We definitely recommend the Domes & Cathedral Gorge walks, but weren't that impressed with the window or Piccaninny creek lookout.
Piccaninny creek lookout
Back to camp for a couple of hours peace, until our roudy neighbours returned once again for the afternoon. We are continually shocked at just how inconsiderate other campers can be. It was pretty chilly that night & with no hope of sharing the communal fire pit with our neighbours, we got our Snowpeak fire pit out & enjoyed the warmth of the fire.
After a chilly night, the next day was just beautiful. We set off to the northern end of the park to Echidna Chasm walk. This was a 2km return walk into a 200m chasm. It was again another walk along a dry creek bed over rocks, but then you started to enter the chasm. It was amazing, the colours just beautiful & as you got further in the sides of the chasm keep getting closer & closer until you can touch both walls. You climb over some big rocks & up two ladders before you reach the end, where you can't go any further. We had the whole place to ourselves & it was lovely. The only thing was that my camera flash died, & I can't get it to work, so I didn't get as many photos as I would of liked. Echidna Chasm was the highlight of our Bungle Bungle trip, the Domes & Cathedral were good as well, but the chasm was amazing.
Echidna chasm entrance
Inside above & below, sorry for the photos no flash unfortunately
On our way out we also went up to Osmond Lookout. A short walk & we had amazing views over the Osmond range definitely worth the detour.
Osmond lookout view
The next day we did the Homestead Valley walk, a 4.4km walk through the deep range of homestead valley. It was a nice walk & we had it mostly to ourselves. The lookout at the end was the best part. We had wanted to also do the Mini Palms walk, but unfortunately it was closed, so instead we did the short walk called Stonehenge (no idea why it's called that) but it's a loop walk through the bush that identifies the aboriginal use of the local plants. Worth a stop of you have time.
Homestead valley walk above & below
You hear many things about the Bungle Bungles & a lot of people say it's the best part of the Kimberley. To be honest we don't agree & it's not in our top 5 places. It is a very very beautiful place & deserves it's world heritage listing. Echidna Chasm, the Domes & the Cathedral gorge should not be missed & are a must see, but the rest of the walks that we completed not so much. You could easily see all of that in a day trip or overnighter, which a lot of people do.
I am not sure if it was our noisy neighbours, or the unfriendly park staff, or the idiot driving around camp with his music pumping at 6.30am this morning or what, that detracted from our stay, but we were surprised that we didn't enjoy it as much as we expected. The camp ground itself was good, with lots of toilets & water taps. The cost is $12 per adult per night plus your vehicle access fee.
We camped in the generator area at Kurrajong. Huge area, only maybe 2-4 other lots of campers in it for the whole week we were there. And no-one ran a genset that we could hear! The main "quiet" camp area was absolutely packed the whole time and we could hear the distant noise from there. We had no near neighbours at all. Don't automatically ignore generator areas!
ReplyDeleteGreat advice. We did this at Silent Grove campsite on the Gibb & it was heaps quieter. You definitely get unlucky sometimes with neighbours that is for sure, or at least we seem to :)
Delete