Day 61 - The Bungle Bungles

The Bungle Bungles

Day 61 - Sunday - 19/7/2026

Today we woke up early and drove on the WORST road I have ever been on so that we could get to the Bungle Bungles. Even though the drive was only about 100km it still took us about 2 hours. The first 50km was on the sealed road so it only took us about half an hour but then we hit the dirt and it slowed us down a lot, not only because of the corrugations but also because we had to drive through flowing creeks and dips along the road, by the end of the day we had crossed 16 creeks. This section of the drive took us 1 hour and 44 minutes despite being a similar number of kilometres to the sealed road so even though we left at 6:30 we arrived at the Visitors Centre around 9AM. We had a look at the map and decided what to do so then we drove another 45 minutes on the horrible road. About 15 minutes before we arrived, we stopped at Elephant Rock. 

Elephant Rock

Once we arrived, we went on the domes walk which went through the spectacular, colossal, sandstone domes of the Bungle Bungles that they call Beehives. Looking at the rock formation, you can see the resemblance of a beehive and also when we were walking through the domes some of the rock was shaped like a honeycomb.

Bee-eaters and beehives

We suspect this was formed by the softer parts of the sandstone eroding away leaving the harder parts in the rock. The domes were very tall, and you could see the Lichen in the sandstone telling us that in the wet season there’s a waterfall there, in case you don’t know what Lichen is, it's basically this black stuff that grows on the rock feeding off water when it rains. You could also see all the different layers in the sandstone because it’s a sedimentary rock.  A sedimentary rock is formed when multiple layers of sand and other substances stack on top of each other under the sea and over millions of years it hardens into a rock. The domes are created by tectonic plates deep underground sliding and pushing against each other raising the land forming the domes. Also, the walk went alongside holes and domes while you walked through the sand, it was ranked as a difficulty level of 4 (moderate to difficult), but grandma did it with ease and was more like a difficulty 2 (easy).

Walking along the domes

Then we did the walk into Cathedral Gorge, the start was similar to the domes walk but once we got into the gorge there was different plant life, overhangs and sheer cliff faces created by falling rock.

Us at Cathedral Gorge

There was also a large pool of water covered by a thin layer of slime, there were also heaps of fallen rocks everywhere. 

Cathedral Gorge

Then we drove 1 hour to Echidna Chasm. The chasm started off pretty open and wide, but it became narrow very fast and soon we were walking through a gap no more than a metre wide. 

Walking through the narrow chasm

Soon enough we reached the end of the walk because there were some fallen rocks in our way but according to grandpa in 1990 those rocks weren’t there. As we were walking back to the car, we took a quick detour to a lookout that looked over the Osmand Ranges. Then we rattled along the road back home to Warmun and arrived at 6PM after dark, it was an extremely long day.