Day 156

2 July 2013

We woke up with the birds this morning, I think they call it sparrowfart?! We had brekky and said our goodbyes to little shutz and parked him in the van storage area. We were a little keen because by the time we got to the office we realized it wasn't even open yet! Luckily we weren't too far off the mark and just had to wait a little while before the office lady opened up and we asked her to look after shutz for us while we went on a Kimberley adventure!

We were ready for the rough and tumble of the Gibb River Road so headed about 40km along bitumen to get to the turn off to the Gibb. We expected this to be our first taste of the dirt road, corrugated Gibb but no we were faced with more bitumen!? What the?

The first things you really notice (other than the road being so smooth because its bitumen) is the landscape is amazing. It's like you turn into a new world, the ranges staring you in the face most of the way to El Questro are just stunning and there are plenty of opportunities to pull over and take a photo.

Our first stop is one of the El Questro resorts where you can find Emma Gorge. We had our first taste of dirt turning into the station and even a little creek crossing thrown in on the way. Pulled into the car park and El Questro charges you for a wilderness pass which was $20 and this allows you to go and see all their attractions. (Nobody checked the pass though)! First gorge for our Kimberley trek was a 3 km walk to Emma Gorge. It is over fairly rough Kimberley country, very rocky and was challenging in parts but most people will handle it pretty well.

As you get closer you can hear the waterfall and you know you are close. Once there it opens up to a beautiful gorge with a waterfall flowing into a clear pool at the bottom. It was so beautiful and I found it very difficult to capture its enormity in a photo! It was just so tall and wide and every way you looked gave you a different perspective! You can swim in the pool and Joel had his swimmers on so he dived in for a dip. It was a fairly short dip though as it was freezing! But refreshing none the less.

First gorge conquered and we made the walk back to the carpark. We were starving by this time but decided that we would go to the next spot where we were going to camp for the night, set up and then feed our faces.

Headed down the road to El Questro's Station Stay, this is the main one where people can camp etc and it was pretty packed with people. It is a 16km dirt road into the stay and then there are multiple areas you can camp and you can even camp in your own private campgrounds (these were all booked and pretty expensive, but if you have a group would be worth it!). We set up camp, had some lunch and decided to head off to do some of the 4wd tracks that are on offer here.

Our first map led us to Branco's Lookout & river, we decided to do some fishing here as it was such a nice spot. There was wallabies jumping on the other side of the bank and I was on croc alert while Joel was fishing off the banks. We didn't see any and we didn't catch any fish but it was such a great little spot and really quiet and peaceful. Next we had a look at explosion gorge, it was a whole different perspective to Emma gorge as it was from the top. It was also a great view of the gorge and below and you could make the trek to the bottom if you were keen but we were losing light and decided to move onto our next map.

The next map was taking us on Pigeon Hole track which first took us to a great lookout with valleys and gorges and rivers all in one perfect camera shot. We then turned to take a different track and there was a sign warning that you should have recovery gear, shovel, etc before attempting this track...we were sort of like oh yea sure whatever, but I'm telling you if they say you need it, you will probably need it! We ran into a part of the track that we couldn't even do as the drop was so steep that our car wasn't high enough to clear it! Great fun if you like 4wd driving though!

Light running out we headed back to camp and decided we would head to the bar as a guy and his guitar were playing tonight. It was such a nice setting, guy in a safari suit (funny) singing tunes while there was a campground fire amongst all the people watching him under the beautiful country sky! Few beers, can it get any better?

We will answer this question tomorrow!

Carly & Joel

 

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