Day 35 - Tuesday 7 August - Taking to the air

Day 35

Tuesday

7 August

Began Book 7 – The Red Coast by Di Morrissey

Bungle Bungles Caravan Park  - Purnululu National Park Helicopter flight

After our big day yesterday and the late night, we were keen to stay in bed and let things happen around us. We both sat tight reading our books until after 8am, eventually deciding we should get up. 

After breakfast, we went for a morning stroll through the park, finding our drinking friends from the night before busily packing up and getting ready to move on. We wished them well, told them we hoped to meet up again in Broome and then saw them off. A cow had wandered into the park, happily munching on anything green, the citrus tree looking particularly tasty. He was not bothered by me getting up close and personal, but the minute it ventured towards me I scooted quick. 

We completed our lap of the park, stopping at the heli pad to let the captain know we wanted the doors off and then returned to the van, where I began the huge job of running through all of the photos from yesterday. 

At 9.50am, we returned to the heli pad, met with the captain, had the safety briefing and then climbed aboard the tiny little chopper. I was given the front spot while Paul squeezed in behind the captain, it was then all stations go. The rotor began to whir into life and eventually the little mozzie shaped contraption left the ground, did a 180 and began its 30min circuit. 

We passed over the grazing lands of Mabel Downs station, from the air you could see how concertinaed the landscape was. Undulating hills folded into one another and then sharp peaks appeared from nowhere. Rivers and creeks snaked their way between the folds, easily spotted by the leafy green tree belt. Now we understood why there isn’t a direct road to Purnululu and it has to twist its way in. 

We eventually reached the main attraction, the giant bee hive domes. We passed over Deep Gorge and Five Fingers, before following the Piccaninny Creek, passing Whip Snake Gorge and spotting where we had been parked up. The views were incredible and provided a different perspective to the one we experienced yesterday. I loved looking down over the dome heads and seeing the circular patterns radiate out. From here you could see that most weren’t uniformly cone shaped and a lot had a knuckle bone pattern. 

After completing our pass over, we returned to the station. The Ord River was easy to spot, though there was little water in most of it. The helicopter dropped in altitude and we passed between the gap in a hill line where we were buffeted by the wind. I am really surprised these machines stay in the air. 

We eventually passed over a grazing paddock, spotting cows using the watering hole and then the caravan park came into view and with great precision, the chopper landed back on its square and we were given the all clear to hop out. We made it back to the van, only to find the cow was now munching the grass around our site.

With our excursion over, we had the rest of the day to entertain ourselves. I used the time to work through all of the photos, now compounded by today’s outing. I was determined however, to not spend all day getting square eyes, so at 11.30am I insisted we go for a walk. 

It felt good to stretch the legs and give the eyes a break. At first I tried to find some of the tracks I had seen on our approach from the helicopter, but each was fenced barring our entry. In the end we walked out the main road towards the highway. This gave us a chance to check the road conditions. 

We made it to the main entrance where a convoy of 4wd were gathered preparing for the run into the park. We checked out the information boards, reading up on the park. We spoke to one of the members of the convoy, a well-spoken English bloke. Turns out they were a BBC fil crew, filming the show “No Limits” and had just completed the Gibb River and were now doing the Bungles. It was all to tie in with the pending Invictus Games and I wondered if the secretly had Prince Harry stashed away with them. I scrutinised the group, but saw no gingers. 

We watched them leave, and then returned to the park, stopping to talk to a fresh tourist from Northampton. He had the talks on and we were stuck for a good 20 min. By the time we could tear ourselves away, my stomach was rumbling. 

We made our lunch and then I returned to the computer to continue my job. What I thought would take me a couple of hours, turned into an all day mission. I stopped the occasional pit stop, but for the most part pushed on through. 

By 3.30pm, I was in need of a break, opting to go for a shower, before the hordes from the tour bus returned. Paul followed on my return. I put the salad together for dinner, happy not to be on the computer, before insisting on another walk. 

We returned to the entry road, walking into the park, this time though, we took a side road and followed it further into the station property. We disturbed cows grazing, not happy that we were there and quick to scatter as we ventured closely. We walked all the way to the runway. The helicopter pilots were using the space as a landing spot and were kicking up all sorts of dust. We were glad we were well enough away and let it settle, before we got any closer. 

We checked out the dusty, red dirt runway and the storage yard for the caravan park, there was all sorts of supplies in various piles, just waiting for future use or the rubbish tip. The sun had pretty much disappeared by now and the sky was left with a pink glow, it was very pretty, but was also our signal to make the trek back. The western horizon lit up in gold light, but this soon faded and we were left to find our way back in diminishing light. 

When we returned, I got straight on to cooking dinner, once again we were starving and it was a welcome relief when I finally served it up to eat. I returned to the computer for the final finish off of the photos and then wrote up the blog for yesterday, happy to get that all done. I was then completely spent and joined Paul in bed at 8.30pm to read, before my eyes could take no more.