First thing in the morning we had called some of the tour operators that Jim had suggested for Bungle Bungle National Park. The amount they wanted to charge for a tour was exorbitant. The choices we had were $140 for a half day, $170 for a full day (lunch only), or $210 for two half days and one overnight stay. Each of these options assumed also that we arranged for the transport to and from Bungle Bungle ourselves - we sure didn't like any of them. Just landing at the airstrip and walking around would also set us back considerably, as C.A.L.M. (Conservation and Land Management) has set the park entry fee to $35 per person (charged as a landing fee). That is sickening! Uluru (or Ayers Rock, the next most expensive park), which we considered heavily overpriced, is less then half of that.

Then we tried to call a car rental company in Halls Creek, some 100km south of Bungle Bungle. In the beginning it sounded quite good. The guy that picked up the phone said it would cost $100 per day to hire a Toyota Landcruiser. Then he mentioned that it only included 50 free kilometers per 200 km that were driven (funny way to do it) - each extra kilometer would be charged another 33 cents. On top of that we would have to pay approximately $20 for cleaning the vehicle afterwards (that's a new one, you must give them credit for that). Then we had to pay for fuel. As the rental company wanted to do the refueling themselves I didn't ask how much it would have cost, I just assumed it would be really expensive. In total the guy from the rental company said it would be $420 for two days. Not including the park entry fee, any food, and the overnight stay of course.

To complicate matters, our mobile phone had given up on us and the pay phone at the backpackers only worked for a short while that morning, as somebody had jammed it with a 50 cents coin - thanks mate.

Landing at Argyle and getting a tour of the world's biggest diamond mine (produces 35% of the world's diamonds) was, according to our host, who tried to help us as good as possible, not possibility either. The guy who would have to give us a landing permission for the mine's own landing strip wouldn't be back to work until Monday morning.

We have had many lucky days - this certainly wasn't one of them!

It didn't really help that each of us was getting more and more stressed about our situation in general, but for different reasons in particular. Linda and I got annoyed with the money-vultures (also called tour operators) and tried to find alternatives while Edlef got disgruntled that we didn't make a decision and went flying.

Not a very good start of the day!

It is really a shame that they try to rip people of to such a degree - it defeats the idea of a national park to charge $35 per person. I guess it's more out of principal that we finally decided against any of the options above.

Shortly after noon the rolling call was finally made - by Edlef, who would be the pilot for this day.

When Edlef made his departure call for the Kununurra MBZ, the pilot of the inbound aircraft MAX answered "Mr. Bucka-Lassen, is that you?" I got very excited as I recognised his voice. It was Anders (calls himself Andrew here in Australia), the Swedish instructor from Jandakot Flight Centre. Funny to 'run into' him up here.

The scenery was very spectacular. No wonder there are many scenic flights done in this area. Lake Argyle, Argyle Diamond Mine, Bungle Bungle, Wolfe Creek Meteorite Crater, Great Sandy Desert and what was in-between was all very beautiful.

Fitzroy Crossing was a bit of a culture chock. The Crossing Inn, where we had booked accommodation, is not only a motel but also the one and only local pub and bottle shop - the oldest in the Kimberley by the way. It is heavily used by Aboriginals. Beers were bought in cartons. But there was nothing to worry about - they took hardly notice of us and didn't seem aggressive at all.

My dad and I had a bit of a discussion that evening. By the time it was over the restaurant had closed. The only thing that we could find was a hamburger and a chicken roll from the bottle shop - terrible stuff.

Was it the correct decision not to take a Bungle Bungle tour? I'm still not sure. Some days later I spoke to a woman that had lived in Kununurra for many years. Her words were that the only way to see the Bungle Bungle is from the air. Especially as the 4WD tracks in the park never reach the eastern and most interesting side. However, I still would have liked to see the Bungle Bungle from the ground - next time perhaps.