Parting of the Ways

The girls had been waiting all trip for us to get to Diggers' Rest in the East Kimberley because of the promise of horse riding, as if they don't get enough of that at home. Diggers' Rest is the only station in the Kimberley that was willing to judge the girls on their ability rather than their age. Every other station would only let under 12s walk on lead, but here they were free to ride. Mallee, of course wanted to sign up for an overnight muster, but thankfully the mustering finished the day we arrived so we didn't have to have that argument. As it was, after 2 months off horses and riding in stock saddles rather than their usual general purpose ones, at the end of the afternoon ride they were, for the first time in years, more saddle sore than me.

For Rod and I the lure of Diggers Rest was the chance to catch some barra (pardon the pun). Unfortunately, the East Kimberley had a poor wet season and the water was already too scarce and cold for barra. At least that is what the locals were telling us and, given our lack of success, we were willing to grab any excuse that sounded plausible.

Kununurra was a surprisingly pleasant town to have a couple of rest days but we got more than we expected. The Gibb River Road had obviously taken a bigger toll on the car than we realised because thirty kilometres down the road to Purnululu we  blew the hose on the turbo. We limped back to town and booked into the best apartment we could find that was within NRMAs budget and relaxed for another 2 days while the car was repaired.

playing at the caravan park in Kununurra

Along the drive to Purnululu the scenery just got better and better but by the time we reached the turn off light was fading fast. The road into Purnululu is long and rough. Caravans are prohibited, which has resulted in a nice little earner for the local landholder who runs a caravan park and storage area at the turn-off. The corrugations and rocks shook the car so much that by the time we arrived one driving light was pointing straight down in front of the car while the other was only good for possum spotting.

The next morning revealed the spectacular Bungle Bungle Ranges. On the eastern side are steep cliffs, narrow chasms and outcrops of sharp, hard and jagged limestone that form rugged stone walls across the landscape. On the west are some gorges and of course the striped beehive domes for which the Bungle Bungles are famous. This is an area that is so popular you have to pre-book your campsites and we lost two days due to the repairs in Kununurra, so we squeezed what we could into the couple of days we had left and then headed for Wolfe Crater.

Purnululu

limestone wall Purnululu

limestone wall, Purnululu

Echidna Chasm

beehive domes

Cathedral Gorge

more beehive domes

are you sick of beehive domes yet

A shrine to Bart Simpson who is worshipped by the local termites.

more bloody beehive domes

Wolfe Creek Crater is the 18th largest impact crater in the visible universe, or something like that, I wasn't really paying attention. But it is pretty big as you will realise if you can find the girls walking along the track to the centre in the picture below.

Wolfe Creek Crater sunset

where are the Wallys in the crater?

Wolfe Creek Crater was also the place where we bid the Lamonts adieu after six weeks or so of travelling together. We shared a dinner of camp oven pizzas and in the morning drove down to the Tanami Track and turned our separate ways.

the Last Supper

you take the high road and we'll take the low road.

Good luck and have a good trip!

We'll see you when the dust settles.