Written Saturday 6 September, 2104.
I’m sorry, I had intended on posting another update before
now, but we’ve lost ourselves in enjoying life over the last week, and I
haven’t got to it before heading back out of reception.
I think I left off last time, arriving at El Questro. El Questro is a million acre property that
was once a working cattle station, but is now owned by an American mega-corporation
that specialises in boutique tourism.
The operation is very slick, and overseas visitors are forgiven for
thinking that the Kimberley is El Questro, and El Questro is the Kimberley. While planning our trip I had real issues
with putting this place on our agenda.
It irks me to think of my tourist dollar going straight out of the
country. But everyone we spoke to described
it as one of the “must do” highlights of the Kimberley, so I thought I would
just have to get off my “high horse” and see what they had to offer.
Our time at El Questro was wonderful, just like a holiday
within a holiday. We originally booked
in for four nights, but ended up staying six.
People we spoke to before arriving at El Questro all said the same thing;
“pay the extra and get a private riverside campsite”. We did, and it was worth it. The main campsite at El Questro is up in the
township, beside the facilities, but also beside the bar and restaurant and
where all the comings and goings are – busy and noisy. We camped way down the river, in a spot that
was all our own, with our own riverside access where we could swim (and there
were no crocs) and only travelled up to the township when it suited us.
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| Our campsite at El Questro |
Our days were spent enjoying what the station had to offer
both by way of natural attractions, but also we enjoyed the entertainment and
facilities they put on for their guests.
Our first morning there we headed off early to be at Zebedee
Springs when it opened. This is a
thermal spring that comes out of the ground at 32 degrees and forms a series of
pools under the canopy of a beautiful Livingston palm grotto. We got there at 7am, and spent a wonderful
couple of hours lazing in the tranquil pools and discussing how we’re going to
renovate our spa to resemble this place!
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| Zebedee Springs |
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| Enjoying the peace and warm water early in the morning |
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| Emma Gorge |
Turquoise Pool, a hundred metres or so
back down the track was a much nicer place for a swim. We concluded our trip to Emma Gorge with a
lovely lunch at the resort when we climbed back down. It was a bit of a treat, but thoroughly
enjoyable.
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| Turquoise Pool just below the top pool |
Our next adventure took us driving the tracks that the
property has to offer and we crossed the Pentecost and Chamberlain Rivers
several times to take in the expanses of Explosion Gorge (can you guess why
it’s called that?) and the track down into Pigeon Hole.
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| Crossing the Pentecost |
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| The track into Pigeon Hole |
Apparently there is a large saltie who has taken
up residence in that part of the river, so a lot of the access had been
closed. We enjoyed the days driving
though, and got back to camp to also enjoy an afternoon paddling in our river
pool. That night we took ourselves up to
the township, and enjoyed a wonderful BBQ dinner and the great music of the
resident musician. It was cruisey,
laid-back night and we had a ball.
By far my favourite place of the entire Kimberley region has
to be El Questro Gorge. We hiked into it
during our stay, and the walk, which took us over an hour to reach the half-way
point, was filled with a variety of rainforest, creek crossings and rock
scrambling. It was a much smaller gorge
than any of the others we’d visited, and we found it cosy and intimate (if you
can find a gorge that).
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| The walk into El Questro Gorge |
At the half way
point we reached a pool of crystal-clear water, with an enormous boulder or two
blocking the way. We watched as walkers
in front of us waded through waist-deep water, then climbed up the boulders
with great difficulty, to enable them to continue with the second half of the
gorge walk. At this point, I looked at
Doug and indicated in no uncertain terms, that I wasn’t about to try to climb
up and over this obstacle, and that I would be happy to wait for him; sitting
in the sun, swimming in the pool etc, until he got back.
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| Half Way Point - I was happy to wait here! |
We watched another group of walkers struggle through and up,
and Doug said that he was content to just make it this far also. Something about not having the right footwear
with him…………hmmmm. We did spend a
delightful hour at the pool, swimming, having lunch, sitting in the sun and
thinking how special this place was.
Doug couldn’t help himself and had to climb up the boulders for a look,
and a jump back in the pool from the top.
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| Wrong footwear apparently!! |
Our last day at El Questro was a quiet one; we wanted to make the most of peace and quiet
we could enjoy at our campsite before moving on to the hustle and bustle of
people and traffic again, now that our time on the Gibb River Road was coming
to an end. We visited Zebedee Springs
again early in the morning, then spent the rest of the day relaxing with our
books by the river, before driving up one of the tracks to take us up to
Saddleback Ridge for sunset, taking in the 360 degree views of the amazing East
Kimberley. It’s a hard life.
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| Sunset over El Questro |
Now I digress, but I need to share our running hot issue. Each evening we either grab a shower or a
swim and I put on my “evening attire”.
This consists of my happy pants, my lovely socks and my thongs. And each evening Doug can’t help but comment. Now I know it’s not very this season, but
there are a couple of reasons for the incredibly attractive ensemble. One, it keeps the mozzies off, and two, it
keeps my feet clean after my shower. Now
I hasten to add that I only do this when we’re camped in the bush in relative
solitude, not in the caravan parks. I do
have some pride! But surely you can see
the logic behind it and agree?
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| Surely not that bad??? What do you think??? |
The next day we made the shortish drive into Kununurra from
El Questro, to get there late morning.
It was a bit strange to be amongst lots of people again and to cope with
traffic. We needed to get some washing
and restocking done, and a couple of repair jobs, so decided to stay at one of
the caravan parks in town. We found a
lovely park with grassy (yes, that’s right, grass!!!!), shady sites, so set up
camp and got stuck into our jobs. The
park had a great swimming pool too, so jobs were punctuated with swims. It was an interesting stay for other reasons,
but more on that later.
One of the bargains of the trip so far has to be our sunset
cruise on the Ord River. Apparently
there was a film crew doing a documentary on what Kununurra had to offer, and
they wanted to film the sunset cruise. Obviously
to make it look right, the boat had to be filled with happy revellers. So in order to fill the boat at this quieter
time of year, they were offering the sunset cruise, with dinner for $20 per
person. Doug and I were lucky to get the
last 2 seats. It was a great evening
spent with some nice people cruising up the Ord River, exploring the wetlands
and taking in a beautiful sunset. What
more could you ask for? And I love a
bargain………don’t you?
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| Elephant Rock on Lake Kununurra |
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| The Everglades |
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| BBQ and good chat. |
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| Sunset over Lake Kununurra |
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| Ivanhoe Crossing |
We had a trip out to visit the northernmost town in Western
Australia, Wyndham. I hadn’t originally
planned on visiting Wyndham, but Doug had seen something on TV about it, and
its enormous 20 metre concrete crocodile in the main street, and wanted to go
and see it. So 100km later, we arrived
in the port town, and about an hour later, were on the road back to
Kununurra. There’s not much to the town
now, although there has been a lot of history, it being the oldest town in the
Kimberley, with the town serving as a landing port for prospectors during the
gold rushes.
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| The big croc in Wyndham |
I read somewhere a comparison of the towns of Kununurra and
Wyndham, and they described Kununurra as a booming agricultural and tourism
centre, whereas Wyndham is shrinking and shrinking. Kununurra is surrounded by waterways and lush
farmlands while Wyndham is surrounded by mudflats and nothingness. Kununurra is so alive and Wyndham is
so……………different.
But there is the Five Rivers Lookout, which we’d come to see
also. A viewing point high above the
town where, on a good day, you can see all of Wyndham, the whole gulf and the
five mighty rivers flowing into it (the Ord, Forrest, Durack, King and
Pentecost rivers). Spectacular views and
you can only imagine what this would be like in the wet season.
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| View from the Five Rivers Lookout |
Another trip from Kununurra took us out to the shores of
Lake Argyle. This man-made creation is
beyond belief, and makes you feel very small in the grand scheme that is the
Ord Irrigation Scheme. To truly
appreciate the size of the lake you should really see if from the air, but we
chose not to do that, so had to make do with what we could see from the
shore. My photo doesn’t even come close
to capturing the size of this place. The
area covered by the lake after damming the Ord River, is over 1000 square
kilometres, more than 27 times that of Sydney Harbour. The lake exists entirely to ensure that Lake
Kununurra (formed by the building of the Diversion Dam near Kununurra) is kept
at a constant level all year, and that the irrigation channels that flow out
from Lake Kununurra are kept flowing, ensuring the 43,000 hectares of farmland
are never short of water.
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| A tiny, tiny part of Lake Argyle |
Friday night was our last night in Kununurra, and after yet
another swim, we’d settled down for the evening. As mentioned in an earlier post, with WA
being 2 hours behind the eastern states in time, night falls fairly early. During all our time in WA we’ve usually gone
to bed with the sun and got up with the sun.
Unfortunately the locals living in the community next to the caravan
park worked on the opposite principle.
As we were heading for bed each night, they seemed to be getting going,
and they liked their music loud……………….all night!!! Nothing that a pair of earplugs wouldn’t
fix. But on our last night, it was a bit
unnerving when our car alarm went off in the middle of the night. Now, our car alarm has never gone off
before. And I probably wouldn’t have
thought much of it, except that I’d been woken an hour or so earlier, by
another one going off somewhere else in the park. So Doug thought he should investigate;
dressed only in his undies, he was a menacing sight waving his torch into the
darkness! Nothing came of it, but
between listening to Whitney Huston and other recording giants and worrying
about wandering thieves, I didn’t get much sleep for the rest of the night.
So it’s Saturday evening now, and after our exciting few
days (!!) we left Kununurra and the crowds behind us this morning, and have
headed further east, towards Katherine.
Tonight we’re camped by the Victoria River, and are enjoying the peace
again. I can’t believe that we have
reached the half-way point in our trip already.
Exactly eight weeks behind us, and eight to go.
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| The largest boab in captivity - more than 20 metres around and thought to be about 2000 years old |
We seem to have done so much already, that there can’t be
much left, can there? Oh well, we’ll
just have to go and find out.
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