Purnululu - and a bungly birthday

The drive to the Purnululu National Park entry is scenic and lovely. We did not pass through any towns, just 2 roadhouses; Warnum (Turkey Creek) and Doon Doon, a good place to pull in and change drivers, have an ice-cream, cold drink or fried chicken (this is Andy's 'thing' - Roadhouse fried chicken). You never know what you might be able to pick up - I bought some super sweet and juicy mandarins cold from the fridge - so good, I went straight back in and bought as many as I could carry. Mandarins are the prefect travel snack - wrapped in skin, juicy, sweet and easy to peel.

 While Andy and I were deflating our tyres at the park entry the kids were reading up on the park info.

We were not looking forward to the 65km access road into the park. I had read and heard some bad, bad things about it. We cracked our radiator on this road in 2009. It was bad then. And it is bad now. Rough and corrugated, with lots of blind corners and steep entry and exits to creek crossings ( a lot!) made for slow going. With corrugations you really need to let some air out of your tyres and find your optimal speed for your rig so you almost float over them - without losing control. We were still worried about the front left tyre, the gash had increased to 5cm by this stage, still superficial, but growing. We made our way gingerly into the park. The scenery is stunning and we felt tiny in this massive landscape. It took us just under two and half hours to cover the 65km to the Walardi campground in the southern part of the park. We opted for this campground as it is closest to the distinct beehive formations - the bungly bit.

 Out for a walk on a glorious and warm winters day

 We found a super spot right on the riverbank. Again the bird life here was awesome. We found and kept an eye on a whistling kite nest, we saw blue winged kookaburras as well as finches (still no Gouldians).

 Silver leaf grevillea ( I think)

 Sunset lookout spot - the almost full moon is already up

Our first full day in Purnululu was James's 15th happy birthday. Having your birthday while camping remotely is pretty tricky from a logistics point of view. We really didn't have space for lots of extra 'things', or shops to buy them from if we did. No facilities for cake making. None of the usual stuff we are used to. His birthday would be very special in other ways - and we will never forget it. For starters Purnululu! And his birthday coincided with the full moon. 

 Jemma made him this awesome birthday badge which James wore all day eliciting happy birthdays from kind strangers we saw while out walking later.

 Birthday pancakes and hot chocolate.

 Walking into the Bungle Bungles. There are so many walks to do.

Purnululu NP is World Heritage Listed. It is only accessible by 4WD (you can only tow small campers with a single axel, no caravans) in the dry season. Just getting here is an adventure. The iconic beehive domes consist of 350 million old striped sandstone.

 Walking in Piccaninny Gorge along the dry riverbed taking in the ancient domes around us.

 There were flowers everywhere.

 Cathedral Gorge is enormous

 Good safe walking by Jemma

 Sitting out the hottest part of the day in the shade with a {birthday} game of Uno Flip

 Party lights.

 Birthday sunset waiting for the full moon to rise over the Bungle Bungles.

 Up it comes. 

 We had to do this!

 Gulping the moon. It was so silly and fun. What a birthday! Look at that sky.

 We went all out with our sunset snacks - cold cordial for the kids, beers for the adults and cheese and crackers.

On day two we drove the 30km ( about an hour) to the northern end of the park to do the Echidna Chasm and Mini Palms walks.

 This is Echidna Chasm in the middle of the day with the sun lighting it up. It's pretty magical.

 Walking out of Echidna Chasm

 Family selfie from a lookout overlooking the Bungle Bungle Range

 View from the lookout. Again - that is our teeny tiny car down there in that enormous, open landscape. Some places just feel more open - this is one of them. 

 The colours of the vegetation look so soft. In reality just about everything is spiky, and hard. Beautiful and tough.

We very nearly talked ourselves out of visiting Purnululu. At one point it was looking like it was going to be crazy hot (38-40C), too hot for walking and very uncomfortable with no swimming available. This long range (incorrect) forecast combined with the stories about the condition of the road, plus the fact that it was about a 500km detour there and back to our route, and the condition of our tyres had us oscillating wildly - YES-NO-YES-NO-YES.

As you can see we decided on YES. James really wanted to spend his birthday here, he was so looking forward to it. The tyre(s) held up. It was warm but manageable - walk in the mornings and rest out the afternoon heat in the shade. As for the 500km side trip - we were a still lot closer here, now than if we were doing it as a trip from home which would be just over 5,500km return (64 hours of driving!!). So it really made sense to visit now.

And the road? Yep, pretty bad. Easily the worst so far. The advice I gave to another traveller who was anxious about it; ' treat it as part of the adventure rather than just a road to get there, you will enjoy it so much more'. I guess the same can be said about any road and journey. 

I am so glad that we went and visited this incredible national park together. 

Our time in WA is coming to an end, just one more stop before crossing into the NT.