El Questro

Finally the Gibb River Road was opened to vehicles under 15tonne, which meant we were able to tow our caravan along the Gibb – our first destination.... El Questro Station, where we stayed for 5 nights. Approximately 30km along the Gibb River Road, we hit the entrance to El Questro Station, which is a one million acre property, cattle station and wilderness park. A 16km road took you through several creek and river crossings, including a Pentecost River crossing, to the township. We found our friends, the Rees Family, upon arrival and camped across from them.
Daniel and Ben found a muddy puddle, which became a ‘muddy slip and slide’. No doubt they were sent to the waterhole to clean themselves up before coming into the caravans.



I remained ill for most of our time at El Questro, managing a few outings, but paying the price afterwards. It’s so frustrating when you just want to get out there.

Rod and the kids went to Branco’s Lookout and they reckoned the drive was just as good as the view, as they got to cross a deep winding river along the way.

We went with the Rees Family on an informative river cruise along the Chamberlain River. Although there are freshwater and saltwater crocs in these waters, we didn’t see any. But the archer fish were very interesting and amusing – naturally these fish dart water out of the river to unsuspecting insects flying above, which then drop to the water to become their feed. We were invited to hold our hands overboard and the archer fish actually shot water at us, at times hitting us in the face. We also saw huge barramundi swimming under the boat, conveniently in the “No Fishing” area.




On the trip back from the jetty, I got to experience the ‘mean’ river crossing the kids and Rod had crossed the previous day – it’s amazing where your vehicle can actually go.



The Gibb River Road Bike Challenge was on, which requires fit mountain bike rider to ride the Gibb River Road from Derby to El Questro, approximately 660km of unforgiving terrain, over a five day period. The 400 riders pulled into our camp grounds completing their challenge, which made for a very busy campground.

The following morning we headed for Zebedee Springs and due to the number of campers at the campground, we rose early to beat the crowd to the springs. We arrived at 6.10am and although there were numerous people already there, we manage to get a pool all to ourselves. The water temperature varies between 28 and 32 degrees. It was a beautiful way to wake up in the morning. Following a one hour revitalising soak in the thermal springs we headed back to camp to begin school work.



In the early afternoon we went for a walk with the Rees Family through El Questro Gorge. The path was rocky but the view was stunning, red gorge walls, trickling clear water creek, palms and lush green vegetation. It was a 1.6km walk to the Halfway Pool, where everyone went for a dip to cool off. Rod and the kids explored further on for another 15minutes or so, and then we all returned to the car.



Although we had planned to leave after 4 nights, we had to stay an extra night as the road was still closed to vehicles over 3 tonnes. Unsure how much longer our stay would be extended, Rod and Stuart drove to Kununurra to gather further petrol, food and supplies.

Everyone went to Emma Gorge, while I remained in bed still attempting to recover from my chest infection..... Grrrr! It seems a nice day was had by all.
Finally the road was open again for us to travel a further 50km down the road to Home Valley Station.