Purnululu, or Bungle Bungle, is a place I have longed to see for many years, so the closer we got, the more excited I was. And it hasn’t disappointed. This is a really special experience.

Being surrounded by these unique banded domes – some large, some small – with towering red cliffs, endless gorges and chasms, massive dry river beds, and views you’ll see nowhere else in the world leaves you gasping at the surreal landscape.

This area went largely unnoticed by white man for many decades. It was formerly part of pastoral leases, and the high rocky country was considered poor quality for running cattle. It was “discovered” by whitefellas in 1982 when a news crew flew over the area. It was declared a National Park in 1987 and inscribed onto the World Heritage List in 2003. I would even suggest it should be in the top 10 Natural Wonders of the World. It’s that good!
Being left alone for so long has meant that it is not overly developed. If white tourists had got in here even 50 years earlier, I’m sure there would be many more roads (even bitumen), tracks and stairs and ladders galore, and recklessly planned camping grounds.
Our day started rather early. We have adopted the “day light” clock, which means we get up before 6am and since it’s dark by 5.30pm, we are in bed by 8.30pm. There are two sections to the Bungles – north and south. We went south to start with and walked in to the aptly named Cathedral Gorge.

It was huge, absolutely huge. We had this incredible amphitheatre all to ourselves – a rare treat given the numbers that visit here. There would be nothing worse than having a tour bus of 25 people arrive here to have an hour’s lunch break! Lucky they don’t work on the day light clock.
From there we walked on up Piccanniny Creek, where the river bed is made of massive rock slabs, gradually being eroded by the flow of the water each wet season.

There’s a small climb to a great lookout for the half-a-family shot.

The mounds we were surrounded by have been described as tiger-striped honeycomb, but I rather like the description of a packet of half melted Jaffas.
No matter what you call them, they look different every time you turn a bend in the creek bed.

The mounds are made of sandstone, with a thin coating of bands of oxidised iron compounds (the orange) and cyanobacteria (the grey/black).

We continued up the creek to Whip Snake Gorge, and by now it was getting quite hot. I’m glad we weren’t just starting out in that heat. I don’t know why it’s called Whip Snake Gorge, but we didn’t see any snakes at all. It was another huge cavern at the end of a long creek bed, not as big as Cathedral Gorge but still impressive.
The morning’s walking totalled 13km and we were ready for a good sit down!