Vikings in Australia - Víkingar í Ástralíu

29th of July.
We are now in Fitzroy Crossing, having arrived yesterday afteroon from the Bungle Bungle..

The day we had in Halls Creek was spent visting the sites out on the Duncan road. This road is worse than the Tanami track as it's pretty windy and with lots of flood ways, with the corrugations thrown in as a bonus!

The first place to visit is called the China Wall, as I mentioned last time. This is a quartz wall that protrudes out of the landscape, just like it was built in ancient times. However it's only taken nature many millions of years to bring this construction to the light, all without any human input or human sacrifices, like the real China Wall. Apparently this quartz vein extends hundreds of kilometers and on occasion protrudes out of the ground like a human designed and erected stone wall. I went with Kylie to inspect this and it's pretty amazing to see.

The next stop was at Caroline Pool. This is a beutiful spot with water all year around. It's a place where one can camp for free overnight. Not bad having the scenery and your own private natural swimming pool.

The third spot is old Halls Creek. There ain't much to see in reality, except a few plaques and a fenced off area housing the old post office. The old post office is of interest as it's built out of the same clay as the termite mounds. It's an area where gold was first discovered and when the town grew, they quickly realized it's location didn't allow for any expansion, so it was abandonded and relocated to where it is today.

The fourth spot along the Duncan road is called Palm Springs. It's a stop next to the road where it's allowed to camp overnight for free. It is a scenic place with a nice pool with palms growing there as well. We could see that the fish were extremely hungry so anything that created a ripple in the pool seemed to cause a lot of interest!. Only drawback is the closeness to the road. During peak season you would be showered with dust most of the time if you camp there.

The last spot on this trip was a visit to Sawpit Gorge. This is a few kms off the Duncan road and is also a pretty place. Towering over the pool is a high rock cliff face in the traditional outback ocher red color. Here people camp for free overnight. To get into the pool area, one must drive across the water onto the gravel
bank on the other side, so only reccommended for 4WD vehicles.

After a well spent day, we headed back to Halls Creek, did some shopping in the local IGA, which by the way is pretty good with a wide selection of goods. After dropping the groceries and Sibba off at the caravan camp, I went to the local Coles Express petrol station to fill up the tanks with diesel. I had a Coles Express
fuel docket and that gave me 4 cents off. One can only ask how come there is a Coles Express petrol station in Halls Creek, but no Coles store in sight. Anyway as I drove up to the pumps there was no one there, but while I pumped the tanks a big queue formed. As it takes a while to pump 200 liters of Diesel, I felt like a bottle cap with the contents under pressure!! Anyway, everyone seemed to be too polite to complain that this was the only Diesel pump available and they had to wait. I also put more air into the tires for the 105km trip on the bitumen to the intersection to the Bungle Bungle. We then met with our friends and had a good time until going to bed early as we were heading out to Bungle Bungle and they to the Canning Stock.

We woke up early as usual and got everything packed and then headed off out of Halls Creek. It only took just over an hour to get to the intersection, which takes us to the Bungle Bungle (or Purnululu National Park as it's called!). There I let the tire pressure down for the 51km of gravel road ahead. They tell you to allow for at least 2-3 hours for this stretch of road. It's quite understandable, once you drive it. It's corrugated, with several river crossings, with and without water, plus I doubt there is any stretch of the road that is longer than a 100 meters. There are also a lot of blind spots, steep bends and flood ways so driving on average faster than 30km would be suicidal for you and any one unlucky enough to be coming the other way!. We arrived at the ranger station in just over two hours and "checked in" to our camping spot in the Walardi camping area. It is another 13km further south from the ranger station and with a 50km speed limit is another twenty minute journey. Once in camp we set up our gear and took it easy for the reminder of the day. The weather is pretty good, clear skies and a pleasant 30 degree heat during the day, dropping to around 10 degrees overnight. The other bonus of the season are no flies!

The following morning we headed off to Piccaninny Creek, which is another 21km drive from the Walardi camping area. We arrived around 8am and there were very few vehicles in the car park. They have very good facilities there, with toilets and benches with shade over them. We tanked up with water and photographic equipment and then headed out for the walks. There are four main walks in this area, Dome Walk, Cathedral Gorge Walk, Piccaninny Creek lookout and Piccaninny Creek to the Piccaninny Gorge. The first three are all very short and interconnected, so every one does those. Very few do the Piccaninny Creek Gorge walk as it is 10km one way.

They reccommend that you register with the ranges if you plan doing that walk. You can actually go for several days hike along the Piccaninny Creek if you are prepared to travel light and camp along the way.

We did the Dome walk first and then proceeded into the Cathedral Gorge. The Dome walk gives you a taste of what the Bungles Bungles are all about, but the Cathedral Gorge takes your breath away!. It's awesome. The water that flows during monsoon summers has carved out this great open cathedral space with quite an overhang. It echos very well and amplifies sounds. The bottom is pure white sand. When we came into it, there was no one else there for the next few minutes. We spent some time there and by the time we left, there were a number of other fellow travelers. We took lots of photos, but none of them can give it justice.

For those who don't know, the Bungle Bungle range is a layer of sand that has turned into sandstone. This was deposited into this area around 300 million years ago. Since then, wind, water and rivers have carved it out of the landscape. The coloring of the domes is due to the fact that the sandstone layers have different permeability depending on the original pressure when created. This means that the rain water that seeps through from the top, comes out through the layers at different flow rates. The gray bands are gray, because they are populated by an algae like bacteria that thrives on the water that comes through these layers. The red ocher areas don't have enough water flow to sustain the bacteria so they simply ooze out rust. Pretty amazing to see.

After the Cathedral Gorge we went out to the Piccaninny Creek lookout to see over the southern area of the Bungle Bungle. It's a pretty sight, especially during sunset (We didn't do that!). From there, we walked back to the car park, where Sibba rested her weary feet and I tanked up with more water so I could walk along the Piccaninny Creek bed. I went for an hour an half along the Piccaninny creek bed to see a bit more. The creek bed is either pure gravel or carved out sandstone. In places I found lots of dead fish, where the pool of water had dried out. The ants were pretty busy nibbling it all away. After a great day, we headed back to camp. We had a quite evening and also spent some time with new friends we met in Halls Creek.

The following day it was up again to see the Echidna Chasm. This is at the northern end of the Bungle Bungle area, so another 30km on the gravel roads. Once again, we arrived early at the car park and headed out with our water bottles and camera gear. This walk is not long, but can be difficult as it's along the rocky gravel path of the Echidna creek. After a short walk from the car park, we came across the livingstone palms. They only grow where they can get water, so they litter the creek path. After that it gets narrower and narrower as you go along the creek bed into the chasm. It drops to about a meter wide at it's narrowest path. Most of the time one can see up, but not all the time. At times there are rocks in the path, but the worst sections have step ladders in place to make it easier. This is not for the faint hearted that fear closed spaces. We walked all the way to the bottom, where Sibba found a cap someone had lost. It has the lettering GANT on it, so it looks like an American brand name. We don't know that that is? We headed back to the car park and then drove to one of the lookouts on the way back. From there you can see across the Bungle Bungle range, but also in the other direction over the Osmand range. Later in the day we walked to a sunset spot near the camp site and watched the sunset over the Bungle Bungle range.

The following day it was an early morning rise to get ready for the drive to Fitzroy Crossing. We left around 8am and did the return trip to the great norther road in just over three hours. There were only 2-3 cars leaving, but heaps coming in, so we had to drive slowly just in case!. Once we hit the bitumen, I pumped up the tires again and off we went. We only stopped at the Ord river to take a few photos, but then continued to Fitzroy Crossing.

We didn't stop in Halls Creek, just drove past slowly as the road runs through the centre of town. Around half way to Fitzroy Crossing we came across bush fire on the side of the road. We have seen the burned
bushes along the road side all the time, but this time the fire was flaming and licking the road side. We didn't even slow down, just drove past. That is what everyone else seems to do anyway. I commented to Sibba that if this bush fire had occurred in the same way somewhere in Sydney, the road would be closed, half of Sydney's fire brigades would be on the spot or standby, the SES and Police with barriers everywhere, plus all the news crews would be circling in helicopters and cars around to beam the fire into every tv in the land!. Not out here, who cares, it's an every day occurance!. We did catch it on the black box camera, so when I have time, I'll cut it out and upload.

We arrived in Fitzroy Crossing mid afternoon and have set up camp here for two days. Yesteday was a lazy afternoon, with showers (There are no showering facilities in Bungle Bungle, so we had over three day thick layers of dust!)

Today we spent exploring the Geiki Gorge, but more on that next time..

We have taken lots of photos, but can only upload a handful as the Telstra data links aren't so good outside metropolitan areas.

Warmest regards to all, Simmi and Sibba