Punda Pool

After being thrilled to see the Punda Aboriginal art site we drove a few kilometres further to Punda Pool on the Coondiner River. The track is a bit rocky and has some steep dips on which our trailer hitch bottomed out. However it was worth it as this was a fantastic place to camp.

Campsite in early morning at Punda Pool

 There is a long pool of fairly shallow water in a rocky pebbly riverbed. Surrounding this are richly coloured rocky hills covered in spinifex and gnarly white trunked gums ans flowering grevilleas and acacia's golden blooms just beginning to open.

Miske beside Punda Pool 

In the mornings and the evenings the hills glow with amazingly rich colours. To fully appreciate the morning colours you need to brave the extreme cold - I had to resort to wearing woolly gloves when up and about in the early dawn light. The nights were crystal clear, no cloud cover to keep the warm air in.

Home sweet home beside Punda Pool

However by mid afternoon it was warm enough to shower out in the open. We set up our shower under this big old tree - it is still there - we forgot about it and left it there. Oh well, ready for the next happy camper.

Looking from river bed to the hills

This image shows the amazing contrasts in this area, colour and texture. Rounded riverstones and rugged hillside rocks, smooth tree trunks and spiky spinifex. And I haven't even mentioned the birds - they were amazing. Flocks of crested pigeons, spinifex pigeons, diamond doves, zebra finches, budgerigars (by the hundred) and corellas. We saw the more secretive painted finches which the bird book describes as having the red of the hills, the black of the shadows and the white of quartz rocks - they are beautiful. Then there were the honeyeaters and mudlarks and black faced cuckoo shrikes and then the birds of prey here to hunt the plenitude of smaller birds.

Budgies waiting to drink

Budgies in flight above Punda Pool

 I was up early recording the dawn chorus and later the sound of hundreds of budgies wheeling and settling and wheeling again as they were harried by the whistling kites. Mark took some photos of them with his better lens. It is quite a different sight seeing them in the wild compared to the commonly seen cage birds.

Scar tree at Punda 

Finally, in addition to the nearby rock art site there is other evidence of the Aborigines who once lived and roamed in this area. In certain seasons it must have been a rich place to live. I have come across a few of these scar trees where shields and coolamons etc were cut from the trunks of trees.