Purnululu and Wolfe Creek: two very different landscapes

The road into Purnululu was, by a clear margin, the roughest we had driven so far. The reward was waiting at the other end: the Bungle Bungle domes and the astonishing light inside Echidna Chasm.

In the chasm, the sunlight reaches down from above and turns the narrow sandstone walls golden. Outside, the rounded, striped domes have a completely different shape and rhythm. It was hard to believe both landscapes belonged to the same park.

The dry creek beds were another fascination. We could walk along channels cut by water, with the rock showing how powerful the wet season must be. The empty riverbeds were full of evidence of water doing very energetic work.

After Purnululu we visited Wolfe Creek Crater and woke for sunrise. There, instead of folded cliffs and domes, there was an almost circular rim on a wide, open plain. With so little surrounding it, the crater's shape was wonderfully easy to read.

Two landscapes shaped by very different forces, linked by some substantial driving and a great deal to look at once we arrived.