A place of interaction between water, wind, sandstone and time.

That's how Piccanninny Creek, Cathedral Gorge, and the Bungles are described on the information boards as we enter the area. The creek is the major drainage formation of the Bungle Bungle Range, and as we walked along we gained an insight into how wind and water had shaped the landscape over the eons, leaving breathtaking mountains and hills all around us.

The foundations for these towering cliffs were laid down 360 million years ago, when ancient rivers flowing into a vast basin brought in sediments which gradually compacted to form sandstone and conglomerate.Over time these deposits were uplifted and incised with torrential floodwaters carving out deep gorges. The range now stands almost 700ft above the valley floor.

The rounded sandstone domes are fragile, each encased in a thin protective skin of iron oxide, and black bands of cyanobacteria. The skin is deposited on the surface by water seeping through the sandstone, and if it is damaged the sandstone is quickly eroded away.

We were grateful that clouds had come over during the night, as although it was only 7am it was already hot, and we sweated profusely as we walked along the creek bed into the gorge. These hills really are unique in the world, and we walked in wonder at the beauty and majesty of our surroundings.

The gorge gradually decame narrower, but as we turned a corner suddenly it widened into a massive amphitheatre, we could see why it was called Cathedral Gorge as it was bigger than any cathedral that I had been into. Look closely at the picture below and you may see Anne! It is impossible to do justice to this place with a picture- it is breathtaking.

I shall leave you with a few more pictures of this amazing place, we could have lingered all day except that it was getting very much hotter and we had 400kms to go before our next camp in Fitzroy Crossing, including 65k on some of the roughest tracks we had experienced yet.