SPRING CREEK & BUNGLE BUNGLES

We left Wyndham last Wednesday, headed towards Spring Creek which is a free camp about 100m from the turn off into the Bungle Bungles. We drove through Doon Doon where we stopped for a milkshake and through Warmun (Turkey Creek). We didn’t stop at Warmun but had been told that in the heavy rains pretty much the whole town was wiped out and was in the process of being rebuilt. We did see a sign identifying the town (or at least part of it) as a declared natural disaster area, and new transportables being erected. We encountered quite a few of the mining road trains for about two thirds of the trip.


We found Spring Creek (sort of sneaks up on you) which has two levels of camping – the upper level which is primarily for big rigs but is right by the road and very few trees and almost no shade, but pretty level and a good amount of space – and the lower level closer to Spring Creek, more trees but less level and more occupants. After a bit of checking around we managed to find a spot that is pretty sandy but reasonably level and a pretty good view of the creek.

The view of Spring Creek from our caravan

Spring Creek - you can just see our caravan on the right

Spring Creek

The creek is only shallow but you can wade in it and there are a few slightly deeper pools where you can sit and refresh. A number of people hop in each day for a ‘swim’ and a clean (but they don’t use soap). We had a bit of a splash around yesterday. The water was cold but it was very refreshing.


On Friday we headed out to the Bungle Bungles. Once you leave the highway you have to travel 53km of dirt road and the recommended travel time is between 2 and 3 hours, so that gives you an indication of the roughness of the road! The first approximate 30km of the road is on Mabel Downs and less than a fortnight ago the owner started charging people to use the road – allegedly to cover the costs of repairing and maintaining. The charge is $20 per vehicle and tour vehicles are $50. There are an awful lot of vehicles going to Purnululu National Park each day so they must be making an absolute fortune and we cannot see that any work has been done on the road! There are rocks, pot holes, wash outs, 29 wet creek crossings and about the same dry creek crossings. It twists, winds, climbs up and down and you are only supposed to be allowed entry if you have a 4WD. Absolutely no caravans, but you can take tents and high clearance camper trailers and camp within Purnululu. This was the widest creek crossing but wasn’t the worst.

We arrived at the Visitor Centre, got a map and some information and were told we wouldn’t have time to do everything so we should focus on the Domes and Cathedral Gorge. We took her advice and headed off for another 45 minute drive to Piccaninny Creek car park.  This car park is right in the middle of the Bungle Bungles so it is pretty amazing driving in. The camera started clicking the minute we got out of the car and didn’t stop for a few hours! We did the Domes walk (with a bit of a detour off into a chasm) then onto Cathedral Gorge then headed back to the car park. This probably took us, in all, about 2.5 to 3 hours and it was getting pretty hot so we didn’t get to the lookout further on down Piccaninny Creek. We headed back to the car park and had our lunch then worked our way back again. The woman at the Visitor Centre had said that from the Visitor Centre we would need to allow a minimum 2 hours to get out to Echidna Gorge and back so we had to give that a miss.

Cathedral Gorge (part of)

The trip in and out of the Bungle Bungles was well worth it, even though it was pretty rugged and we were really tired by the end of the day.  I think to do the Bungle Bungles properly you would need to camp in the national park for at least 2 nights, minimum.