Half lap of Australia

Hi everyone! I'm back! If you are wondering where I have been the last couple of months we have been travelling a half lap of Australia - starting in the south west corner of Western Australia, north up along the Western Australian coast to Kununurra, across into the Northern Territory to Darwin at the top of Australia, around Kakadu National Park, then down the centre to Alice Springs and Coober Pedy in the dry centre, to the south of the Yorke Peninsula in South Australia, before returning home across the Nullarbor -  13,329 kilometers in 7 weeks and 3 days, 16 caravan parks and 11 free camps. Phew!  You can see a rough idea of our trek on this map which I have marked in red.

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

Paint the Desert with Purple Prose

Sadly my computer's hard-drive has been at the doctor's the last few days having an upgrade, and I have had to revert to my laptop, where unfortunately I don't have access to all my files and photo editing etc so I am unable to bring you as promised more photos from our wildflower drive through the southern Western Australian goldfields.


So for something completely different this week I have drawn on a couple of writing exercises from my writing group, South Side Quills, from recent months and some old images from our South Australian trip in 2013.

My writer's group had two exercises - one was a short travel article in 300 words and an exercise in Purple Prose.  
What is Purple Prose....an explanation from the web....In literary criticism, purple prose is prose text that is so extravagant, ornate, or flowery as to break the flow and draw excessive attention to itself. Purple prose is characterized by the extensive use of adjectives, adverbs, zombie nouns, and metaphors.  Purple Prose-Wikipedia

For my travel article I drew on our stay in September 2013 at Arckaringa Station set in the visually stunning Painted Desert in mid-South Australian outback country.

Arckaringa homestead

With relief we pulled up under the shade of the gum trees surrounding the Arckaringa Station homestead.  We’d had enough of the heat, dust and the rocky track.  As we piled out of our four-wheel-drive a station truck pulled up and a craggy weather worn face uttered “g-day” from under a battered hat.

Hobbsy, the station manager, waved his hand towards a clump of scrubby trees and told us to “pick up spot” to set up our camp.

We had been on the road for a few days, so a hot shower was high on our agenda. Housed in a corrugated iron shed the showers definitely had a rustic Aussie outback feel but they were clean and the water hot. Just make sure to shower early as you don’t want to be left in the dark when the diesel generator cuts out!

Although the facilities might be considered basic, this was more than compensated by the views of central South Australia’s spectacular Painted Desert from our camp.

Evolved over 80 million years, this fragile landscape, which was once an ancient inland sea bed, is slowly eroding away revealing the rich colours of a desert artist’s pallet beneath the surface. It is not surprising that Arckaringa has hosted many groups of painters, photographers and geologists over the years.

Mt Arckaringa and the Painted Desert is only about eleven kilometres from the homestead out along the Arckaringa to Oodnadatta Road. The area is protected within the Arckaringa Hills State Heritage area and mostly inaccessible due to ruggedness and Aboriginal cultural sites.  A public access track leads to a parking area from where there is a half hour walking track to the lookout. Bring your camera and a fly-net.

At days end we sat in the comfort of our camp chairs and watched the changing colours of the Painted Hills and the desert sunset. 

The Painted Desert late afternoon

For the "Purple Prose" exercise I changed the introduction paragraphs (78 words) of this sample article to Purple Prose (282 words!) In fact the first sentence is 88 words long! There was a lot of laughter amongst our members when I read out my piece at my writer's group. 

We gratefully welcomed the long-awaited-for respite from the constant bone-jarring jolting of the rocky dusty track as we steered our red-dust stained white Prado 4-wheel-drive through the wire strung gate hanging precariously by its hinges to a fence post which appeared to have been fashioned from a rusted piece of railway line, and steadily decelerated before braking to a halt beneath the thin dappled shade cast by the trailing blue tinged leaves of the tall stringy Coolibah trees encircling the low roofed, wide verandahed Arckaringa Station outback homestead. (88 words)  The typically Australian fragrance of eucalyptus assisted by a slight lazy breeze assaulted our senses as we prised ourselves from the cramped stuffy confines of our four-wheel-drive and into the searing red heat of the midday desert sun.  A battered station truck which appeared to have not been washed for many years, if ever, rounded the corner of the nearby empty cattle yards and came to a stop in a cloud of choking dust beside us.  The door of the truck creaked open and a craggy, lined, weather worn leathery face with a chin covered in grey stubble, uttered a gravely “g-day” in a slow drawling listless way from under a shabby tattered Akubra hat which was so ingrained with dust that it was the same hue as the red dirt.

We soon learned from his introduction that the man was Hobbsy, the station manager. Hobbsy was somewhat short on words as if he would rather not deal with city slicker tourists, as he waved his hand unceremoniously towards a clump of low scrubby trees across the yard beyond the sheds and curtly invited us to “pick up spot” to set up our camp. 

I must hasten to add that Hobbsy was not like the Hobbsy I have described above...he was in fact very friendly and accommodating and was a long time and well respected employee of Arckaringa Station. 

Would I recommend Arckaringa Station? Absolutely. It became one of our favourite destinations in outback South Australia.  I wrote about it for Go Camping magazine in October 2014 edition, and also a campsite report for On the Road magazine, April 2014.

I hope you have enjoyed this little exercise on Purple Prose.

You can read more about Arckaringa Station on my blog post be clicking here - South Australia - Woomera, Coober Pedy and the Painted Desert 

Or by going to their website - Arckaringa Station and the Painted Desert
or on Facebook - Arckaringa on Facebook

Drumsticks - at Arckaringa Station

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!

Mosaic Monday 
Travel Photo Mondays
Lifestyle Fifty Monday Linkup 
Our World Tuesday
Through My Lens 

Image-in-ing
Wednesday Around the World at Communal Global 
Worth Casing Wednesday
What's It Wednesday 
Travel Photo Thursday
The Weekly Postcard 

South Australia trip - Part 6 - Outback Australia on the Oodnadatta Track

Welcome back for Part 6 of our trip through South Australia. If you missed the first five parts, please scroll down to the bottom of this post to go to the links.  Here is the link to the quick overview - On the road through South Australia.

Today we will continue north on the Stuart Highway to Marla where we turn south east on the Oodnadatta Track which will take us 638 kilometres along a dirt road to Marree. 

The Oodnadatta Track in South Australia can be described as hot, dry, dusty, bone shaking, and when we travelled recently, fly-ridden. However it is also one of Australia's great outback treks which has plenty to explore, fascinating and historical, and which is easily achievable over 3 or 4 days (4WD highly recommended). The track follows the Old Ghan railway line and along the way you can explore old railway bridges and stone ruins of the old railway sidings, learn it's history, and even see hot water bubbling up from the Artesian Basin and take a flight over spectacular Lake Eyre. You can bush camp, or stay at caravan parks at Coward Springs, Oodnadatta, and William Creek (make sure you have a drink in the pub and meet the locals - all 4 or 5 of them!). 

 But be prepared - this is remote outback travel - so please take all the necessary precautions including carrying drinking water, food, fuel and good quality tyres, 4WD highly recommended, and drive to the road conditions which can vary from good to badly corrugated, and watch out for potholes and washaways.

If you remember from Part 5 we travelled from the south up through Coober Pedy. Our final stop on the Stuart Highway was the Marla Roadhouse. A last chance to top up with fuel and supplies and make telephone calls (unfortunately no internet connection) before heading out along Oodnadatta Track. This little oasis, 160kms south of Northern Territory border, is a nice patch of green in the desert.

We had lunch under the shade of the trees at Marla before turning east onto the Oodnadatta Track. 

The history of the Oodnadatta Track goes back to the early1840s when central Australia was unexplored by Europeans and commonly thought to contain a massive inland sea.  But really its history goes back thousands of years before following a major Aboriginal trade route and steeped in Aboriginal history and dreamtime stories.  

We were finally here - on the Oodnadatta Track!  

Please click on "read more" to keeping reading and seeing more pics from the Oodnadatta Track.