DAY 109
2nd April
A day of major disappointment – Purnululu was closed. It was possibly to be opened on the 9th April, a whole week away. But it turned out it didn’t open then either but two weeks later again. We talked about hanging around for a whole week. I would have done it but Josh wasn’t keen on this idea. Glad we didn't though, since it didn't even open then!
We tried looking at maps to see how we could possibly see the Bungle Bungles via our drone on another track – if we could get within a Km, it would have been ok. But we couldn’t find anything and the roads were all too far away. I was really annoyed – we’d bought the year-long National Parks pass precisely because I wanted to visit this park. It was also closed because of the late wet season, but we’d encountered nothing that stopped us so far, so I’m sure we would have been fine on the roads. Bloody national parks.
We ended up at a rest stop up the road early and I spent all afternoon editing photos. I was too cranky to really enjoy my day. We at least had some lamb chops and sprouts for dinner.
DAY 110
3rd April
Kept driving north. We went to Wyndham via the Grotto, which was a very pretty waterfall into a swimming hole (didn’t swim) and Maggies Valley. Maggies Valley was named after Maggie Nicholson who was the first person to drive a vehicle into the area in the 1920's. Often accompanied by her adopted Aboriginal brother, Jacky Nicholson, she drove a Chevrolet 4 Tabletop loaded with bird cages into the valley. Bird catching was a business in those days and the birds would often be sold as far away as London.
The lookout was the best thing about Wyndham, which was a weird place used a lot for shipping. There were lots of dragonflies around, and from the lookout you could see all the water around from the end of the wet season. We also took a look at an old bridge there, but it was an odd place.
On the way back to the main road, we stopped in at Parry Lagoon. This was supposed to be a good area to see birds, but as we drove along the white clay road, we thought it was more likely going to be a good area to be bogged. So we turned around and went back, now covered in thick clay. I’ve never seen anything like it before!
We made it back to the highway then ducked into an area where there was a spring and billabong. Didn’t swim but used an old tent peg that I found there to knock as much of the mud off the car as possible. We then drove on to Kununurra.
We went to Mirima NP for lunch then I walked up to the top while Josh did the bottom walk. It was almost like a mini Bungle Bungles, with the rocks shaped in the same kind of way. The walk to the top was strenuous but the views were pretty good and totally worth it. I also did another walk through the rocks.
We went to Coles in Kununurra and the bottle shop (where you had to show ID to buy anything!) then headed to the NT.
We crossed the border easily (covid times) – just drove over. No checks or anything. We stopped at Keep River NP, which I wanted to visit. Camping closed. All of these closures was beginning to get very frustrating. We had to keep driving as there was nowhere else to camp around there.
We stopped at a rest area with the most gross toilets I’ve ever been to – I don’t know how they even got to that stage! Drove on to another rest area that was slightly better and put the drone up. It was in a nice area but we weren't having a very good few days. It's hard on a long trip like this to deal with disappointment of things being closed. Purnululu was on my "must-go" list and I missed it.... I hope we end up going back there and Keep River NP one day!
