As mentioned elsewhere, our original plan had been to drive to the Bungle Bungles and take a 4wd drive tour from there. But with the tour company unable to open this season, we had to change plans. The only feasible option was to fly on a day trip from Kununurra. Naturally this was quite expensive, so we decided to forego the private aircraft hire we had planned in Darwin (for me to fly us over the parts of Kakadu that we weren't able to get to) and use that budget instead.
The Bungle Bungle ranges, specifically the 'beehive domes', are limestone rock formations with orange and black stripes. I was surprised to learn that the colour does not come from the rock itself (which is actually white), but a surface coating: the limestone is layered, and one of these layers gets coated with red dust while the other can support a particular kind of cyanobacteria, which is black.
The day tour we did involved flying over Lake Argyle and various large cattle stations to the Bellburn airstrip, then a short 4wd bus drive to the park, walking through the domes and up to Cathedral Gorge for a packed lunch, retracing our steps and flying back to Kununurra. It was a little frustrating not being able to explore further in the park, because we had to stay with the tour group and the guide seemed to want to stop at every termite mound and every tree and tell us something about them. I just had to remind myself that it was this or not seeing it at all. And the flight overhead did give us a spectacular view that we wouldn't have seen at all if we had driven there.
 |
Rivers south of Kununurra
|
 |
Lake Argyle from the air
|
 |
Bungle Bungle range from the air
|
 |
Bungle Bungle beehive domes
|
 |
Domes walk
|
 |
Domes at Piccaninny creek
|
 |
Walking into Cathedral Gorge
|
 |
Lunch at Cathedral Gorge
|
 |
Black and orange stripes
|
 |
| Departing |
No comments:
Post a Comment