Paddy & Jen Adventures

From El Questro we stayed one night in a roadside free camp and then headed to Purnululu National Park, the Bungle Bungle Ranges. Another world heritage listed location and a place where Paddy had been particularly keen to visit. We booked 3 nights at the national park campground, which is about 70 km & 3 hours to get to off the main highway. The road is horrible, but Paddy was keen to take the van in. There were water crossings and rough road to navigate, meaning only 4WD’s could go in (other option is tour bus). The van (& Paddy) held up well. We have a single axle van and these are the only ones you are allowed to take in. Lots of people had camper trailers, which go really well on these type of roads. Others left their vans behind and camped in tents or their cars. Others visited for the day, but this option would make it a very huge day.

We absolutely loved our time in Purnululu. Paddy had his camera out not stop as we hiked through some incredible landscape. This area is famous for its striped sandstone domes and amazing gorges. In the northern end of the ranges we hiked to Echidna Chasm and to Mini Palms Gorge. In the southern end we were surrounded by the huge domes, and we hiked in to Cathedral Gorge which was breathtaking. We went early morning and had this location all to ourselves. Sunsets in these ranges were just the best too, with the light reflecting off the rock. Our favourite sunset lookout there was Kungkalanayi, where you have a full 360 degree view.

Our plan was to do more walks but we realised early morning on our 3rd day at the campground that our solar was not recharging enough to keep us going for another night. We had been off grid for the past week and the weather, although hot, had been quite overcast. This meant our solar was not getting the full sun it needed and that meant no power to the fridge and no access to water!

We left a day early and headed back on our 3 hour crazy drive to the main entrance. We hoped to get a powered site at the caravan park at the entry to Purnululu but unfortunately they were fully booked. We were in luck and were able to pay them $20 to use their power and water for a few hours just to get the van back running. This gave me time to get some washing done and to clean the crappy red dirt that snuck its way in big time again. We had sealed up a lot but the red dirt will always find a way. I can’t keep cleaning it as it is a pain in the bum (takes hours), so no more of these roads until after we have it fixed in Perth!

After charging up we drove about 1km to the highway and stayed at an overnight stop. Big day all round, but so worth the effort to see Purnululu. I think next time a fly over the ranges would be something I would love to do. Regardless of the drive in/out, we will definitely return to this magical place. Our photos really don’t do it justice.

You can check out Paddy’s new video of our time in the East Kimberley Region by clicking on this link.