Bungle Bungles...great!

Greetings! Here's the latest:

August 29-30

I am sitting in the shade outside our tent in the Bungle Bungle National Park. It’s hot and sunny (big surprise for this part of the world…) and over 30. We arrived here late yesterday afternoon (having taken 2 hours to cover 50 rough kilometres of dirt road in- our car has been great especially considering it’s not a big super high clearance 4WD) and set up our tent at the park’s northern campsite, before dashing out to a nearby lookout to watch the sunset. What a view! It’s stunning in here…rugged beautiful hills and sandstone rock formations, cliffs, escarpments. Terrific.

We heated up some soup and sat under the stars last night and left the fly off the tent so we could look out at the sky during the night. Also, mum and dad, the self-inflating mattress is great!

This morning we rose early, packed up the tent, and walked through Mini-Palms Gorge…lots of livistona palms and red rock towering above us. VERY impressive. Better than the Olgas in the red centre.

We then went to Echidna Chasm…very very narrow chasm with towering cliffs on either side and the light just filtering in, causing the rock to give off a beautiful red glow. It was amazing to walk through.
We then drove to the either side of the park, which is where we are now, at our second campsite.

We were here by lunchtime and there are some walks we plan doing in the morning when it’s cooler. So this afternoon has just been for relaxing and resting, which is great, as we both feel tired. I think all the constant travel and activity and not living out of a proper home for the past four months is catching up with us! We both also really miss the coast, being water people, and can’t wait to jump in the ocean for a swim when we hit Broome. The bush in the NT and WA has been fantastic, diverse and very different to things we have seen before- but we now long for the coast and beaches again. Some days too, we must admit, the caravan (or tent) walls close in very close and there just ain’t room for both of us! ;-) 24/7 with each other can be full on, no doubt about it. Still, we are both still alive and still learning when to give each other space and how to roll with things. Always learning!

Adam is now sitting in the tent, to avoid all the flies, and playing his guitar- getting ready to play a few tunes with my Dad when he arrives in Broome for a week’s holiday with us in just under two weeks! Hard to believe the time has come around for that part of our trip already. Then again, we are only a third of the way through and we have seen and done so so much it still amazes us sometimes. Looking forward to seeing you Dad!

August 31

This morning we were up with the sun at about 5.30am and it was surprisingly cold (6 degrees) and we after breaky we were straight into our first walk early. Today we saw the most impressive (in our view) part of the Bungle Bungles…Cathedral Gorge. Wow- a gorge, where the sandstone has been eroded and undercut at the bottom, by water during the wet (and over many years), forming a natural amphitheatre. Adam wished he had carried in his guitar to play. We also walked through the beehive domes characteristic of the area, and they shone red-black-orange-brown in the morning light.
We then packed up the tent and hit the road back to Turkey Creek where our caravan was stored. We then drove on to Halls Creek where we are staying just for tonight. Off to Fitzroy Crossing tomorrow.

All our love, A&E xx