Purnululu National Park
Beehive Domes
As it is so late in the tourist season most tours to the gorges and waterfalls in the Kimberley are finished. So were the tours to Purnululu National Park home of the Bungle Bungles – beehive shaped domes of rock striped with bands of orange/red and black rock. The road into it is a sandy track 60km long so it was a no go on my bike. The only option was to get a flight out there so I forked out the cash.
The flight was a sunrise one so we’d get the best light conditions for pretty pictures. Unfortunately there have been a few storms over the last few evenings and the accompanying lightning started a few bushfires. As we got closer to the Bungle Bungles it was clear that it was not going to be clear skies. The air was thick with smoke, you could even smell it in the cockpit. So the pilot took us down much lower than normal to try and see things clearer. It was a cool flight, you could see everything just the pictures were not a good as they would have been if there were no smoke. That said using the magic of image editing, I was able to adjust the colour levels to compensate for the smokiness of the air and make the pictures look somewhat more vibrant.
After I got back from the flight I did some exploring, its a pretty small town so it didn’t take too long. Then I crawled back into air-conditioned comfort where I stayed for the rest of the day. Last night I was really tired but couldn’t get to sleep. Taking the flight meant my usual rising time too so I had a power nap in the afternoon. This was followed by beautiful stir fry with as much veg as I could eat.