Piccaninny Creek to Whip Snake Gorge

From The Window, we decide that we are up for the challenge of hiking further into The Bungle Bungles following Piccaninny Creek to Whip Snake Gorge. It’s an extra 2km but we have to factor a 5km return journey in the heat to The Bungle Bungles carpark so a 10km round trip in total.

We traverse more eroded creek beds, sometimes stepping from rock slab to rock slab and sometimes working our way through deep, loose gravel or sinking sands under foot.

Most of the walk is very open and sunny but we find jaw-droppingly beautiful scenery: domes and cliffs, chasms and dry rock pools.

20 minutes further along into Piccaninny Creek, we are blessed with some shade and relief from the heat of the open creek beds as our footprints take us into Whip Snake Gorge. The gorge is narrow and at the right time of the day (this time of day) cool and shady.

We follow a sandy pathway leading into the gorge and literally meandering like a snake as the walls of the gorge close in at every step. The hike ends at high vertical rock walls that show scars of cascading running waterfalls and the remnants of a waterfall pool beneath. It would be breathtaking to see the gorge in the wet season overflowing with an abundance of water and with it, life. There are still fantail palms flourishing even in the dry landscape protected by the cavernous shade giving walls of the gorge. Where does all the water go so quickly? Whip Snake Gorge is like a smaller Cathedral Gorge but I think it’s more spectacular, especially the walk in.

After a good rest, it’s time to head back and it’s only 9.30am and the sun is blistering hot. The return journey always seems longer but I was super motivated as I remembered that I had taken a half pint of frozen milk out of the 12v fridge and left it in the car. Finally reaching salvation, I grab the now semi frozen milk, throw 2 teaspoons of coffee and one sugar into the container, shake it up violently and voila, a frothy iced coffee to replenish my sense.

A siesta is beckoning for the afternoon so we all hibernate from the heat in our tents and try to stay cool as best we can.

We are 1.5 hours behind the rest of Australia so the sun set comes around quickly, just after 4.30pm, yet at 3.30pm it can feel like the hottest part of the day. It’s cooling down a bit and myself and Jen run/walk the 1.5km to a sunset lookout whilst the Lloyde’s follow next to us in their car as support crew in the Tour De France.

Sitting on top of Andrew’s 4WD watching the sun go down and the rock colours change on the horizon, there’s an APT tour bus next to us and the tourists are all taking photos of us taking photos of the sunset. Go figure, they haven’t seen a primate drinking Corona with a slice of lemon for a while and now’s their chance...

The sunset is a bit underwhelming compared to the night before but still peaceful and dramatic.

Back at camp, Jenny reckons that the flies disappear exactly at 5.23pm and they do. It’s a slightly cooler evening tonight so we all enjoy a sausages with tomato rice for dinner and sit back to review the day. This usually consists of us playing what sounds like “PONG” as we airdrop photos to each other like returning serve in a game of tennis.

We each select our favourite photo and moment for the day and we’ve now invented a daily Russell Coight Moment (for those overseas, please google).

I currently hold “The Russel Coight Trophy” for running over my camping supplies bags in the 4WD... doh!!! Czytaj więcej