The drive into the park is only 53 km, but takes 2-3 hours to drive! We had been warned about this road and how slow going it was, hence why we decided to stay at the caravan park rather than within the national park. So glad we did that, this road is a nightmare! On our way back to camp we saw a few camper trailers just sitting on the side of the track, obviously their owners weren’t prepared for how bad the road was and offloaded the trailers partway along!
So while our little trailer slept back at the caravan park, us and the Prado took off to tackle this track! We left camp at 7.30 and made the trek into the park and headed off to the northern end of the park to do the ‘Echidna Chasm’ walk.
The Echidna Chasm walk is a 2km walk over pebbles and rocks, with a climb closer to the end. This long narrow chasm is spectacular.
Anyone who knows us will know that we aren’t big on the bush walking thing! But when you come to a place like this, you have no choice, you have to walk to see these amazing places.
The colours of the rock walls are wonderful and to see the 200m chasm with all its colour was truely spectacular.
The pic above is the terrain we walked over to get to the chasm.
There was mention of it feeling like we were in the movie ‘127 hours’! Whilst walking through you could look up and see a slither of light and see boulders just suspended there after falling!
On our way out we came across a few people at one of the narrow points and found that they were waiting as there was a snake on the track. It wasn’t big, looked like a small python (very similar to our little Sam), he clearly wasn’t interested in all the people around as he slithered under and over the rocks! Once he was safely off to the side of the track we all moved by.
After our walk it was really starting to heat up, the temperature was now 31 degrees and it was only 10.30am!
We then took a drive down to the southern end of the park as this is where the domes are and these are what the park is famous for.
As we headed towards the domes you could see the terrain and rock formations changing, it was totally different at this end of the park.
By now it was pretty hot so we took off to do the shorter domes walk which takes you in amongst these amazing huge coloured domes.
These photos don’t even come close to showing how amazing this area was, but we tried!
The Bungle Bungle Range is renowned for its striking banded domes, the worlds most exceptional example of cone karst formations. They are made of sandstone deposited about 360 million years ago.
Erosion by creeks, rivers and weathering in the past 20 million years has carved out the domes along with spectacular chasms and gorges, creating a surreal landscape.
The domes striking orange and grey bands are caused by the presence or absence of cyanobacteria. Dark bands indicate the presence of the cyanobacteria, which grows on layers of sandstone where moisture accumulates. The orange bands are oxidised iron compounds that have dried out too quickly for the cyanobacteria to grow.
*the sections above in italics were taken directly from the National Parks brochure.