Wyndham to Broome - 21 July to 2 August

Wuggubun Aboriginal Community Campground

This beautiful small campground is within the Wuggubun Aboriginal Community which consists of (according to Government estimates) 50 permanent residences. Its only 66kms from Wyndham, so not a big drive!

Other than a few other campers, we only saw a handful of residents, and a couple of family dogs. We're not sure where the 50 residences were, but we walked most of the property and only saw a scattering of houses.

There's this really good swimming hole as well as a beautiful gorge.  Alan, Jayne and Chuck did a long walk to the gorge, expecting to find a swimming hole, but we were out of luck, so we sat for a bit, then walked all the way back.

We couldn't find a water hole in their gorge, but the small river is quite nice

Bungle Bungle Range is located within Purnululu National Park

Because of their isolated location, the Bungle Bungles were known only to Aboriginal people and to area cattle farmers before the 1980s. A muster pilot tipped off a film crew about the unusual geological feature. The crew was in the region to produce a documentary about the Kimberley, and when they flew over the range their film, the Wonders of Western Australia, took a new focus. Their documentary created so much global interest in the range that it was protected as part of a new national park in 1987 before becoming a UNESCO World Heritage site in 2003.

Purnululu National Park consists of 239,723 ha and the Bungle Bungles rise 300 metres above the grass-covered plains that surround them, the orange and black sandstone domes known as the Bungle Bungle are one of the world’s most fascinating geological landmarks.

The Bungle Bungle Range is one of the most extensive and impressive occurrences of sandstone tower (or cone) karst terrain in the world. How they were formed is not yet completely understood.

You'd think for such an important and significant National Park that the 80kms of access road was maintained. Well, you'd be wrong. Normally the roads in WA, especially the dirt roads, are well maintained. Not this road.

The night before we stayed at the Spring Creek Free Camp.  As expected, it was packed with campers all there to drive into the Bungle Bungles.  We managed to find an excellent sneaky spot just for our 2 vans, and the following morning left early in Alan's car, as we didn't have any other option than to drive in and out in the same day.  Dual-axle trailers are not allowed on the road to preserve it. Hmmm, the logic behind that is false, as it just more than doubles the traffic on the road and besides they just don't maintain the road and it was in shocking condition. It certainly made for an adventure, and Alan was quite exhausted when we got back to the vans that afternoon.

The Bungle Bungles are definitely worth the awful drive in. The formations are amazing. If we could have gotten our van in there it would be worthy of a longer stay, but  the drive in and out same day is too hard to do more than once.

Our free camp at Spring Creek - our vans were safely left here all day for our trip in to the Bungle Bungles

Alan has always wanted to camp overnight at this free camp, and finally we got the chance to do this. We've stopped here several times for lunch and mornos, but never stayed the night. Luckily it wasn't crowded when we pulled up. It was very windy when we stopped in the afternoon, but thankfully the wind dropped before sunset. We found a lovely sunny spot out of the wind and the 4 of us played Scrabble - yes even Chuck!

Mind you, we nearly got blown off the cliff in the morning, but the wind didn't start until we were awake at around 7am. Then it was windy enough to blow a dog off its chain! It was also windy enough to blow off the top of our electrical switch on our Black Jack jockey wheel. The guys at Black Jack couldn't believe it.

Scrabble on the cliff top, even if it was a bit cool

The view goes on forever

This free camp is on Ellendale Station and is provided by the station owners. What an absolute bonus. It's a really great camp, and it gets very crowded as you can imagine.

It's certainly worthy of an extra night if you had the time. But other than walk around the lagoon and some great bird watching, there's nothing else to do. As you can imagine some stay for longer periods.

Jayne even got up close and personal with one of their cows

We were camped at the end of the very narrow road, which meant we had to back out. We certainly tested Chuck's reversing skills and he managed it very well, Sue was hiding during this operation! :)

Broome

We arrived into Broome and then had to wrangle our vans into Camp Alexis. It was fortunate that her backyard is very big and the dimensions that she gave us some days before were spot on. So both vans were in behind her locked fence, very secure. Happy days.

Gotta love the Pindan colour stains on the houses around here!

First thing on the agenda, after squeezing the vans into her backyard, was sunset at Cable Beach! The first of many!

The next day was much warmer!

Friday family drinks on Alexis' veranda

Gantheaume Point

The colours are amazing

We had to work to cover some of our camping fees, and Alexis had a list of things for us to do while we were camped there. There's no such thing as a free lunch! Our last day there was a free day, whew! Chuck and Alan worked their bums off!  Her sliding door actually slides now with new fittings and rollers, and new locks fitted.  The security cameras were adjusted, new line put in the clothes line, and a few minor things sorted out.  We're amazed and proud of just how well she's managing up here, and it's lovely to see her so happy.

It's time for us to head north for a few days, before returning to Broome, and our last night was "Staircase to the Moon" night. The Staircase to the Moon is a natural phenomenon which occurs when a full moon rises over the exposed tidal flats of Roebuck Bay. The Staircase to the Moon happens between March and October.

It's very famous in Broome and lots of people, tourists as well as locals, gather for this event.

Alan's best photo of it! Quite impressive