The Kimberley Week 3 (El Questro Station)

The trip from Home Valley is only about 50km. We'd heard the state of the track was pretty corrugated and for about 15km it was pretty bad until we reached the famous Pentecost River Crossing. The water was pretty low but it is still a great experience crossing such a big river with a saltwater crocodile lurking behind every rock! We had another minor mishap. If you look closely on the side of the camper you'll notice the slide-out bbq has in fact slid out! We lost the toaster/grill plate somewhere on the Gibb or in the river! Lachie wouldn't go in swimming to look for it though...

Crossing the mighty Pentecost

Ok, not so mighty at the moment:-)

Soon after the crossing there were some major roadworks and the drive into El Questro was smooth and actually a little muddy from the trucks trying to water the dust down.

The 16km drive in was a little corrugated and windy with a couple of cool creek crossings. We were also able to get an idea of some of the main sites including El Questro Gorge and Zebedee Springs. We'd booked a private campsite called Wren which was about 3.5km from the main township. It was actually recommended to us a by a family we met at Manning Gorge who'd just come from there. It is by far the most beautiful campsite of the trip. We set up under huge paperbarks with the Pentecost River flowing over rocks onto a sandy beach below us, The steep cliffs of Saddleback Ridge behind us and no-one else for a couple of hundred metres either side. Coupled with that, the drop toilet servicing our site and 2 others, was only a 30m walk.

We spent 5 nights here and could easily have stayed another 5. There is so much to see and do from beautiful gorges, hot springs, some challenging 4WD tracks, horse riding, well you get the picture. There's a bar and good restaurant as well and every Saturday night they put on a BBQ with entertainment which was tasty and lots of fun. The kids also went to a junior ranger clinic one evening. On our first arvo however we were in desperate need of supplies. i.e. we had no food of note, no beer, no wine, no cheese or crackers it was dire indeed so we drove into Kununurra which is only an hour up the road. Unfortunately as we had internet we tried to catch up on a few banking things and Lachie's US trip so we didn't get back until after nightfall. The drive up the Gibb then into the station in pitch black was not fun and driving through deep creeks at night is even more disconcerting as you pass the crocodile warning signs!

Our first morning we went to Zebedee Hot Springs. It's an oasis in the desert amidst livistona palms and rock pools, this is a shangri-la type moment as you take the short walk from the car park. It's very popular and all guests not staying at the exclusive ELQ Homestead have to be out by midday but it didn't really matter. We stayed there about an hour and a half and literally could have stayed all day. The water is 28 - 32 degrees all year round and crystal clear.

In the springs

We also visited El Questro Gorge on another day. We arrived early in the morning and spent most of the day in the gorge. The drive to the gorge carpark is fun to with a quite deep water crossing which nearly brought a few cars undone. The walk up the gorge was easy for half of the walk along a babbling stream under palms. Then you get to midway pool. Many people stop here as you have to spider your way up a boulder. We all made it up in the end, even mum who had a few issues but with some encouragement and instruction, scrambled her way up.

The back packs were already passed up overhead!

The walk the remainder of the way was up, over and around large rocks up through the chasm. We were all getting hot and tired when we finally arrived at our destination. The waterfall and pool are only narrow at the top of El Questro gorge and the water is freezing as it never receives sunlight however it's an incredibly peaceful place particularly when you have it all to ourselves as we did. It was a lovely spot for lunch and another swim before the hike down.

El Questro Gorge top pool

One afternoon we visited Chamberlain Gorge which you can only do through a boat tour. We drove from our campsite down to the jetty on the Chamberlain River and boarded the flat bottomed boat for a 1.5hr tour up the gorge and back. It was magnificent. The gorge is incredible geologically, as it is over 1.8 billion years old. It's the oldest of it's kind on the planet. So old in fact there are no fossils as it was formed about 1.4 billion years before life on the planet! It's quite humbling as you punt up the at times shallow water. It was a poor wet season in Kimberley terms with only about 400mm (a good season is 600mm) There were 40 people on board and at one very shallow point 20 people had to get off and walk the rest of the way which was only 100m or so. At the top of the gorge drinks and nibblies were put on where the guide Jim sang Tenterfield Saddler.

The kids all got to feed one of the local Barramundi which was a hoot. The sound it makes as it sucks the fish out of their hands is startling, a big WHUMP! We also held out marron pellets so the Archerfish could spit water and practice their aim. It simulates the wild when they shoot jets of water at insects on low hanging trees and leaves knocking them into the water. It was funny as quite a few people sitting on the edge of the boat had the backs of their shirts squirted so often they had to move. The archer fish weren't taking no for an answer! We had a nice roast dinner back at camp that night and a fire under the stars. It was a very magical day.

The most famous gorge on ELQ's million acre property is Emma Gorge. It is actually a further 27km down the Gibb on another part of the station where it has safari tent style accommodation and a restaurant/homestead. The walk into the gorge was typically beautiful and not too challenging but took us a touch over half an hour. The gorge is spectacular where the water in the wet season creates a perfect whirlpool in the amphitheatre type setting. We had a great swim and there is even a hot spring feeding the pool so you can get some respite from the icy cold water.

Emma Gorge

We became friendly with another family, The Jansen's (Michael and Sandy) who we met at Home Valley so arranged to have dinner together so the kids could play at the Saturday night BBQ. The food was really tasty and we all got our monies worth. It was nice as the kids got to play with their boys who were around the same age and we also had some adult conversation as well over several bottles of red!

On Sunday the kids had a ride on horses around a paddock (their first time solo) with a very funny character called Christian. He was VERY country and announced to all parents that they were not to give any advice to their kids. He had a 3 strike policy. Unfortunately Maria failed and I was up for a carton of beer...Just couldn't help herself. Actually she would have failed a five strike policy! That evening as the kids did Junior Rangers we also bumped into our friends Pete and Annie and had a drink with them before dinner which was nice. We hopefully arranged to try and catch up with them in the Bungles.

Sadly our time at ELQ was over. What a beautiful station. This place is a destination in itself. I'll say it again, we will be back. On a positive we were off directly to the Bungle Bungles for a couple of nights.

The Kimberley Week 2 (Mt Elizabeth to Home Valley)

We only had a short drive to Mt Elizabeth Station. This will be basecamp for the next 2 nights before tackling the track up to Mitchell Falls. Mt E is a working cattle station with nice shady campsites and clean amenities. That afternoon we headed out the 30min drive to a sandy beach by the Hamelin River. I did a little fishing with no luck while everyone swam for the afternoon. It was a very pretty spot and the drive in was reasonably comfortable but narrow. We collected firewood on the way back and were shocked to see the campground had completely filled up where there was only 2 sites filled when we left. We had a lovely meal and toasted marshies around the campfire.

Assessing the track - we made it down this one

...but not this one...

The next day we decided to tackle the 'difficult' track out to another unnamed gorge. The track was only 10km long and we were told it would take us an hour. The first 5km took us about 15min. The next 5km took us 50min! The track was very rough and rocky with a couple of very difficult rocky sections. With about 1km to go we came to the most difficult section and after much assessing of angles, lines and the cost of recovery we decided to park before the main carpark. This made our walk to the gorge only 30mins instead of 15 which was no big deal. The best thing was we had the entire place to ourselves for most of the time. A lovely cascading waterfall into a deep swimming hole so we all had a lot of fun.

All to ourselves

That night we got chatting to some fellow Qlders and after much searching on the radio was able to listen to the 2nd half of the State of Origin decider. 8 in a row - Go Queenslander!!!

The next day was a big driving day as we were going to attempt to drive the entire way up to the Mitchell Falls campground. Maria took the first leg driving from Mt E to Drysdale Station roadhouse. We stopped here to refuel and top up with fresh drinking water. We then noticed they had a nice bar and a very tasty looking lunch menu so we stopped for some VERY yummy burgers. The trip from Drysdale to Mitchell falls is about 180km and we were told it would take us at least 4 hours. I took over the driving and after a slow steady trip it took us 4hrs and 10 minutes! The car and camper did brilliantly. It's 100km up the Kulumburu Road to the Mitchell Plateau turn-off then 80km into the campground. The 100km took us 1.5hrs. The 80km took us 2.5! The campground was nice and shady but when we opened the camper it was like a waterfall of red dust fell out! Oh dear. Our experiment with the Goldstreams' patented pressure cap FAILED! It is officially useless. We have since sorted the dust problem now after completely covering vents in the door and above the cooktop.

This sign is about halfway down the bumpy road - very clever

The next day dawned warm and sunny. We'd decided that morning to take a helicopter trip from the top of the falls back down to the campsite. Because Lachie and Grace's combined weights were less than 74kgs we paid for 4 instead of 5 people which was cool. The walk up to the falls was fairly easy and interesting as you passed Little and Big Mertens Falls before getting to Mitchell Falls. We swam and explored around the top of the falls which are absolutely the most spectacular you'll ever see. Four tiers of breathtaking power and beauty. At 1.30pm our helicopter arrived and we excitedly strapped ourselves in for the 6min flight! Whilst I can hear you gagging on your cornflakes it was worth every penny. To see the falls from a totally different perspective as well as seeing the surrounding countryside was well worth it. It also saved us 2hrs walking down the hill back to camp. We then spent the afternoon swimming at Little Mertens falls which also has some really impressive ancient rock art as well.

Top of the falls

Not much of a landing pad!

No doors, no worries!

On the way back to camp I noticed a little hopping marsupial which turned out to be a Monjon and then saw a Quoll. They literally ran into each other!

Mrs Monjon - baby was under the rock

We drove back out of Mitchell camp the next day. The trip out didn't seem nearly as long however we had a mishap on the way. About halfway up the track we slowed down to let a group past us and noticed something dangling off our bulbar. It turned out to be one of the spotlights. So as I was surveying the damage, one of the cars pulled up and literally before I knew someone was underneath the car screwing the spotlight back on with spare bolts. Turns out this guy is a bit of a whizz and has had similar issues with his lights so always carries spares so it was fixed in 15min! Amazing how things like that happen so often on the road. We also lost the campers andersen plug which pulled out and ripped off on the trip. Not the end of the world but I didn't have a spare, but the guy next to me at Drysdale station did and a fuse which I didn't have which blew when I was trying to fix it.

We stopped at an ancient rock art site which had some amazing Bradshaws and a seriously spooky burial site complete with three skulls.

That night at Drysdale Station we were able to shower and partake of the all you can eat buffet for $45! While the food was ordinary we did meet a very nice couple called Pete and Annie Wall. We gave them some advice on the Gibb tracks we had done and also got to know them a little. Pete actually wrote the music for the ABC news tv opening which Lachie found pretty cool. Annie was also doing a ski trip in February with Skiare so what are the odds. We would continue to bump into them throughout the Kimberley and became good friends so we'll hopefully catch up with them in Sydney in the new year.

Next stop was Home Valley Station which was another couple of hundred km's back up the Gibb. HV8 as they call themselves is beautiful, but there isn't as much to do from a gorge perspective. I'd say it's a great place to simply relax after a long Gibb trip. Great campground where we had a powered site, terrific pool and the homestead eating area Dusty's Bar and Grill was outstanding. Great food, cold drinks and entertainment every night. Lachie also had his birthday here which was great. We had pancakes for his birthday brekky then he and I went Barra fishing that afternoon on the Pentecost River. Lachie caught a couple of catfish while 2 barra were caught unfortunately not by us! Where we were fishing was absolutely stunning.

Maria also went on a long horse trail ride while the girls took a sulky around the grounds with Timmy the pony.

Timeout for a game of giant chess

A Barking Owl - WHO ARE YOU?

A teenager in the family - eeek!

Not Lachlans but nice to see one caught. Not a bad fishing spot either on the Pentecost River!

The girls with Timmy

Mum with Smokey

Lachie's birthday was our last night so we had dinner at Dusty's. I had caught a mudcrab fishing that day and the chefs agreed to cook it up for me. They also had a couple of other crabs caught the previous day but the guy left and didn't collect them so they cooked them for us too. We had a great night singing along with the band and he also sang Lachlan Happy Birthday!

Mum could even make Lachie a Thermocake!

We had some great R&R at Home Valley and will definitely be back. Next stop it just gets better as we are off to El Questro Station for 5 nights. Just can't wait.

The Kimberleys Week 1 (Derby to Manning Gorge)

To say we were excited to be setting off into the Kimberleys was an understatement. We had been very careful with our packing, food, water and drinks as we'd heard sourcing anything on the Gibb River Road was difficult at best. We decided to spend a night in Derby as we had ordered all of our meat from the local butcher there from Broome. Caitlin was feeling a bit off and we wanted to get into Windjana Gorge in the morning to make sure we found a good campsite as we heard it gets very busy later in the afternoons.

We stopped at the prison boab tree just outside of Derby on the way in. This enormous gnarled ancient old tree was quite scary looking. Apparently, men from local indigenous tribes were falsely accused of a petty crime, chained up and kept overnight in the tree before being shipped to Broome to work on a Pearl Lugger as slaves.

So after a night of take away lasagne, and a Harry Potter movie we headed off on the Gibb. It's 660km from Derby to Kununurra in the East of mainly dirt road. We'd heard some horror stories of how rough the track was in places. I guess the main thing we've learnt is to make your own decisions when it comes to the quality of a destination or the roughness of a track. It's so subjective and in many cases we found the opposite was in fact true. So we dropped the tyres to 26psi and off we went to Windjana Gorge NP campground. The drive in wasn't too bad so in less than 2 hours we were there and had chosen a nice shady campsite. The campsite itself had flush toilets, hot showers and drinking water! Another Myth busted. Not what we'd heard at all and was a delightful surprise. We were also thrilled we got there early as the place really filled up and was packed by late afternoon. The campground is right beside the gorge which rises straight out of the ground. It's part of an old Devonian reef system from hundreds of millions of years ago. You can actually see fossils of molluscs in the walls of the gorge. The entrance is through a narrow cave tunnel which is about 1.5m wide, 3m tall and 10m long which is pretty cool.

Maria, The Captain and Windjana Gorge

Gracie reading about the gorge

Windjana is also famous for it's population of freshwater crocodiles. You can get right up close to them as they are so used to us humans gawking at them and snapping photos. The ranger told us there was over 120 at last count.

Ne-ver smile at-a croc-o-dile...

Our second day at Windjana we got up early and drove the 30 or so km down the road to Tunnel Creek. As the name suggests you walk through a creek system right through a cave. The walk goes for about 750m in total darkness, through up to waist deep water that is (freshwater) crocodile infested! No problem. It was so much fun. We all had our headlamps and water shoes and tip toed into inky black water. Gracie was petrified of bumping into a croc and would squeak at the slightest disturbance, while the rest of us were looking out for them. I saw 3 all up. One right at the first dark section then 2 on the way back minding their own business. At the end of the walk it opens to a lovely creek where you can pull up a rock and have a snack and drink before walking back.

The entrance

Halfway it opens to the sky before plunging back into the eerie darkness...

Next day we travelled up to Mt Hart Station. It was about an hour back to the Gibb, then a few km's up the road and then a short drive down the 50km 'rough driveway' into the station. This would be our home for the next 2 nights. The staff at Mt Hart were fantastic, the campgrounds excellent with all facilities and a beautiful little swimming/fishing hole and really friendly camp hosts who loved a chat. We took a drive one day up a very rough track to Mt Matthew Gorge. We had it all to ourselves, it was very beautiful. We had a meal at the station Homestead one night where Caitlin drew caricatures of the four main staff members in their guest book which they were all amazed and thrilled about. She also painted a beautiful little water colour which the ladies wanted to buy. Her manager intervened at this stage and the ladies said they would be happy to wait until Caitlin became famous!

Mt Matthew Gorge

Not a bad spot for a fish

Reflections

Gracie at the swimming hole

We really enjoyed our stay at Mt Hart and would recommend it to anyone as a nice place for 2 or 3 nights to take a breather from the rigours of the Gibb. Next day we were off to Silent Grove campground which is the gateway to Bell Gorge - one of the more famous in the Kimberley. Again, the campground was fantastic with full amenities in a really picturesque setting. We arrived just after 10.30am so pretty much had the pick of the sites as many people had cleared out that day, then drove up the 8km track to the Bell Gorge carpark in the afternoon. It was a warm day and the walk in while not long, was hot so we were looking forward to a swim. The walking track arrives at the top of the falls where you can swim or take the steep walk down to the swimming holes at the bottom of the falls which we decided to do. It is just beautiful. We swam and explored for over an hour and reluctantly left to head back to camp as the sun began to set.

Hamming it up at Bell Gorge

Imagine arriving at this after a hot walk!

NB: Another myth busted regarding no food on the Gibb. After Mt Hart we stopped at Imintji Store about 230km from Derby and is the first roadhouse stop with fuel, food and fresh produce as well as frozen bread, milk and a fantastic general store as well. We refuelled and picked up some tomatoes, potatoes and some apples!

We moved on the next day with the intention of staying a couple of nights at Mornington Wilderness Camp which only allows 50 people per night.  We had phoned ahead and were advised to be at the UHF radio box at 9.45am to see if there were any sites available, as it is then another 90km down to the station. Unfortunately there weren't and were advised we should have been there at 7.30! hmmm Anyhow we didn't want to muck around so we decided to go straight onto Manning Gorge instead. We stopped at Galvans Gorge on the way which is a pretty little waterfall and swimming hole. Unfortunately there were several tour buses there so it was pretty busy and we only stayed for a short swim.

Manning Gorge campground can be accessed through the Mt Barnett Roadhouse where you pay your camping fees. The shop there is also extensive. We drove into the campground and picked up a nice site out of the afternoon sun. We decided to stay 2 nights so we could spend the whole day at the gorge as we'd heard the walk in was about an hour. At the campground you have the start of the walk where you can either punt a flat bottom tinnie across the Manning River or swim across. (No salties here) There was a beach and beautiful swimming just at the start of the track which is where we decided to spend the afternoon with kindles, deck chairs and a couple of beers.

This was going to be fun

Amazing Boabs are everywhere.

We were up early the next day to start our walk into Manning Gorge. The walk was again hot and a bit up and down through ridges and gullies and it took us over an hour. As we came to the gorge itself everyone instantly forgot how hot they were as we entered the biggest and most spectacular gorge we'd ever seen.

That's quite a way down

The kids had a ball jumping off the high cliffs into cool but not cold water. Even mum and I had a go. We'd packed snacks and lunch and had plenty of water in the bladders of our backpacks so we stayed for most of the day. It was very special. Certainly the highlight so far. The only downside was I killed the underwater camera - bugger. As I was getting out of a waterhole the camera was around my wrist and somehow the waterproof catch bumped a rock and unlocked letting in water. It ruined the camera however we were able to save the memory card and photos we'd taken so far. Lesson learned.

Views from the top of the falls

One week down and 2 to go. We are off to Mt Elizabeth Station next before heading up to Drysdale Station and then tackling the famous or infamous Mitchell Plateau track.