Tuesday 23^rd September

Today most of the group took a helicopter ride over the Bungle Bungles whilst we sat in the shade and drank coffee. We then drove around the Bungles, admiring the magnificent red sandstone outcrops, banded with black from cyanobacteria and conglomerate.

We walked for a couple of kilometres around some of the bee hive domes (caused by erosion) and then through a rocky creek bed into Cathedral Gorge. It was very hot but worth it to see where the gorge opens out into a huge open topped cavern with 300Km walls. Wetting a scarf around the neck was mandatory!

We returned to Belburn for a lovely lunch and then drove off again to see the visitors centre before the walk into Echidna Chasm. This was much shadier, again along the stony bottom of a dried up creek and then through a very narrow and dramatic cleft between towering cliffs. The views were awesome and difficult to do justice to with a camera.

We drove to a lookout point which involved 500m of walking uphill but the sun was getting lower so it wasn’t so hot and it gave us some great views of the Bungle Bungles.

Then back to camp and a beer and another excellent dinner before bed.

Monday 22^nd September

Today we drove up to Wyndham and up to the Five Rivers lookout for morning smoko (Australian for a tea break) where one an see the Pentecost, King, Ord, Durack and Forrest rivers at the top of the Cambridge gulf. There were great views but it was a bit misty with the smoke.

                                                                                                                                           

We then headed down the Great North highway past the Carr Boyd ranges and the Arygle diamond mine to Purnululu NP and then drove 60Km along unmade roads to the Belburn Camp. It was the windiest, bendy road we have been on yet and took over two hours but the scenery was magnificent.

The cabins are fairly basic but have en suite and the food at dinner was suberb – the chicken kiev was the best I’ve ever tasted and her chocolate date pudding was to die for!

Sunday 21^st September

Today, after breakfast at 7am, we drove a short way to the township and from there to the jetty where we boarded a covered boat to cruise for 3Km through the Chamberlain Gorge. It was around 40 degrees plus, so very hot but very beautiful. The gorge used to be very wooded but the huge floods of 2011 washed most of the trees away as a twenty metre wall of water rushed through. The homestead, built on the top of the cliffs, had some of its supports knocked out by a baob trunk but everything lower sustained major damage or was destroyed (This happened at the Mitchell plateau safari camp as well). We saw a small rock wallaby and a freshwater croc. There are reports of salt water crocodiles so no-one is allowed to swim in the gorge. Before we returned we played with the seven spotted archer fish that squirt jets of water up to knock down insects into the water, rewarding them with pellets of fish food. The ranger also fed a couple of large barramundi by hand – they don’t have teeth but a huge amount of suction as they swallow and mash up a fish in their jaws.

We then travelled to Zebedee Thermal Springs which bubble up into pools amongst the palm trees. It was a lovely temperature (not as hot as we’d been told) and we all enjoyed a dip. Unfortunately Iain managed to drop his lens cap and lost it in the rocky pool – the second one this holiday!

We returned to the resort for lunch of barramundi and salad and then some of us elected to walk to Emma Gorge with Martin. It was only 1.7Km each way but mostly very rocky and the temperature was forty degrees or more. I did find going in hard, but with a wet cloth on my neck and frequent water stops, We all made it to the end where there was a large beautiful pool of cold, clear water surrounded by massive red cliffs. There was a small waterfall and we swam through water droplets splashing down from the cliffs like rain – great fun!

Unfortunately Bessie fell flat on her face onto a rock as we were getting g ready to leave and had a large bump on her forehead and a bloody nose. She soldiered on, however, and made it back to the camp okay. Having collected our washing that had been drying on the lines whilst we’d been away, we cooled off again in the resort pool before dinner. We also evicted what we originally thought was a cane toad, but we decided later was a bumpy rocket frog, from our tent. Cane toads are spreading fast through WA and as they are poisonous when eaten they are threatening the indigenous reptile populations.

Saturday 20^th September

We had a long drive today to the Emma Gorge resort along the mostly bumpy, dusty, unmade Kalumburu Road back to the Gibb River Road, crossing the Drysdale, Gibb and later the Durack and the Pentecost Rivers. These still had water but many of the smaller creeks we drove through were dry. We had a few stops along the way and a picnic lunch on the banks of Russ Creek, which was very pleasant. We drove through the Cockburn Ranges which made a nice change from the mostly flat scrub covered plains. There was also an interesting change from Livistona palm forest to large numbers of wattle and Baob. Much of the land had been burnt recently and the sky was filled with smoke to the south of where we were travelling. As the sun went down the towering cliffs were a spectacular shade of red and orange. We arrived about 5.30pm and even at this time the temperature was around 39 ^degrees  and the night was quite warm. We had a fan in the tent but it was still a bit hot!

Friday 19^th September

We had breakfast at 6am although I just made and took a bacon buttie to have later. We set off at 6.45am and after around an hours driving on a very bumpy road we arrived at the heli pad for Mitchell Falls. After a safety briefing for when we return by helicopter at 1pm we set out with plenty of water for a 4-5Km hike. We stopped twice to look at some stunning art sites and took loads of pictures! Les was very good at telling us about the different art and was very knowledgeable.

We had all been issued with a face cloth that we dunked in any available water as we came across the odd creek and wetted ourselves to keep our core temperature down. It was very good having a cold wet cloth around the back of one’s neck! We passed Little Merten’s Falls and Big Merten’s Falls although they had very little water, if any, and certainly no cascades! But eventually we arrived at the spectacular gorges of the Mitchell Falls which had a great pool at the top where we all swam (clothes and all) and still a fair amount in the four stepped waterfalls.

As time was passing and we had to be at the helipad for 12.50pm we made our way there and sat having lunch in the shade, which was most welcome.

It was only a short helicopter ride but great all the same and we had an amazing view of all the gorges cut into the plateau.

They landed us back at the truck and we bumped along for an hour before arriving back at the camp for cold drinks, tea and scones for those that wanted them. We headed off to the water hole to cool off again and then relaxed until drinks and dinner.

Thursday 18^th September

We had a leisurely start to be away by 8am today as we only drive about 180Km down a dirt road to the Outback Spirit Ngauwudu Safari Camp. We stopped on a couple of occasions to see some great aboriginal rock art – both Gwion Gwion (30,000+ years old)

and Wandjina (?17,000 years ago).

We had a picnic lunch in a shady spot by the King Edward River

 and continued up onto the Mitchell Plateau, passing through Livistona palm forest. Having stopped to take photos at a lookout we arrived around 3.30pm. We are the only group here at the camp that consists of twelve en-suite safari tents with beds, fans, mosquito netting and decent lighting. I found a large green frog in our toilet and managed to evict him out onto our verandah where he hopped away quite happily. We relaxed and had a swim at the waterhole

before meeting up at 5.15pm for complimentary drinks around the camp fire and a talk by our host at the camp, Les. There is a falcon that comes because Les feeds him occasionally and he posed beautifully on a tree branch nearby. This was followed by barbecueing steaks on the fire, that were excellent, if a bit overdone. After dinner Les got out his guitar and sang some songs which some of us joined in with occasionally but we were all in bed for 9pm.

Wednesday 17^th September

Today we had an early start to drive to Drysdale River station that used to just be a cattle ranch but now has diversified into tourism as well. We travelled along the famous Gibb River Road and then diverted 35Km along a rutted track to visit Bell Gorge. We then had around a Km walk down a dry, hot, dusty, rocky track to the gorge which was very beautiful and where we could have had a swim Unfortunately Martin had told us there would be very little water there so we hadn’t taken our bathers with us. It was around 38⁰ so I cooled off with my usual method of taking off my shirt and dunking it in the water before putting it back on again. There was another long drive then to our destination. The little cabins are nice and we had a good dinner of fillet steak or barramundi.