Today we set out early en-route to El Questro Wilderness Park. El Questro is on The Gibb River Road & although it is not a great distance from Kununurra it had a few unsealed sections on the main road & then when you turned off towards the township it was very corrugated.
Once we had turned off the Wyndham Road onto The Gibb River Road we encountered a lot of vintage cars coming toward us. Can you imagine old open cars travelling on unsealed roads, I could only guess they didn’t know about the condition of the road.
As we neared one of the cars, the driver had his hand out flagging us down. As we got closer we could see he was very angry because we were putting out so much dust; we left him in our wake. None of the others showed any anger & a lot of them were wearing masks. Just imagine how much cleaning they would have to do after the rally.
After some distance along The Gibb River Road we came to a sign pointing to Emma Gorge, which is part of El Questro Wilderness Park. We turned off & soon we were at The Emma Gorge Resort where we parked the Patrol. We reported in to reception to let them know we were going to do the walk. We found that the vintage cars had stayed here over night.
The start of the walk was on very loose aggregate which had been spread to protect the surface, it was as bad as walking on sand. As we gradually climbed into the gorge large & small boulders appeared which we had to climb over. It was very hard work as you had to watch your every step, otherwise you could end up with a sprained ankle, or worse. We gradually worked our way up & after about ¾ of an hour we could hear a lot of voices & we knew we didn’t have far to go before we reached the top of the gorge. It ended up taking us 1hour to reach the top.
The pool at the top of the gorge was very beautiful with a small waterfall pouring from the plateau above into a large pool. The waterhole is enclosed on three sides by 65m sheer cliffs. A lot of people were swimming in this pool. After spending some time here to re-cover we started heading back to the Resort.
After leaving the Resort we once again joined the Gibb River Road heading for Zebedee Springs & El Questro township. We arrived at Zebedee Springs just in time to power walk 700metres to the springs , we had to do this quickly as the springs close at 12.00 noon to the general public as there is limited space at the springs. From noon onwards the springs are for guided tours only.
At Zebedee Springs, you will find thermal pools at the end of a short walk through lush and tropical livistona and pandanus palms. The water was very warm, however we didn’t have time to sit in the pools as it was after mid-day. On our way out we met a small tour group going in.
From Zebedee Springs we made our way into the township along a bone shaking road. I don’t think our Patrol has been over a road as rough as this. While at the township we enjoyed a beautiful lunch paid for by Maureen & Mick. Mick had a seafood Laska, Grandee had grilled Barramundi with salad & Steak Chips (which she said was just delicious), Maureen & I had a Steak Sandwich also with Steak Chips (this also was lovely and very filling).
After this we made our way back to the caravan park where we finished the day with a game of Articulate and a game of cards called ‘Sevens’. Then it was bed time after another big day at ‘The Office’.
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