Jason and Gwen Barnes' Honeymoon to Australia
Day 5

July 13, 2004

We are going to spend the whole day at Purnululu. It is incredible. I feel like I've been transported to Narnia. There are rolling hills, green with low, scrubby brush, and trees scattered at random intervals, and big mountains behind.

E990, 2004:07:12 17:09:17 -- 5/1623 sec, f/6.2.  No Flash.2048x1536 RED-EYE. Large -- Medium

Jason phones home from the overlook.
E990, 2004:07:12 17:10:09 -- 5/2304 sec, f/7.0.  No Flash.2048x1536 RED-EYE. Large -- Medium

E990, 2004:07:12 17:10:39 -- 1/286 sec, f/7.0.  No Flash.2048x1536 RED-EYE. Large -- Medium

E990, 2004:07:12 18:04:58 -- 1/238 sec, f/6.0.  No Flash.2048x1536 RED-EYE. Large -- Medium

We drove to the Bungle-Bungle. The map said on the way we would see Elephant Rock. We wondered if several rocks were it, but then we rounded a bend, and OH, THAT was it. It looked just like the heads of two elephants with their eyes and trunks.

SIGMA SD9, 2004:07:25 04:14:41 -- 1/250 sec, f/9.5.  No Flash.2268x1512 Large -- Medium

We hiked out toward Elephant Rock aways.
SIGMA SD9, 2004:07:25 04:15:20 -- 1/60 sec, f/13.0.  No Flash.2268x1512 Large -- Medium

Australian coins -- no idea why this image is here.
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There was this weird, organic chemistry stick figure plant all around there. It was totally cool.
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E990, 2004:07:12 18:08:48 -- 2/427 sec, f/7.9.  No Flash.2048x1536 RED-EYE. Large -- Medium

E990, 2004:07:12 18:16:00 -- 1/115 sec, f/4.4.  No Flash.2048x1536 RED-EYE. Large -- Medium

Then we got to the Bungle-Bungle which looked like a bunch of big beehives with meter height black & orange stripes.

We walked a couple kilometers out to Cathedral Gorge. It wasn't tall & narrow like Echidna, but the beehives got slowly closer together untill all of a sudden it opened into a large cavern, partly open at the top, but with lost of overhanging rock and a pool at the bottom.

The pool was a nassty algae green ("pond water") and it stank. All around the pool and down the trail was pure white sand. WHat we couldn't figure out was how all the red sandstone broke down into white sand. THere was a bit of a ledge in the rock wall and we sat there and had PB&J for lunch.

SIGMA SD9, 2004:07:25 04:19:05 -- 1/500 sec, f/19.0.  No Flash.1512x2268 Large -- Medium

SIGMA SD9, 2004:07:25 04:19:44 -- 1/180 sec, f/19.0.  No Flash.2268x1512 Large -- Medium

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Aerial tours of the area start at a small airport just about 10 miles away from the Bungle Bungle mountain range. Here's a chopper giving someone else a tour.
SIGMA SD9, 2004:07:25 04:21:35 -- 1/125 sec, f/5.6.  No Flash.1512x2268 Large -- Medium

E990, 2004:07:12 18:34:35 -- 5/1226 sec, f/7.9.  No Flash.2048x1536 RED-EYE. Large -- Medium

E990, 2004:07:12 19:45:41 -- 1/18 sec, f/2.5.  No Flash.2048x1536 Large -- Medium

A 5 meter boulder that fell from the side of the canyon above here.
E990, 2004:07:12 20:19:31 -- 2/239 sec, f/4.0.  Flash.2048x1536 RED-EYE. Large -- Medium

We walked over some cross-bedded sandstone.
E990, 2004:07:12 20:34:33 -- 10/2609 sec, f/8.9.  No Flash.2048x1536 RED-EYE. Large -- Medium

Since we decided last night to stay here for another night, we went back to the Visitor CentRE to pay for the next night. We got cold Coke there and looked at the displays about the region's geology. We saw that away from all the roads was what they called the Piccaninny Circular Structure. Jason said, "That's usually code for impact crater." We pulled a book off the shelf to learn more about it, but all we found is that it IS a suspected impact crater, but no shocked quartz or other dead giveaways have been found. WE bought the book -- it also had some geologic history of the beehivees.

The next couple of hours we hung out on the cool porch of the visitor centeer, wrote some thank yous, read some, and relaxed.

Around 5pm we went back to the lookout where we'd watched the stars last night. WE met a nice couple in their 50's who, 7 months ago, quit thir stressful jobs, bought a "caravan" (ie, and RV) and have been traveling about the country.

When the sky again got dark, it was again incredible. What I noticed this night was the galaxy. It stretched all the way across the sky, and right in the middle was the center of the galaxy. We could see dust lanes through the galaxy, we learned several constellaations, and noticed that the colors of stars were really obvious, ie, Alpha Centuari looked really yellow.

SIGMA SD9, 2004:07:25 04:22:14 -- 1/750 sec, f/13.0.  No Flash.2268x1512 Large -- Medium

SIGMA SD9, 2004:07:25 04:22:51 -- 1/1000 sec, f/11.0.  No Flash.1512x2268 Large -- Medium

SIGMA SD9, 2004:07:25 04:23:30 -- 1/750 sec, f/13.0.  No Flash.2268x1512 Large -- Medium

Gwen walks down from the overlook.
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E990, 2004:07:13 01:42:39 -- 10/3037 sec, f/6.2.  No Flash.2048x1536 RED-EYE. Large -- Medium

We had the Australian couple take our picture. This one, however, is an autotimer shot, as you can see from the shadow on Gwen's shorts.

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