Thursday 17 July 2014 (Day 22)
We are travelling from Derby to Bungle Bungles
Well we are at our turn around and leaving Derby. Its a nice little place, we enjoyed our visit and with more time would have stayed a little longer and delved deeper into the Napier Range Gorges (Bell Gorge and the like). We had originally planned to free camp tonight at either Mary Pool or Ngumpan Cliff Lookout however we made good time and lunch at the latter rest area. It has a great view from the cliff with a warm breeze that toasted our sandwiches in a heartbeat. The temperatures have remained quite warm, last night our warmest around 20 degrees and daytime temperatures in the low to mid 30's.
We decided to bite the bullet and continue to Purnululu National Park which meant a little longer travelling but we often do bigger journeys if it means we get to where we want to be and we arrived at the Bungle Bungle Caravan Park around 5pm. It's a nice clean park with plenty of space between patrons if you are unpowered. Thankfully we did this on the way back as during the school holidays they were chockablock and powered site were full today. The facilities here are quite good with open air shower/toilet blocks for our camping area, enclosed ones for the area up top close to the office. Nathan is a little disappointed we cannot have our own campfire there is a big communal one in the upper area if you want to join in. The nearby safari touring group had a big one going and we are tempted to take our marshmallows but we thought better not.
Apparently this camp ground is privately owned as part of the Maple Downs Station and its 99 year lease is up next year. Maple Downs encompasses a huge area, it will be interesting to see what happens with the tender.
Photos
Distance 656 km
Time 6 hours 55 min
Map
Link Bungle Bungles