The Kimberley Week 4 (Bungle Bungles and Lake Argyle)

It took us about 5 hours to the Bungles straight from ELQ, including the infamous drive into the Bungles itself. Many people with vans and even campers leave them at the Bungles caravan park for fear of the poor road into the area however we were determined to take ours in and found the road while a bit corrugated in patches and VERY narrow and windy to be not too bad at all. The 50km single lane track took us about an hour. The bungles have a bit of mystery about them with many people preferring them to Ayres Rock as something quintessentially Australian, so I couldn't wait to see them for myself.

Sunset over the ranges

We stayed at Kurrajong Camp which is centrally situated. It's about 7km from the information centre and about 15km to Echidna Chasm at one end of the park and about 20km to the Domes and Cathedral Gorge at the other. We took it easy and just watched the sunset from the lookout behind camp on our first night. The next day we were up early. We'd decided to visit Echidna Chasm and some walks around there in the morning, come back for lunch then visit the Domes and Cathedral Gorge in the afternoon.

Start of the walk into Echidna Chasm

Echidna Chasm was was really interesting. It reminded me of walking up a lost track in an Indiana Jones movie. Round rocks, palm trees and incredibly orange limestone formations lined the way up the ever narrowing track. The chasm was eerie and as has been the case for many of the sites we saw we pretty much had it to ourselves. The kids enjoyed the echoes as well!

Echidna Chasm

On our way back to camp we passed 2 cars. The first was Pete and Annie which was great as they had popped into our camp to invite us to see sunset with them at the Walardi Lookout. As we were talking a car pulled up to ask if everything was ok and incredibly it was the Pleszkun family which we hadn't seen in 2 months. They were our friends we met at Warroora Station. The universe works in mysterious ways. Anyhow as it turned out they were camped next to us so we agreed to catch up for drinks after dinner.

In the afternoon we were off to the famous Domes and Cathedral Gorge. Look they are really spectacular and incredible how they have formed but I don't know, I guess I was expecting a little more as they had been really talked up. This is probably unfair. The walk around the Domes is really interesting and goes for about a kilometre. Then you join up to the trail into Cathedral Gorge. Again, it's a perfect amphitheatre with a lonely deep green pool in the middle. Apparently in the wet it turns into a massive whirlpool before it charges out through the gorge.

View back out through Cathedral Gorge

We then headed off to meet up with our friends for sunset over the escarpment. So the cars were backed up, out came the wine and cheese and we had a lovely afternoon watching the dramatic colours change as the sun went down. It was really nice and sad to say farewell to Pete and Annie for now. Hopefully we'll catch up in Sydney in the new year.

A local Kununurra resident 

That night we had a great catchup with the Pleszkuns as well so overall the Bungles was well worth the trip in. The next day we headed back into Kununurra and stayed for the night at Kimberleyland Caravan Park to wash a bit of the dirt off, pick up supplies and get some minor electrical work done on the camper. We were then off to Lake Argyle which is the largest man made freshwater lake in the world. It is truly an enormous body of water holding up to 21 Sydney Harbours!

We were originally only going to stay here a night or two but the park was so nice and I think we all needed a bit of a rest so stayed for 3 nights in the end. The caravan park overlooks the lake and grassy, shady sites and a famous plunge pool.

Not a bad backdrop for a photo!

We used the time here to clean up some of the red dust, wash the car and recharge the batteries. We arranged to go on a cruise on the lake. We again caught up with the Pleskuns as they had some car troubles and had to detour there for repairs instead of heading straight to Darwin. Which was great as they have a satellite tv so we got to watch a Broncos game and an Ashes test. Saturday morning at the park is the famous all you can eat pancake brekky. So after stuffing ourselves we headed off on the cruise in the afternoon.


Pancakes mmmmm

The lake is massive and it felt as though you were on the ocean as some parts were quite choppy. We saw heaps of freshwater crocs and quite a few rock wallabies which the boat driver throws pellets to as we cruised past. The wallabies are there waiting each day for an easy feed.

Captain Gracie

We anchored the boat in the best spot to watch the sunset and enjoyed a drink and a swim in the chilly water. It was pretty funny watching some people with the 'free' nibblies. Basically parking themselves and eating half the plate with no care for the other 40 passengers who may want something as well. One lady in particular was a disgrace. We had a very pleasant stop at Lake Argyle. The facilities there are excellent. It's a great spot to chill out after a big Kimberley adventure. Sadly we were leaving WA and entering the NT leg of the big lap. What a wonderful time. WA is so massive and so spectacular. We will treasure our time there forever. Next stop - Katherine.