Monday 22nd July 2013 – Purnululu

And now for something completely different!!!!  I remember saying before that it’s amazing how everywhere in WA has different rock structure.  Purnululu is no different.  Here it’s the banded sandstone cone formations made even more remarked by the large areas and large boulders of conglomerate rock.  The striking orange and grey banding is caused by the presence or absence of cyanobacteria (blue-green algae).  The dark bands indicate the presence of 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.

This morning we were up early to get the 4.4 km (return) Mini Palms walk completed before the heat of the day.  What an amazing spot.  Initially you are walking through a creek bed in fairly open country.   The creek bed is covered in small rounded pebbles unlike the large rounded rocks in the creek beds at El Questro.  Once in the gorge one needs to climb over and around large conglomerate boulders that have fallen into the gorge at some stage of history partly blocking ones way.  Seeing we’re talking about rock that is 20 million years old I imagine the boulders have been here for some time and we don’t have to worry about further rocks falling today.

There are lots of Livistona palms through the gorge (giving it its name) including high up on the cliff faces.  They have survived in this part of the world because they are protected here from bushfires.  The walk concludes at the end of the gorge with a man made platform looking down into an amphitheatre of level gorge floor.

Next stop was Echidna Chasm.  We had timed things to be here at 11:30 to catch the sun shining down into the centre of the Chasm.  To ‘kill’ a bit of time we walked the short distance to Osmand Lookout which takes in the panoramic views of neighbouring Osmand Range.

The 2km (return) walk again traverses the creek.  The difference here is that the gorge becomes extremely narrow.  With walls over 200m high and in places only a few metres wide it is quite spectacular.  The Chasm itself is a little wider and the sun shines on the walls giving a very bright orange glow.

On the way back to camp we called in to do the short Stonehenge walk.  This short walk has lots of signs identifying the various plants in the area.

Back to camp for lunch and a rest.  Some of us even had a nap.  At about 4:30 we went for a walk up the hill behind the camp area to watch the sunset.  On the way we noticed that our rear passenger side tyre was almost flat so when we came back it was time to change the tyre.  We discovered a puncture – a hole in the tyre but nothing in it now.  Out came the tyre repair kit to plug the hole.  Even though the plug seems to have done the job I guess it will be a visit to the tyre repair shop in Halls Creek or Alice Springs to patch the inside of the tyre.

Dinner tonight was Sushi and very nice it was too.