Criss-crossing the Kimberley

[JohnM]

First activity the next morning was a helo flight. Bellburn (BXF/YBEB) is the park airstrip, a short distance from Savannah Lodge.

Don’t visit the Bungle Bungle without doing a helo flight over it! (Tip: fly early in the morning to get the best sun angle on the domes.)



Let’s rock ‘n roll. Forget doors.

 

[JohnM]

We then drove around to the E side, parking at the Piccaninny picnic area to walk into Cathedral Gorge.



Termite mounds are present in the most unlikely locations high above ground with mud trails snaking down to access spinifex at ground level.

 

[JohnM]

Back to the lodge for lunch, then an afternoon excursion to Echidna chasm. I’ve been to the Bungle Bungle a few times but never previously got to Echidna Chasm, so I was looking forward to this. I was not to be disappointed.

The geomorphology of the Bungle Bungle bears a remarkable similarity to Uluru/Ayers Rock and Kata Tjuta/The Olgas. Like Kata Tjuta, Echidna chasm is cut into a very coarse rock-fragment sedimentary conglomerate; like Uluru the ‘beehive’ domes of the Bungle Bungle are sandstone.



The riverbed walking trail into Echidna Chasm is strewn with rounded rocks.



Echidna Chasm is noted for its 200m high walls (greater than Kata Tjuta) and the abundance of Livistona palms.



Bower bird’s bower.

 

[JohnM]

Back to the lodge to end a cracking day in time for sunset. Here, you don’t look to the west; rather to the east to catch the sunlight reflecting from the red hills.

 

[JohnM]

Next morning we pulled out of Purnululu and headed to Wyndham, arriving in time to have lunch on The Bastion aka Five Rivers Lookout, with its expansive view over the lower Cambridge Gulf where five rivers (Ord, Forrest, King, Durack, Pentecost) enter the sea.

Wyndham is these days pretty much a ghost town, having been superseded by Kununurra as the regional centre.



We then turned back to arrive in Kununurra early afternoon for a chill to complete a cruisy day and for a one-night stay at the Country Club hotel.



Next morning it was aboard a Triple-J boat for a tour up the Ord River from the Lake Kununurra diversion dam to the Lake Argyle dam wall, while the coach was driven there to meet us.



‘Sleeping Buddha’/Elephant Rock Lake Kununurra.



Comb-crested jacana, aka ‘Jesus bird’ because of its seeming ability to walk on water.



Rock wallaby and crocodile trap – set if a salty is spotted., but crocs are rare above the diversion dam at Kununurra.



Informative spiel about the river, dams and Ord River irrigation system.



Morning tea stop.



Fruit bats.



The river narrows and the flow quickens, all governed by water release from Lake Argyle (21 SydHarbs in size) to keep the diversion dam at a level where gravity alone distributes water to the main (north eastern) Ord River Irrigation Area.

 

[JohnM]

A visit to the relocated Durack homestead; the original site now being under water.



Resident bower bird, then drive back to Kununurra for a look around before heading to the Gibb River Road.



The ORIA stretches out to the NNE. Cotton.



Ord River Ivanhoe Crossing, downstream of the diversion dam.



The old and the new Gibb River Road signs.



Our destination for the next two nights was Emma Gorge Resort, which is a part of the famed El Questro. Not very far along the Gibb River Road and sealed to there.

 

[JohnM]

Next morning. After breakfast a short drive to El Questro proper for a boat cruise in picturesque Chamberlain Gorge.



Enticing archer fish to spit water at ’prey’ of pellets. Too quick to capture on a still camera, but a frame from a movie catches it.

Interlopers included barramundi and some other species I did not get the name of.