After a great 2 nights sleeping in a real bed and stocking up on a months worth of food we headed west. This would be our last town for almost a month as we would be driving the Gibb River Road through the remote Kimberly for 25 days. Before reaching the start of the Gibb we took a 3 day detour to visit the Bungle Bungles which is a few hundred Kms south towards Halls Creek.
This drive was stunning with more awesome mountain ranges and Alien looking Boab trees.
After a few hours we reached the start of the 60km dirt road into the national park. This would be Mum and Dads first off road driving and water crossings (although pretty shallow).
An hour and a half later we arrived at the northern section of the national park. As we only had 1 night here we decided to do one walk straight away and a second the following morning.
This walk / location is called Echidna Chasm which is a narrow gorge carved out by water over millions of years.
Almost immediately we begin to see palm trees scattered through the entrance of the chasm which was a surprise considering we were in the middle of the outback.
Slowly the chasm begins getting narrower.
To put these photos in perspective try to spot the people. These walls were hundreds of metres high in places and the temperature drop was a great relief from the heat outside.
This was truly an incredible place and we were all in awe when we reached the end where we could barly fit through. I highly recommend visiting this spot.
As it was getting pretty dark in there we made a dash back out. It wouldn't have had anything to do with someone farting in the narrest section and the wind seemingly moving at the same pace as us for 5-10 mins. I won't mention any names but check out the Leyton Hewitt lookalike below. Lol
Back outside and the scenery was just as impressive with the sun setting and lighting up the red hills like they were on fire.
The next morning we headed for Mini Palms Gorge which is only a few Kms from Echidna (and our camp site).
It started off very similar to Echidna Chasm with red cliffs and palm trees. As you look up you can see palm trees growing on the smallest of ledges and out if cracks in the rocks. Amazing!
Once at the end you find yourself standing on a pile of fallen rock staring at a massive amphitheater with a small cave in the end. Once again photos simply can't capture the scale and perspective of these kinds of places.
Kristy and I scrambled down the rocks and walked into the small cave at the end. To put the size into context find me in the photo below. The walls in the photo were less than half the full height. Incredible place.
After completing this walk we drove 30 odd Kms to the southern end of the park to camp for a further 2 nights. Sorry forgot to take a photo of the camp sites.
Wildlife everywhere!
The southern section is probably the area most people are familiar with as its where you find the unmistakable bee hive domes.
We woke up before dark and drive the 15kms to the start of the 13km return walk up the Piccaninny creek with a few side walks along the way. Unfortunately unlike the Northern section there is only one track leading to all places so the only way to do it is in one large and hot walk.
This area was stunning as we followed the river bed through the domes deep into the range.
The window below. Looking through you can see further smaller domes to the south east.
We made it as far as Wipp Snake Gorge. 2 pics below. Although this Gorge is undoubtably amazing it wasn't as great as the two Gorges / Chasms yesterday and as it was a bruitaly hot walk with little shelter it would be hard to recommend walking this far. The chopper tour sounded cheap when we contemplated the walk back.
Almost back to the start of the trial we took another 1km return side track to Cathedral Gorge. This spot however I can highly recommend with a huge cave / overhanging rock and a seasonal waterfall plunging into the pool below. This spot was great!
Inside the overhang looking back out towards the bee hive domes (above).
So after an exhausting day and mild heat stroke we camped our second night with the intention of heading off early to Start the Gibb River Road. That night Mum and Dad thought us the card game Nominations which would be the start of a nightly ritual!
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