We again planned to be up and at
them early, in order to miss the heat of the day, and again we failed miserably
only making it to the walking track by 9:30. My knee had blown up again last
night so, loaded up with voltarin to keep the swelling down, we hit the tracks
around the world famous beehives. Around this time of the year they get a couple
of cloudy days every 3 or 4 months.....and today was one of them. While it did
assist in keeping the sun of our heads during the walk it also dulled the
oranges, whites and blacks that the Bungles are so famous for.
While it wasn’t perfect it was
still in the high 90’s and we walked along the creek beds that form the walking
paths in the dry season. The domes were pretty amazing with the contrasting
colours simply the result of some areas having cynobacteria (blue green algae)
and others not having it. I loved the way many of the domes walls were made of
what it appeared to be massive mosaics with thousands and thousands of tiles
each a different hue.
We travelled further along to the
‘Catherderal’ that is an awesome spot. You follow the creek bed as it winds its
way deeper and deeper into the massive rock that is the bungle bungles. It
gradually becomes narrower and narrower until it is only 3 or 4 m wide and then
it opens up into an extraordinary space. It is almost circular, maybe 75m in
diameter, with a sheer wall running 60 or 70m
straight up on one side and on the other the weather has worn it away
into a huge convex roof that overhangs at least half of the cave. There is a
small pool in the middle that would be a substantial pool anywhere else but is
dwarfed by the chasm above it. I have tried my best to capture it but without
some very expensive lenses feel that it is virtually impossible. The only hope
of portraying it is by looking for De in the photo below that will hopefully
provide some perspective!
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| That'd De in the bottom right hand corner! |
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| The sun started to come out as we were leaving, and so did the colours! |
We wondered on to a lookout where
we had an early lunch where we chatted with a Swiss couple we had seen a number
of times before about all things Australian. It was pretty warm and my knee was
becoming uncooperative so we decided to call it quits and head back to the van
for a quite afternoon. We were all still recovering from the rodeo so a nana
nap was in order but unlike a couple of days ago I was smart enough to have
enough fuel to give us a good snooze!
Nothing terribly eventful happened
for the remainder of the day except for the evening toad hunt where we ventured
into the dry creek bed in search of the nasty creatures. Every now and then a
small puddle remained that had 5, 10 or 15 toads around its edge. The boys were
now proficient toaders and were holding onto two or three at a time to maximise
the catch before they disappeared into the grass. After 45 minutes I declared
that was enough as with 150 toads on board my arm was getting pretty sore!
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