Cathedral Gorge, Purnululu, Western Australia

Cathedral Gorge is well named. Entering its immense towering cavern is like entering 
a magnificent natural cathedral, a place steeped in time and history. The red and orange 
sandstone walls tower above you, and the white sand crunches softly underfoot. Tiny 
tracks from night time animals can be seen going across the sand to the central pool 
which sits still and undisturbed like a mirror. Bird calls echo. It is a place for hushed voices 
and to sit quietly with your own thoughts. If you come early in the morning, as we did, 
you can enjoy the peace undisturbed. It has the atmosphere of a holy place, a sanctuary. 
It is my favourite gorge in Purnululu. You can feel the spirituality. Peace.

Cathedral Gorge is just one of the magnificent gorges within the Purnululu National Park 
(also known as the Bungle Bungles) in the Kimberley region in Western Australia’s far north 
west. Given World Heritage listing in 2003, Purnululu is one of Western Australia’s newest 
and most spectacular National Parks. 

In the Kija Aboriginal language purnululu means sandstone. The Aboriginal people 
inhabited the region for thousands of years, however Purnululu was known only to a few 
Europeans until the mid 1980s. 

The distinctive black and orange bands of the bee-hive shaped rock domes of Purnululu 
are actually more delicate than you might imagine. Once the rough outer layer is removed,
 the soft white sandstone is exposed, making the domes very fragile.  

How it received the name Bungle Bungles remains an intriguing mystery with several 
explanations including the corruption of the Aboriginal name Purnululu, or derived from 
the name of a common Kimberley grass, bundle bundle grass, or the ranges proximity to 
the old Bungle Bungle cattle station. 

Purnululu is located off the Great Northern Highway, 250km south of Kununurra, west of 
the WA/Northern Territory border. There is a 53 kilometre unsealed road only accessible 
by 4WD and offroad campers from the Highway, through Mabel Downs Station to the 
Department of Parks and Wildlife (DEPAW) Rangers / Visitor Centre and roads are unsealed 
throughout the Park. You should allow approximately 2-3 hours for the 53 km drive in 
(approximately 5 hours total travel time from Kununurra). 4WD recommended as the road 
can be very rough and you will need to negotiate several wet creek crossings. 

There are 3 campgrounds - Kurrajong and Walardi are management by the Dept of Parks 
and Wildlife, and Bellburn Creek is a commercial operation.  Please register at the Visitor 
Centre when you arrive. 
There are numerous walks in the Park ranging from half an hour and easy difficulty, 
to an challenging overnight trek. Please be aware of your own ability before you set out, 
wear a hat, sturdy walking boots, and carry plenty of water. It gets very hot in the gorges, 
and they recommended 1 litre per person per hour. 
The Park is only open in the dry season - usually April to November. 

My article about Purnululu which I wrote following our July 2016 visit was published in the 
Summer-December-January 2016-2017 edition of Go Camping Fishing & 4WD Adventures 
magazine.

 

 


























For more information - DPAW-Purnululu

Thank you so much for stopping by. I hope you 
have enjoyed this visit to Cathedral Gorge in 
Purnululu. I value your comments and look forward
 to hearing from you. I will try to visit your blogs in 
return. Have a wonderful week. 

I am linking up to the link-ups below. Please click 
n the links to see fabulous contributions from 
around the world - virtual touring at its best!

Life Thru the Lens 

Lifestyle Fifty Monday Linkup 
Our World Tuesday

Through My Lens 

Image-in-ing
Wednesday Around the World at Communal Global 
Worth Casing Wednesday 
Travel Photo Thursday

The Weekly Postcard 

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On the Road in the Kimberley

Beaches like these

Western Australia must surely have some of the most beautiful beaches and sunsets. When the winter hits the south, thousands of people travel north to bask in the warm winter sun of the north west dry season. And with beaches like these can you blame them. 

If you are lucky to be able to go off road you can visit beaches where you can walk and not see another person. How amazing is that?  The beach you see below is 80 Mile Beach south of Broome. (this is a popular tourist destination and has a great caravan park, so you might have to drive down the beach to find your own special spot on the sand). 
Those are shells you can see in the foreground. 

The other beaches are north of Broome on the Dampier Peninsular. 

How's this for a campsite with a view? 

Just me and a beach. The others went fishing. I even went nicky swimming on the other side of the rocks from the fishermen as there was no-one about and we had the beach totally to ourselves. What freedom!




Barefoot absolutely mandatory. 

And the sun setting over the Indian Ocean after another spectacular north west winter day. 

Sorry this is such a short blog today, but I hope you enjoyed the pics. Thank you so much for taking time to stopping by. I value your comments and look forward to hearing from you. I will try to visit your blogs in return. Have a wonderful week. 

I am linking up to the link-ups below. Please click on the links to see fabulous contributions from around the world - virtual touring at its best!

Mosaic Monday 
Life Thru the Lens 
Lifestyle Fifty Monday Linkup 
Our World Tuesday
Through My Lens 
Image-in-ing
Wednesday Around the World at Communal Global 
Worth Casing Wednesday 
Travel Photo Thursday
The Weekly Postcard 

Finding a Camp in the Great Western Australian Outback

I love the first morning on the road on a camping trip - watching the sun come up over the road ahead of us.  After weeks of planning and days of packing and organising to get ready it is a magical moment full of expectations about the trip ahead.

I know camping is not for everyone, and I like flash hotels too, but some of the things I enjoy most about camping you can't get at a hotel - watching the sun set through the trees, sitting around the campfire with a blanket of stars overhead while we toast marshmallows and chat about our day and the days ahead, and waking up in the morning to the bird song. The camp below is favourite of ours on the Gascoyne River on the Great Northern Highway south of Newman.  Just look at that reflection.

However one of the things I always want to know ahead of time, especially if we are fee camping, is where I am going to camp. We like to be setting up camp no later than 4.30 in the afternoon (maybe later on extended summer days). But if we are in a new area and don't know where we are going to camp I start to get restless.  When we were travelling between Tom Price and Mt Augustus on a gravel road in 2014 we just had to pull off the track in an open space to camp. It ended up being a beautiful peaceful camp and as you can see I still managed to have time to hang out the socks to dry.

Over the years we have discovered a number of fabulous free camps, either from maps and books, or advised by friends.  The one you see below is Bilyuin Pool on the Ashburton Downs Road 74 kms north of Meekatharra on the Great Northern Highway in Western Australia was recommended to us by our son. I like riverside camps. 

 There are a number of ways you can find these free camps. Maps, guide books, local knowledge, or talking to friends or people you meet on the road.

One of these guides we have found invaluable over the years is the Free-Camping series by Sue and Steve Collis. We always take these little books with us when we travel. There are others, just look up free camping on the net - for instance Free camping Australia.  The Camps 8 book is another good one.  You can also subscribe to their website or check our their Facebook page - Camps Australia Wide. The GPS locations in their book if you travel with something like a Hema Navigator are invaluable.  I know there are also phone apps if you are into phone apps.

Main Roads Western Australia encourage rest stops every two hours when you are travelling the vast distances of our State. They say fatigue is the silent killer on Western Australian roads and so to encourage drivers to camp overnight or to take a rest stop they have developed a series of 24-48 hour rest areas across 17 major routes, providing a few basic facilities like tables, shelters, toilets and large areas where caravans, camper vans and trailers can pull over and set up overnight or just stop for lunch.

You can find out more about these rest stops, including a downloadable map, on their website - Main Roads Rest Areas

This is the rest area at Minilya on the North West Coastal Highway north of Carnarvon. These free camping areas are very popular with travellers, not only to break up their trip, but  also to save money by sometimes not booking into caravan parks. Accommodation costs can build up over the course of a touring holiday so free camping is a great way to extend your budget. These days when many caravans have their own built in toilets and showers and solar panels, free camping is not such an issue. Camping with others also offers some feeling of security and the chance to talk to fellow travellers.

Some towns have also taken on board the free camping culture, offering free camping in their towns to travellers who are fully self sufficient - ie water, toilet, power - like this one in Kulin in the Western Australian eastern wheatbelt. What a great initiative to encourage travellers to stay in their town overnight and perhaps spend some money in their town.  In case you are wondering, the "horse" is on the Tin Horse Highway just out of Kulin.

Do you enjoy free camping? What do you enjoy most about free camping? Perhaps you would like to tell us in the comments. Thank you so much for stopping by. I value your comments and look forward to hearing from you. I will try to visit your blogs in return. Have a wonderful week.

I am linking up to the link-ups below. Please click on the links to see fabulous contributions from around the world - virtual touring at its best!


Life Thru the Lens 

Lifestyle Fifty Monday Linkup 
Our World Tuesday
Through My Lens 
Image-in-ing
Wednesday Around the World at Communal Global
Worth Casing Wednesday
Travel Photo Thursday
The Weekly Postcard
  

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Dehydrating food for camping 
Camp food
Free camping on the Great Central Road, Australia

How to Escape from the Kitchen

With so many of us time poor these days it is fabulous to find somewhere that will cook delicious nutritious mid-price-range meals for you to take home. Last week I was invited by former restaurateurs Bree & Dale Wiley to go down to Escape the Kitchen in Dunsborough to take photos for their new website.

 Despite the rain that morning it was a lovely drive through the trees to their small rural property just out of Dunsborough in south west Western Australia.  The road took me along a shady country road that I had never been along before despite having visited the Dunsborough-Yallingup area many times over the years.

Bree and Dale welcomed me like old friends and they were a joy to work with.  One of the things I really enjoyed was working closely with a professional chef and his partner to create the food shots they were looking for. We collaborated all the way through. They just didn't leave it to me because I was the photographer. Bree & Dale were easy to work with and knew what they wanted - a clean, no fuss look.  They wanted the food to look like it would when the customer took it home.

Escape the Kitchen came about when many people bemoaned that Bree & Dale no longer owned their restaurant and they were no longer able to enjoy the food that Dale created in his kitchen. And with so many people time poor these days, Bree & Dale realised there was a nitch they could fill, creating delicious nutritious take away food at a reasonable price. They built a commercial kitchen on their property, and Escape the Kitchen was born.

Bree & Dale are currently creating their website with a technical friend, and they searched on the net for a food photographer. They found me! Bree and I chatted on the phone and within a week I was in their kitchen in Dunsborough.

Hearty winter fare..........  

Or perhaps a light salad.......I can vouch that the Caesar salad was delicious! 

Or something for the sweet tooth.

We photographed a lot of dishes but I thoroughly enjoyed photographing Dale's chef created food and collaborating on the styling with Bree. Oops don't mind the fingers! 

How's the sauce drizzle?

Dale and Bree also cater for functions and weddings. I'm looking forward to seeing the new Escape the Kitchen website when it is completed. I'll let you know!

Thank you so much for stopping by. Are you time poor? Do you long for take away food that is delicious and nutritious? I value your comments and look forward to hearing from you. I will try to visit your blogs in return. Have a wonderful week.

I am linking up to the link-ups below. Please click on the links to see fabulous contributions from around the world - virtual touring at its best!

Mosaic Monday  (sadly Mosaic Monday has closed)

Life Thru the Lens 

Lifestyle Fifty Monday Linkup 
Our World Tuesday
Through My Lens 
Image-in-ing
Wednesday Around the World at Communal Global
Worth Casing Wednesday
Travel Photo Thursday
The Weekly Postcard