A two day journey saw us cross the border from the Northern Territory (NT) to Western Australia (WA). WA has some very strict quarantine regulations and does not allow any fresh fruit/vegetables, seeds, honey or raw meat entry so the night before the crossing we ‘ate like Bushmen’ and managed to empty the fridge of anything not allowed. Because of Covid-19 there were extra checks on our previous 14 days travels to ensure we had not been in a Covid-19 hot spot. All these extra checks meant the crossing took 2.5 hours – not fun in the hot midday sun.
We had crossed another line of longitude effectively going back in time! Now we were 2 hours behind the East Coast and in the safest state in Australia (no covid-19 here!). Originally the main town in the Kimberley was Wyndham – now a derelict port town with rusting evidence of past industry. We took a very hot day drive up to Wyndham to see the main attractions – the Largest Boab (Baobab) Tree in captivity, and the local bakery where they made the best barramundi pies in the world!
Click to zoom and see me standing beside the tree 
Fabulous Aboriginal family statue 
Kununurra originally was established in the early 1960s to service the construction of the Ord River Irrigation Scheme. This scheme supplies water to the Ivanhoe Plains via a huge open canal system during the dry season allowing intensive agriculture not previously possible in this arid area . Interestingly cultivation of rice for the Chinese market was the initially trialed but ceased after Magpie Geese were eating the rice shoots quicker than they could be replanted. The cultivation of cotton ceased 2005 in favor of chickpeas, sorghum, melons, mangoes, bananas, sugar cane and other tropical fruits.
It was a good stopping off point for us and pleasing to see a real old fashioned butcher shop. We left the caravan in storage here for a few days while we drove south to the Purnululu NP – Bungle Bungle Ranges to camp. The road in was rough with many river crossings and we were glad not to be towing the caravan.
We camped at Kurrajong Campground in the northern end of the park where we did an early morning trek in to Echidna Chasm. The amazing conglomerate boulders strewn along the path made it easy to see the sedimentary origin of the Bungle Bungle Range. The high walls (200 m) of the chasm tower above blocking out the sky in places while Livistonia palms grow strong and tall reaching for the light. As the chasm narrows, there is a short climb to negotiate, with some ladders but unfortunately due to a rockfall the ladders had been removed and we were forced to turn back.
The southern Bungle Bungles are spectacular with their beehive-like geological forms while the northern end, where our camp was, has less rounded and more conglomerate type rock faces. Early morning we walked to Cathederal Caewalks were called for as the temps were 36+ deg. The terrain was sparse with not many animals or reptiles sighted but lots of sharp spinifex.
We happened on a very disturbing sight on the track to Cathedral Gorge where we came across a deep dried up creek pot hole. Within the pot hole there were no less than 250 odious cane toads who could not escape the deep smooth sides of the hole and were in various states of dehydration. How much destruction has human intervention caused to this landscape? No goanna’s left!
We climbed the escarpment above our camp each evening to watch spectacular sunsets over the ancient Bunge Bungle Ranges – enjoyed with a cold can of IPA.
