El Questro Wilderness Park

El Questro was one place we had been looking forward to and we had a great few days there. It is a massive operation- it’s over 1 million acres so as visitors we only see a tiny portion of it. It is on the Gibb River Road but on the sealed section so not hard to get to. The main camping area is 16km from the main road and it’s well maintained but with a  couple of water crossings to make it interesting. Only 50cm so well within the limits of our car and trailer. We booked into a private campsite about 2km away from the main area. We had a gorgeous spot by the river (very shallow at the moment with no crocs!) and had the place all to ourselves. There are no facilities at the private campsites so the porta-potti was sitting in the great outdoors under the stars!  There are 26 private campsites by the river and we were in the Sea Eagle campsite which I thought was very appropriate as we come from Manly-Warringah territory. 

The river by our campsite- our own little patch of paradise at El Questro

 

Snapper dusted in flour & fried in butter- gourmet camping food!

It doesn't seem to be logical to me that we paid more money for a site that has less facilities but I guess serenity has a price! We visited Zebedee Springs, a natural thermal pool with water at 28-32 degrees. We’ve visited a few hot pools now on this trip and they are always lovely first thing in the morning before it gets too hot. These ones were more rocky and cascading than the others and the kids loved getting their mask & snorkels on and exploring.

 

Exploring Zebedee Springs

 

Beautiful

Then we tried out a few 4WD tracks so Chris could get the car into low ratio and do what it’s been designed to do- go off road.
 

Pigeon Hole Lookout at El Questro

On one of the drives to the Jetty we spotted a 'private road- no access' sign which we then worked out led to the fancy Homestead. If it was just me I probably would have driven in and had a good sticky beak but my fingers and toes have never looked more filthy in all my life and I certainly wasn't looking 'Homestead' ready! Also the three grubby kids may have been a giveaway that we were actually staying in the campground.... 

On the third day I got up early to do the El Questro Gorge walk. It’s only a couple of kilometres  but the kids were well & truly over walking after a couple of small walks so I did it on my own- much quicker and easier that way without having to drag an unwilling pre-schooler in the heat. It was nice doing it early before it got too hot and before the crowds (by crowds I mean 5-10 other people- my perspective on what is crowded may have changed as the Kimberleys has one of the lowest populations per square kilometre in the world). The walk was rocky but nice and cool because of the high gorge walls on either side. I was the first person to walk in that day so I had the unfortunate task of breaking a few cobwebs too. The other first for me was driving through a water crossing. I have never done that before and I was in the car on my own so Chris wasn't there to guide me but I did good! No dramas, the car and me were both fine ;)

Heading back out of El Questro we pumped the tyre pressure back up and hit the road heading south. We had to do a minor detour back into Kununurra to do some jobs like renew Chris's drivers license which we hadn't realised expires mid way through the trip, pick up Caitlin some new thongs/flip flops and use the phone & internet to pre-book our accommodation at Cape Leveque north of Broome where we are heading soon. Next stop- The Bungles!