Last Day in Kununurra

Dearne in the ‘freezing’ pool at the base of the Emma Gorge waterfall

I am loath to admit it but I was quite relieved to welcome the Navigator off her flight from Perth on Friday. While we all like a few days to ourselves from time to time, this separation had run its course. Welcome home angel.

On Saturday we celebrated the return to our journey with a visit to Emma Gorge. The Gorge is 75km from Kununurra, is just off the Gibb River Road and forms part of the El Questro Wilderness Park. Emma Gorge is in the Cockburn Ranges and is characterised by massive scree slopes and cliff face escarpments reaching up to 120 metres on both sides of a walking trail. A majority of these cliff faces are made up of Cockburn sandstone and massive quartz sandstone laid down some 1800 million years ago.

At the end of the Gorge, and after a 50-minute walk, we came to the Gorge’s main waterfall with a crystal clear pool below it. While the air temperature was decidedly warm the pool temperature was freezing. Dearne decided that after making the walk she was obliged to take a dip. The Captain remained ashore to undertake lifeguard duties.

We depart Kununurra tomorrow and make our way 200km west to the Purnululu National Park – Bungle Bungle. The Bungle Bungle Range rises 578 metres above sea level and has distinctive beehive shaped towers made up of sandstone, boulders and pebbles formed 20 million years ago. I have booked us a helicopter flight on Monday so we can fly over the region much to Dearne’s consternation. She is not the best with heights. There is also a number of great walks in the Park so we are looking forward to our time there.

The plan is to be in the Park for two days so we will let you know how we go.