Day 26 - El Questro-Gibb River Rd

HAPPY 18TH BIRTHDAY BRYCE.

Today was a massive day at Elquestro, I was thinking of you all day Karen you will just love it.

Well, to paint the picture, El Questro is basically the first stretch of the Gibb River Rd from the Kununurra end.  It is an operating cattle station one side and a tourist resort the other, and covers an area of approximately 1 billion acres.  The lovely photos you always see publicized, of the homestead hanging on the edge of the gorges, you can't actually access unless you are a paying guest at $2000 per night with a minimum stay of 2 mights!!!  So within  El Questro there is also a variety of other accommodation and some spectacular scenery, gorges, hot springs and water crossings, which is what we came to look at.  We would loved to have done a lot more of the Gibb River Rd, however, it is mostly "off road" terrain and we knew when we chose the comfort of our full van, that our "off roading" was going to be limited.

First we went to Emma Gorge, a 2.4km return walk to a spectacular water fall and pool at the end.  The walk out here doesn't take you down steep gorges, but the terrain is just rocks all the way, so you can't take your eyes off the ground.  Emma Gorge is definitely one of the best we have seen.  We make our way out after 2 hours and fill our water bottles from the Boab tree.

 
Next stop is Zedebee Hot Springs.  The hot springs are approximately 28C.  Just beautiful for a soothing dip.  Could happily have sat there all arvo with a glass of champers, but at 12 the general public has to vacate the premises.  At first I thought is was some sort of environmental reason, however, not so, after 12 is when the people from the resort are bought down, so they can have the springs all to themselves, how the other half live 'ay!!!!

So, relaxing over, we move onto the next gorge, El Questro gorge, this one has two parts,  to go to the end, it is a 6.8km return hike which would take approximately 4-6 hours, so we opt for the short walk which is 2.6km return to the first pool which should only take 2-3 hours.  It is difficult to describe the beauty of these places.  The waterfalls, the ferns, the fish, the spectacular scenery is something to be seen to be believed.  We did also come across three other wonders of nature in this gorge, of the slithering kind!!!!  Glen came face to face with a beautiful 6 ft snake right on our pathway.  And wouldn't you know it, we were lucky enough to encounter him again on the way back!!! 

After this, we decide to suss out "the station" and have a well earned drink at the bar.  This is where the poorer people stay at El Questro.  It is like a caravan park with powered sites and chalets. It is just great with a natural water hole for the kids to swim.  Had we known a little more we would definitely had stayed here, we think we could have got the van in, as the water crossings to here weren't too bad, but you don't know these things by looking at the website from the office in Wongan.  We'll know next time. 

Now Glen's testosterone kicks in and has had the urge to cross the Pentecost River.  The water crossings we have tackled today have been pretty cool but they have not quite satisfied his appetite for adventure, so we head 25 km up the road.  This is really awesome, the width of the river is about 150m.  Glen's eyes light up as we approach and the kids are all very excited.  It is a very bumpy rocky ride across, then we turn around and come back.  Glen very happy to have done a "real" crossing and survived!!!








We decide to call into Emma Gorge resort on the way home to see if we can get fish and chips, at your recommendation Lyn, however, unfortunately the kitchen doesn't open until 6pm so we head back to the van after a huge day!!