Surprise everyone. You didn't expect to hear from me so soon did you. Well, we are back in Kununurra. We have been to El Questro for 3 nights and then a free camp at a place called Fish Hole. Then we missed Kununurra so much we had to go back. Just a joke Joyce, just a joke. We had a problem with the fridge and instead of carrying on and it developing into something major, we decided to come back to Kununurra and see a refrigeration fellow. It was only 100km and we will continue our journey in a couple of days. So what have we been up to the last few days.
El Questro Wilderness Park
On Wednesday 9th June, we left Kununurra about 9.30am and got to El Questro(ELQ) about 11.30am. It is only about 95km away although half of that is on gravel roads. We took some photos when we started on the Gibb River Road.
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| Start of the Gibb River Road |
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| Crossing King River |
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| Cockburn Ranges from Gibb River Road |
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| Failure to do maintenance results in this |
We crossed the King River, which was only about 20cm deep. The Gibb River Road as far as ELQ was quite good. A bit corrugated in places but we have been on much worse. When we turned towards ELQ the road got very corrugated with lots of dry floodways and edges worn away. We crossed a couple of creeks and just before we reached the Station Township you have to cross the Pentecost River which was about 30cm deep and about 40 metres across. Quite a rocky crossing because the base is only river rocks.
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| Crossing the Pentecost River just before ELQ township |
Ray did his good samaritan again. Some young guys from Brisbane were camped near us and were driving a really old peugeot. They managed all of the river crossings by putting a tarp over the radiator. That is they managed them all except one. That is where Ray helped them and told them a few tricks about getting old cars over water.
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| Getting the old peugeot out of the water |
ELQ is classed as a private wilderness park and as such charges a park entry fee which is payable for all people coming into the park. So we had to pay $18 per person per night camping fees and $18 per person for a 7 day wilderness pass. You don't get much for your camping fee. No water, no power and a 200metre walk to the toilets. But everything was clean and we had a beautiful camping spot right beside the river. ELQ is now owned by an American company, Delaware North Parks and Resorts Properties.
We were able to have a fire so we went for a drive to gather some wood to make a cookfire.
Thursday morning we got up to see the sunrise after an early night. We went out to Zebedee Springs about 8.30am for a dip. The springs are quite warm, just like a warm bath. They are also full of minerals. We spent about 45 minutes in the water.
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| Zebedee Springs |
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| Ray in the springs |
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| Maura in the springs |
We then went for a drive to look at a free camp just a few kms on from El Questro entrance. It is called Fish Hole and when we drove in it was lovely. Right beside a creek and a little way back from the road. We decided to come there for a few days after leaving ELQ. We then drove down to the main crossing of the Pentecost River to see what it was like. It was still about 45cm deep but everyone was crossing with no difficulty. We gathered some more firewood before coming back to camp to make lunch to take up to Branco's lookout.
What an experience the drive to Branco's lookout was. A drive over an extremely rocky creek. The F Truck was rocking from side to side. Then we drove through sand which was about 20cm deep and then up a mountain which was a one lane goat track. But the view when we got to the top was magnificent. We could see ELQ Homestead and the beautiful gorge was just below us. It made you forget that you had to do the trip back.
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| The view from Branco's lookout |
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| The rocky water crossing on the way to Branco's lookout |
Then to Chamberlain Gorge which is beside ELQ Homestead. The Homestead is where the rooms are $2550 per night. We actually had better water views than they did as the gorge beside them was drying up.
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| Chamberlain Gorge with ELQ Homestead in the background |
Next we went to Saddleback Ridge and Lookout which was another river crossing and up a very steep hill with hairpins and all loose gravel. Once again a great view.
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| View from Saddleback lookout |
Then home to light the fire and cook tea, using the portable outdoor cooking plate that I gave Ray for Xmas. Sausages, steak and onions.
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| Our cookfire |
Friday it was cooler and a breeze was blowing. We had bacon and eggs cooked on the open fire and went for a walk around the resort. We found the Pentecost River running over a little waterfall and found a Jabiru fishing in a pond. These are only found in the northern parts of Australia and are a beautiful bird.
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| Jabiru fishing in the creek |
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| Pentecost rapids!!! |
Ray cooked tea in the camp oven this afternoon. Roast beef and vegies with potatoes cooked in the coals. All of the other campers kept coming past and asking what we were cooking. You could smell roast beef all over the park. We just sat around the fire after tea and our neighbours joined us.
El Questro to Fish Hole
On Saturday 12th June, we moved from ELQ to Fish Hole.
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Our camp at Fish Hole with the Cockburn ranges in the background
This is our new photo on the web site |
We got there about 11am and set up our camp. A few people came in and left again. Then the ELQ ute came in. The fellow told us we were not allowed to camp there as it was private property. But he condescended and let us stay for one night when we told him we had spent 3 nights at ELQ. As he left he put up a sign stating it was private property and no entry unless authorised by the owner of the property. During the afternoon the fridge started to make a very loud noise as if it couldn't turn off. Ray moved the meat out of the freezer and into the Engel and put the Engel on to freeze to save our meat. Then he turned the fridge off and de frosted it. This morning (Sunday) it was still noisy when we turned it on so we decided to come back to Kununurra and consult a tradesman. Lucky we had the Engel as we have about $250 worth of meat in the freezer. It was better to come back to Kununurra than to keep going and risk it conking out altogether.
So here we are back in Kimberleyland in the same spot we had before.
I will let you know when we are leaving to resume the journey. Hopefully this will be Tuesday.
