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Bungle Bungle travel wonder in Australia |
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Why
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
Bungle Bungle is the name for a portion of the 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.
May to October (the Southern Hemisphere winter) is best. May is the finest 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.
From late November through early April, days are likely to be uncomfortably hot, humid and rainy. 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.
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I hope your Australia travel dreams come true - and that my Bungle Bungle page helps you enjoy your vacation, tour or trip ©2008 HQP / Hillman Quality Publications
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