Finishing the Gibb River Road felt like the highlight of our WA journey, but we knew there were still a few things we wanted to see and do before we left the state for the next leg of our adventure.

First of all there was Purnululu National Park or the Bungle Bungles, as it is also referred to.  Now…intially we were going to skip it, but we talked to so many people along the way who said they enjoyed it, we decided at the last minute to make a detour after leaving El Questro.  After checking into the caravan park at the entrance to the national park for two nights, we set off the next day without our trailer to explore Purnululu.

It was a lovely drive in, albeit a little bumpy, and we decided to tackle the south end first.  We did the Dome Walk and then continued on to Cathedral Gorge.  In usual Kimberly style, the scenery was big and stunning.  Unfortunately the pool at the bottom of Cathedral Gorge wasn’t running and was a little stagnant looking, due to the last two wet seasons up here being uncharacteristically dry.  Still it was amazing to see and we relaxed here for smoko before continuing on to the North end of the Park.

Next up was Echidna Chasm, a very narrow gorge that in some parts is only just wide enough for one person.  Tall red walls and beautiful palms greeted us as we walked into the chasm and continued to the end.  Then we headed up to the lookout that gave us views over the plains and of the rocks themselves.

The high, narrow walls of Echidna Chasm

The following day we set off to Kununurra for the second time, this time to actually see some of the place.  We camped at the Kimberlyland caravan park and enjoyed a lovely view over lake Kununurra.

From here we did a day trip into Wyndham, via the Ivanhoe Crossing Road.  We drove around the town, port and up to the Five Rivers Lookout.  It was great to see and fascinating to think what this place must have been like at full throttle.

 

We also got to cross the Ivanhoe Crossing, recently reopened after being closed for a few years.

Ivanhoe Crossing

While we were in Kununurra we also visited a few galleries, The Sandlewood Factory and The Hoochery, where we purchased some of their award winning rum… yet to be opened!

After Kununurra we headed to Lake Argyle for two nights.  It was a must do on my list and we  weren’t disappointed.  The first day there we had a lovely swim in their infinity pool overlooking Lake Argyle and spent the evening listening to some live music in the same spot.

Our final hurrah in WA was to book ourselves a sunset cruise on Lake Argyle and what a hurrah it was.  We cruised around the lake learning about how it all came about before being given some afternoon tea.

 Then we did some wildlife spotting where we fed the silver cobbler (catfish) and spotted wallaroos and some of the 30 000 plus freshwater crocodiles that live in the lake.

One the highlights of the cruise was getting to swim out in the middle of the lake.  Trying to  push aside the thought of a croc making an appearance we all jumped in and enjoyed plentiful drinks and pool noodle assisted nibbles!  Lockie decided to take up the challenge of jumping off the roof of the cruise boat and went back for seconds, thirds and so on.

 

And then came the grand finale, without a doubt the best sunset we have EVER seen.  In fact it was so good I couldn’t choose one pic.  This is how it went….

What a way to spend our last night in this awesome, wonderful, big, amazing state of ours.

The next day we headed out of Lake Argyle and WA and into the NT, we can’t wait to see what the next chapter brings in this epic adventure we are having!