|
Why Bungle Bungle
is special
Bungle Bungle has bee-hive shaped sandstone domes that soar up to hundreds of
feet high. But what makes this Australia travel wonder most exciting are the mound's alternating
horizontal stratified bands - orange, gray and black. Photo shows just one of
the many dome groups.
Tips & insights on
Bungle Bungle
in northwestern Australia
 It's
the popular name for the portion of the Bungle Bungle Range in Purnululu
National Park that contains the remarkable rock landforms.
In
addition to the renowned domes, there are high-wall, palm-adorned, dry-creek
gullies for hiking. The Bungle Bungle of Australia also has Aborigine rock paintings and
burial grounds.
The
sandstone terrain was eroded into beehive-forms in the last 20 million years by
fierce winds and flash floods.
The
sandstone mounds appear hard, but are fragile and easily crumbled, so scaling
them is
prohibited.
The
gray and black bands get their hue from a lichen fungus (with the help of
algae).
The
orange layers are less porous to water. Because fungi need water, those layers
are poor hosts to them. Therefore, instead of being blackened by lichen, they
are colored by orange-hued silica crystalline compounds.
Some
travelers explore Bungle Bungle using 4WDs and their feet. They get to
enjoy Bungle Bungle up close.
Others
visitors sightsee by plane or helicopter. The chief advantage is you see a
greater variety of the Bungle Bungle landforms than you could on the ground.
For
the keenest perspective of Bungle Bungle, view it from both the air and ground.
Bungle
Bungle is unofficially divided into two sections: Northern and Southern.
Echidna
Chasm, in the northern part, has a popular 1-hour hike through a high, narrow
gorge.
The
southern part is the more alluring section because it has the bee-hive mounds.
Its two best known hikes are through the Cathedral Gorge (1 hour) and the
Piccaninny Creek (8 to 10 hours).
May
to October (the Southern Hemisphere winter) is the best time to visit. May is
the best of all because it follows the wet season, which means that the
otherwise barren landscape will be alive with green vegetation, colorful wild
flowers, and small pools.
Days
are likely to be uncomfortably hot, humid and rainy from late November through
early April. And the park is closed for several months during the middle of that
period.
Bungle
Bungle lies in a remote and, until recently, difficult-to-reach wilderness area.
That helps explain why it was unknown (except to some local Australians, mainly
Aborigines) until the 1980s.
View my other gold,
silver & bronze medal
winners in Australia
 
My Australian slang
guide for
travelers
What every visitor should know.
My Australian cuisine guide
 |
