Bee Hives and Darth Vader

Today was a spectacle. We bungled around the walks in the southern section of Purnululu. Wow. Very impressive and iconic views. Look for Marian (and other people) in the pictures for scale. The scenery was huge! Mostly walking along a major watercourse (dry) with side gorges, including the aptly named Cathedral Gorge. Needed a big rest back at camp!

Kurrujong to Walardi

Quiet day as we moved camp from the north to the south of the National Park. Went for a long early morning walk which was very picturesque, an afternoon walk from the campsite along a very stoney dry creek bed and a sunset viewing nearby.

Mini Palms and Echidnas

A big day walking the northern tracks at Purnululu. The Mini Palms walk involved scrambling over gorge boulders to a huge canyon with...palms. then along the rather exposed Escarpment track to Echida Chasm. This is a big hitter which is best to align with the sun between 11 and 12 Indiana Jones-like. We did that and it was great. Note the huge scale in the photos re: people for scale. There are lots of wildflowers in WA - of all colors - which is much more colorful than expected. Ended the day at a different sunset spot. The little tufts of grass are everywhere and handsome in most light.

Bungling on in the Bungles

Great day today driving from Kununurra to Purnululu National Park (Bungle Bungles). Scenery was excellent all the way with a tough drive in at the end - several creek crossings. Walked to little hill for the sunset spectacle. Had great chips at the Doon Doon Roadhouse (billed as `best chips and burgers in Doon Doon` - being the only chips and burgers!). Oddly, they had a humane extermination cane toad drop off point?! This is a long way from the cane fields of Cairns - well past Kakadu - tough little blighters!

Kununurra Stopover

Spent the day on logistics and a trip to the local National Park, adjacent to where we are staying in town. its billed as a mini Bungle Bungles and I can see what they mean. Big trip to the real Bungle Bungles tomorrow (for 4 nights).

Very Sad Shoes :(

Its self explanatory. Bought new pair today.

First Flight!

https://youtu.be/DecjEqv9SAw

Kununurra

Had a liesurely start and revisited the dam (and gorge of the Ord River), the historic Durack Homestead and arrived in Kununurra for late lunch. Interesting town. Trialled new drone on the way and got a good sequence. A bit hair raising but awesome. Can't work out how to share it yet (tried uploading to Google drive but seems to want wifi instead of mobile data). Waterway at Kununurra very attractive.

Lake Argyle

Drove into WA and a bit of palarva signing into their convoluted Covid procedures but eventually sorted it out, minus an iceberg lettuce at quaranteen! Stayed at Lake Argyle. Due to public holiday no sunset cruise tour seats left - we weren't that bothered as we were undecided anyway. I went for a swim in the infinity pool at sunset instead which was special - but didn't have a camera with me. The photo is a different time of day. Lots of water. Very pleasant stay.

Keep River Keeping On

Another speccy day in Keep River NP. Very impressive. Bizarrely got Telstra reception at remote, windy lookout. Huge scenery, red rocks, palm trees and quite green in many places.

Sad Shoes

My iron-on cloth patch worked a treat on my favourite walking shoes. But after a few walks the front of one shoe has unstuck - `laughing soles`! Big Bummer. I'll need to get a new pair in Kununurra.

Keep River National Park

Staying at Keep River National Park for 2 days. Fantastic short walk this afternoon. Quite spectacular. Afternoon light makes landscapes glow. Waterway at campsite this morning.

Jasper Gorge and the 'Trip' Begins!

The trip really started from Banka Banka to Jasper Gorge. After a few hours up the Stuart Highway we headed west on the Buchanan Highway (all dirt). The going was quite slow past Top Springs as the road was quite rocky. We only saw a few cars and road trains all day. The scenery was great. After 4 hours or so we came to Jasper Gorge (just east of Gregory National Park). Specky red rock formations in the afternoon light. Spent a while at a waterhole (with croc signs) and different vantage points on the road. Camped at National Park with a few others. 

Across the Border to Banka Banka

The Barkly Highway is 6.5 hours of nothing much at all. We turned right at Three Ways (where it meets the Stuart Highway) and went another hour to Banka Banka station which is a caravan park in the middle of nowhere - but a very good one. Nice skies on the Barkly Highway.

Mt Isa via Court Hearing

We headed up to Cloncurry where I phoned into Court. As it was Nowheresville we decided to move on to Mt Isa. The lake is at the Clem Walton Park, where there were about 100 Van's camping! We understand it's a very popular holiday destination for locals - a bit bizarre. Mt Isa is not to be recommended, other than the Chicken Parmy at the Irish Club!

South of Winton

On the way to Winton dropped into the Age of Dinasours to see their new trackway museum. Pretty cool! Great building too. Then turned south to Bladensberg National Park to camp. Great landscapes. All our technology seems to be working.

Tambo Chicken Racing!!

Bummer. It doesn't want to post a video. The scene is behind the Carrangarra Hotel in Tambo. Ben's Chicken Racing is about to start with Ben taking bets on who will win. He then drives a remote control car with food in it around the track and the chickens really do race! Great fun!

Update on Lack of Posts

I'm hoping this posts in due course (when reception kicks in). The reason for the delay in posting is that there's rarely reception and I don't have opportunities to consolidate all pictures to my laptop. Also, I couldn't work out how to use Blogger offline. 

But, I've just worked out the trick is to put the phone into flight mode. That seems to allow me to make this post without reception. So I am going to try to write them off line (on the phone) and Blogger will file them as drafts for me to action when we get reception. I'll do some more and hope for the best. So, you'll likely get a few or several at once. 

I will also change my usual posting methods. I'll probably send multiple short posts rather than longer. 

Also, the photos will likely be mostly from Sam's Samsung S20 which we are using with a Telstra sim in it. The Samsung has awesome wide angle which might dominate the posts. I'm also using my Sony camera but for now those pictures are still in that camera. 

I haven't worked out how to add emails yet for new posts (well I thought I had but it hasn't seemed to work with Marian). when I get reception I'll try to add more.