Tuesday, 29 July 2014                                                                                                  76.3kms

The 53km drive through Mable Downs Station and Purnululu National Park to the visitor centre is a scenic one. The road itself must have been recently graded as we had been told by other people that it was the worst road in Australia due to corrugations, but what we experienced was quite smooth, especially in comparison to what we have previously driven. It dipped, twisted and turned, was windy, hilly and dropped into creek crossings, all of which would be certain to make anyone that was reading car sick. The 3 creeks we crossed ranged in depth from 200mm to 400mm, as stated at the Visitor Centre. At the first puddle of water we crossed, the right brake on the camper locked on and had to be disconnected. We passed Stu and Kate on their way out of the park and had a quick chat before continuing on.

For the next 2 nights we are camped at Kurrajong and we chose #79 as it is quite nice and close to the sunset walk.

This afternoon just before 2pm we decided to get organised to go for a walk. We were ready and left camp at 2.30pm. After a short drive we arrived at the car park of the Bloodwoods. The Homestead Valley trail is a 2.2km (4.4km return) walk that leaves the Bloodwood car park and cuts deep into the range into what is known as Homestead Valley. Aboriginals claim that there was once a homestead in that valley, although there has never been any visible evidence of this found. There are fan palms (Livistona) growing in cliff edges and the cliffs themselves are made up of conglomerate, a rock made up of pebbles and boulders embedded in a sandy matrix. The trail, even though a class 4, was an easy walk for us. Following the trail, we headed up through the range on a pebbly track. We crossed a couple of rocky creek beds and there was a steep section that has been sloped off with a handrail. Elokin not looking, and bending over to pick up a stick, managed to hit her head on one of the railings. It took us the stated two hours, because we stopped to look and take photos on the way in but we managed to walk out the 2.2kms in 30 minutes.

As we had left this walk rather late, we watched the sunset on the way out and then caught the end at Bloodwood lookout. We then raced home and walked up to the sunset spot near camp for the last rays of light, champagne and to watch the stars come out.

Until next time…. Happy and Safe Travels.