The Bungles and The Tanami Track (Lake Argyle - Alice Springs)

1. Beautiful Lake Argyle.

2. The entry to Echidna Chasm, Bungle Bungles.

3. Echidna Chasm at midday when the sun pentrates right through the canyon to the ground.

4. Mini Palms Gorge, Bungle Bungles

5. View from Mini Palms Gorge.

6. Brendan walking to Cathedral Gorge, Bungle Bungles

7. Picaninny Creek, Bungle Bungles

8. View from Picaninny Creek Lookout

9. Walking with Bridgitta and Maus at the Bungles.

10. Black Rock Pool, Picaninny Gorge. We walked about 30kms this day right into Picaninny Gorge and two of the side arms in the gorge. We refilled our water bottles at this water hole on our way back as we had run out of water. The day was so hot!

11. Looking down Picaninny Gorge.

12. Picaninny Gorge.

13. Exploring the first side arm of Picaninny Gorge.

14. The first side arm of Picaninny Gorge.

15. The first side arm of Picaninny Gorge.

16. Brendan walking in Picaninny Gorge.

17. The start of the Tanami Track.

18. The Tanami Track - looking all nice and dry at this point. But wait for it...

19. Camping at Wolfe Creek Meteorite Crater - the second largest meteorite crater in the world but better known for the scary movie!

20. Wolfe Creek Meteorite Crater.

21. Looking inside the crater.

22. Brendan contemplating the sunset on the crater rim.

23. Brendan in the centre of the crater.

24. The Tanami Track is the graveyard for cars. There are literally hundreds of old, broken, rolled and discarded cars along the track - some old and burnt out and some - like this one - not so old. All of them have had any parts worth anything stolen from them! It is a timely reminder to be careful!!!

25. Driving through the Tanami Desert.

26. Storm clouds start to develop over the Desert.

27. Camping in the Tanami. After overnight rain we wake to a very overcast and wet looking morning.

28. Day two in the Tanami - this is what the overnight rain did to the road.

29. The Desert tracks ready for us to go slipping and sliding. This is meant to be one of the driest places on earth!

30. We hit the mud! We have a feeling of de je vous.

31. Back on the single lane bitumen nearly in Alice Springs, but still lots of rain to get through yet.

32. Storms over the West MacDonnell Ranges.

33. Arriving in a very miserable looking Alice Springs.

The Bungles and Tanami Track (Lake Argyle – Alice Springs)

July 2010

I am a bit faster with our update this time. We are currently parked in a roadside carpark just outside of Alice Springs and Brendan is seeing to the car maintenance – oil changes etc - so I (Linda) thought I would take the opportunity to be super organized – though my hands are freezing as I type and I think I need to find some gloves – we are so not used to the cool weather anymore!

After Lake Argyle where we left you to swim in the beautiful pool again (we ended up catching up with Brenton and Michelle one last time here), we headed back into Kununurra, stocked up the cupboards and then headed immediately south down the highway towards Halls Creek, camping at a roadside stop at the road junction to Purnululu (Bungle Bungles) National Park. The next morning we got up early (for us) and who should we bump into at the park entrance, two minutes down the road, but Bridgitta and Maus again! We then drove into the Bungles with them and spent a couple of days catching up with them during the walks and camping at night. The first day in the Bungles we headed to the northern side of the park and saw Echidna Chasm at midday, when the sun hits it at just the right angle and penetrates right down into the middle of the canyon (beautiful!) We then walked to the lookout and Mini Palms Gorge, before enjoying lots of food around the campfire with Bridgitta and Maus that night. (It’s amazing what you can rustle up in the middle of nowhere – we had Bridgitta’s cheese platter with yummy crackers, cheeses and dips, parmesan and garlic damper and thai beef salad for dinner – as usual we always remember what we ate!).

The next day we explored the southern side of the park, walking to Cathedral Gorge, through the domes and up to the Picaninny Creek Lookout. We had a picnic lunch with Bridgitta and Maus and then farewelled them for the last time as they got back on the road to head towards Kununurra and onto Darwin. We changed campsites that night and pulling up into Wallardi camp, who should we be camped next to, but Tara and Damien, who had been held up in Fitzroy Crossing for a couple of days fixing a shock. It really is a small world on the road up here!

The next morning we decided to head out on a long walk right into Picaninny Gorge. It is actually classed as an overnight walk, but we decided to just walk as far as possible up until lunch time and then turn around and head back to camp. We managed to walk over halfway into Picaninny Gorge and explored the first two side gorges along the way, walking about 30kms in the day and feeling very tired by the time we returned to camp. It was definitely worthwhile though, as the deeper we got into the gorge, the narrower the canyons became. It was a beautiful spot and would be a great place to camp for a few days and explore all the ins and outs. It was also good to get away from all the crowds in Cathedral Gorge – after hundreds of people the previous day (described by Bridgitta and Maus as being aged between 80 and dead), we only ran into three others for the entire day! (Bridgitta and Maus – we ran into Mr Ultimate Camper himself back at the campsite who took over Tara and Damien’s spot after they left. We now see what you mean….)

We then camped one more night at the Bungles before heading back out to the highway again, passing briefly through Halls Creek and driving the first 120kms of the Tanami Track into Wolfe Creek Meteorite Crater (actually more famous these days for the movie than for being the second largest meteorite crater in the world). After being warned by multiple people that we would be the only ones in the campsite here, we were actually surrounded by about 7 other groups, so this made us brave enough to watch the movie Wolfe Creek in the tent before going to sleep. (After visiting many of the places they talk about in the movie, we spent our time picking it to bits – Broome with sun rising over the ocean, Halls Creek which looked nothing like Halls Creek, too much bitumen getting into Wolfe Creek etc etc). The following morning we walked up to the rim of the crater and down the other side, right into the middle and then back out again before heading further down the road.

The Tanami Track (the short cut route through to Alice) was quite good (though badly corrugated in places) until our second day. We spent the first night camping at a rest stop and listening to the rain on the roof overnight – and preparing ourselves for a wet and slippery road the next day. (Why does it always rain in the driest places in Australia when we are there??? I mean, we are in the middle of the Tanami Desert, which by definition means place with little rain!) All in all it wasn’t too bad, but we did spend time slipping and sliding down about a 40km section of dirt and then got absolutely poured on as we came out the far side of the track into Alice Springs. The bitumen had started but it was a very narrow, one lane stretch of road with very muddy edges which we kept having to slide off into with lots of oncoming traffic – it was nearly worse than the mud itself! After a long and interesting days drive, we arrived into Alice Springs in the late afternoon and wondered why we had bothered cleaning the car in Kununurra as we were covered in mud again! It was still raining in Alice as we checked into the caravan park and pulled all our warm clothes out of hiding (16 degrees maximum during the day here at the moment! It’s freezing for us who have had nothing lower than a 27 degree minimum for the last year or so – we are really going to freeze when we hit NZ!)

Brendan’s parents, Stuart and Rosemarie have arrived in Alice after hiring a campervan for a week and touring around Uluru, the Olgas, Kings Canyon and the West MacDonnells. We spent the night with them in the campground last night and have moved into a cabin today for the next four nights – wow luxury! Linda’s parents, Roy and Pamela are still trying to make their way to Alice Springs at the moment with lots of road closures due to the wet weather. It looks at the moment like they will be detouring to Mt Isa and then taking the main Barkley Highway across to Tennant Creek and then south to Alice – not the most exciting route, but the only one not flooded at the moment. They should be arriving over the next couple of days. We are still hoping to be able to cross the Simpson in about a weeks time, but some of the access roads to Mt Dare and Dalhousie Springs have also been closed and flooded, so we are biding our time for awhile, keeping our fingers crossed and seeing what happens. What an amazing dry season it has been in these desert areas!

Take care everyone,

Love Linda and Brendan.