The Wilderness Camp in the Bungles (Purnululu National Park) is an excellent accommodation option to enable an overnight stay while you do the four onsite gorge walks. When you arrive at the Bungles visitor centre you take a left to see the Echidna and Mini Palms Gorges and a right to the wilderness camp and the other walks. The tents in the wilderness camp are very comfortable but it does get quite cool overnight, being under canvas. Both the dinner and breakfast are good meals with plenty to eat. Before dinner there's drinks and nibbles around the fire and the opportunity to meet other travellers. The Bungles is an extremely dry and hot area and the 53 kilometre entry road to the information centre is more of a 4WD track in many places. The Echidna walk is mainly sheltered but the walk into the Palms is over a long, gravel dry creek bed that is very uncomfortable for walking. It's best to do this in the late afternoon when there's some shade. The southern walks include Cathedral Gorge and Piccaninny Creek. The walk to Cathedral Gorge has more shade and can be done towards the hotter part of the day. Both walks can be accomplished in a couple of hours and you can be back out on the highway by lunchtime which allows plenty of time to get to Halls Creek or Kununurra depending on your direction. I would recommend this rather than staying at the dusty Warmun roadhouse.

This experience was different to anything I have ever had. It is luxury tented accommodation in the middle of nowhere, well in the middle of the Bungle Bungle National Park. The experience is amazing – the Bungle Bungle is located in the Purnululu National Park. The Bungle Bungle are striped, beehive-shaped sandstone domes rising 300m out of the arid landscape. They are gobsmackigly stunning.
This accommodation is in the middle of all of this. Most people take escorted tours e.g. fly into Kununuura, are picked up and driven here. My husband I drove ourselves in a four-wheel drive vehicle (compulsory)- the just over 50 km rough road stretch to the camp is challenging and takes around 2 ½ hours. It is tough, I am disabled and I’m glad that I wore a collar around my neck to help with the bumps!
The staff that greet you when you arrive are lovely. Each member of staff rotates to do everything – Cook, drive clients, do the laundry etc. Talking to them, it seems that most of them do this as a life-expanding experience
Each tent has beds, ensuite facilities – toilet, wash basin and shower. It has a proper wooden flooring which is raised so you are not on the ground – and I didn’t see any insects in my tent. The tent does have mosquito nets on the openings.
For dinner, you have starters around the campfire and then the main course, dessert and coffee/tea on shared tables. The food is fine, but nothing special, this is expected when you are in the middle of nowhere. Breakfast is good, continental and cooked breakfast.
The owners are not allowed to have anything permanent in the Bungle Bungle range at the moment. So before the rainy season starts everything has to be taken away. That is the down side. There are solar panels for electricity. Each tent has two bedside tables and a top light both in the bedroom area and bathroom, but they are only 24 watts each. As soon as it is dark you can’t see to read. Also, the tents are spread out and once it is dark, outside lighting is not that light.
I had a problem as I am disabled and can only walk slowly with a stick, also I can’t step up steep steps without a hand rail. Although we had clearly told the owners, the message had not got through to the actual wilderness camp and our tent was the furthest away from the main area and also had a steep step. We managed by using a wheelchair that we had brought with us, but this was only meant for use in Sydney, and the manager lent us a very bright torch. Also we found a way of getting up the step – by my sitting on the main “deck” of the tent and my husband helped me up. The people who ran the camp were very upset about this and offered any help they could. We couldn’t fault them. However, the wilderness camp was fully booked and the only tent with a ramp was very small, and would have been very, very cramped for two people. But they have learnt from this experience, and Simon, the really helpful manager, said that they would sort out a temporary ramp for next year to help clients with my sort of needs.
The main problem was the heat. It was hotter than it usually is in August – around 37°C. Because of the very limited supply of electricity there are no fans. That really is hard. If they get permission , as they are trying to do, to be allowed a permanent wilderness camp, this will change.
But the experience was worth it. We took a 30 minute helicopter ride, the helicopter has its doors removed, over the Purnululu National Park. This is one of the best experiences I have ever had and although you can take a scenic flight from other places you can only do the helicopter ride with door was removed from the Park. So the heat was worth it. Also, the joy of waking up and hearing all the fantastic wildlife – but being comfortable in a luxury tent!
We stayed two nights and that is about right. It also allowed my husband to do some spectacular walks among the Bungle Bungle domes.