After leaving the Bungle Bungle Wilderness Lodge, where we had been glamping for a couple nights, we headed towards our next destination, Kununurra 200 km (125 miles) away. But, en route, we experienced yet another landscape gem called Echidna Chasm. Echidnas, are strange-looking creatures sometimes known as spiny anteaters - look them up on-line - but we didn't see any on our longish walk through the Chasm. But we did see the Livistona Palm (livistona australis), also known as the cabbage tree palm.
Here we are preparing for the walk - filling drink bottles, putting on sunscreen and so on. And, on the right is the cabbage tree palm.
We're walking into the Chasm, which doesn't look very confining right now, but it soon became much narrower
An interesting flowering plant ... although Autumn in many parts of Australia, the Kimberley has no such season.
More impressive rocks above, while left we have a bowerbird's nesting site. And below, the narrower the gorge, the more trees strain to reach the light!
And here's the head of the Chasm with, below right we could see the sky craning our necks!
Walking out of the Chasm we could see the passage opening out.
And once again there were some stunning vistas.
And, below, we glimpsed the Osmond Range mentioned in an earlier post with its truly ancient rocks.
Back on the road again towards Kununurra we had a lovely view of Pompey's Pillar - probably a volcanic plug. I guess that the person who named this feature must have been quite educated! Why? Well, Pompey was a Roman leader born in 106 BC and assassinated in 48 BC, aged 58.
And we even saw some wild horses on the roadside. We call them Brumbies in the eastern states
And we knew we were approaching Kununurra when we eventually crossed the famous Ord River, the subject of my next post. Many years ago, the Australian Government built a dam on the Ord River and impounded a huge lake whose water volume is roughly 20 times that of Sydney Harbour!
We checked in at the Kununurra Country Club, a cut above glamping, and Dot and I headed for a very special and private dinner date. Would you believe that on this evening we met up with one of my good friends from Armidale who, quite by accident had reached the same spot as us, but travelling with his wife privately in a hired car? Such 'accidents' have proved quite common in some strange places. Once Dot and I met an Armidale acquaintance on an escalator at the Wimbledon underground station in London. And, on another occasion I accidentally met someone I knew from Longreach in Central Queensland while walking along the banks of the river Ness in Inverness.
AS
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