Tuesday 9th July 2013 – Drysdale to Home Hill

Jabirus on the Drysdale River

Went for a short walk along the river this morning and saw a pair of Jabirus (That’s always special).  Then it was back on the road to Home Hill.  The first 60km until the junction with the Gibb River Road was a mixed bag.  Some of it in quite good condition (recently graded) and some (particularly the last few kilometres) quite corrugated.  Once back on the Gibb River Road the road was quite good.  Called into Ellenbrae about morning tea time thinking we might partake of their famous scones and cream but no g/f option so we ended up buying a couple of ginger beers and made use of their shade (on some cute rock bench and table) to have left over mud cake for morning tea.

From Ellenbrae we made our way up through the Pentecost Range to the Cockburn Range lookout with some pretty impressive views over the Pentecost Valley with the Range in the background.

Drove intro Home Valley about lunch time to find ‘millions’ of campers set up in the quite well established grounds.  Rather than share with the ‘millions’ we chose to bush camp down by the Pentecost River.  It’s still pretty civilised with hot showers and toilets.

It’s very hot at the moment so it was up with some shade before a late lunch and a restful afternoon.  The river is pretty amazing – very wide.  No swimming here as the crocodile warnings are up.  Just to confirm it we have a resident salty sunning him/her self on the opposite back.  Also watched some weird fish behaviour with large schools of fish swimming around in the shallows – almost playing follow the leader.  Lots of birds here too – finches, grass wrens, flycatchers and honeyeaters.  Also lots of catheads unfortunately – we could do without those.  The showers were excellent though.

Our only Salt Water Crocodile for the trip

For dinner tonight we back to the main camping area to Dusty’s Bar and Grill – meal was excellent.

Wednesday 10th July 2013 – Home Valley to El Questro

Before heading off this morning we went up to the office to ring Mum for her 104^th birthday.  Happy birthday mum.  Lots of people to share with her at Quirindi.  Would have been nice to be there ourselves.

It was only a short drive to El Questro, crossing the ‘mighty’ Pentecost River on the way.  It was fairly long and fairly rocky but also fairly shallow at this time of year so no problems.

Called into the office at El Questro to book the last of the river sites available.  In addition to the camping ground El Questro has 26 ‘private’ camp sites along the Pentecost River.  Ours was Jabiru, 7km from the El Questro ‘township’ (shop, reception, bar, coffee shop, bungalows, amenities, helicopter landing, airstrip etc).  The sign at our camp spot distinctly says ‘no swimming’- crocodiles.  It was a little unnerving at first because we had a lovely waterhole near our camp.  Not to worry there are plenty of places you can swim.

After lunch we headed for El Questro Gorge. Had to cross a long and fairly deep water course on the way in. Walked along the gorge as far as the half way pool for a swim.  Even though the gorge is in shade the water was not that cold.  Certainly warmer than we expected.  He gorge is different again.  This one has lots of boulders along its floor so there is quite a lot of rock hopping involved.

El Questro Gorge

Thursday 11th July 2013 – El Questro

Up early to do the Amalia Gorge walk before the day got too hot.  Apparently this gorge has not got as much shade as others.  Lots of birds around.  A Nankeen Night Heron fairly active in bright daylight which was unusual.  Also a Goshawk and some sort of small eagle feeding on a dead wallaby.

Some interesting pools along this walk, one with quite a lot of largish fish in it.  As the brochure says this gorge would be quite spectacular early in the season when there was still lots of water flowing through the creek.

Amalia Gorge

Next stop was Zebedee Springs.  The walk to the springs (about 0.5 km) is through quite a tropical area of Livistona Palms.  At the springs there were lots of little holes among the rocks where one to 6 people could lounge and enjoy the warm water.  Even though there were a lot of people there you could lie back look up through the canopy of palms at the blue sky and cliff, listening to the nearby waterfall and imagine you were on your own.

Zebadee Springs

On the way back to camp we drove to the lookout at the top of Saddleback Ridge.  It was a very steep track (low range 1^st gear) and the view was quite spectacular – a 360 degree panorama where you could see about 10% of El Questro – that’s big!!!

Saddleback Ridge

Back to the ‘township’ at dinner time for happy hour and burger night p ‘twas very good too.

Jabiru Campsite

Friday 12th July 2013 – El Questro to Kununurra

Problem at breakfast this morning.  When we went to get another carton of soy milk we found that they were all off!!!  Whether it was the corrugations or the heat we don’t know but our supply from Broome was no longer.  It does say “keep in a cool dry place” and I guess the car would have been 50+ degrees when it was sitting in the sun.  No coffee this morning.  At least not until after our walk to Emma Gorge and a visit to the resort on our way out.

Emma Gorge is also part of El Questro but is back on the Gibb River Road on the way to Kununurra.  We were away from Jabiru about 7.30 so thought we were clever and would get the walk into the gorge done before the crowds.  Wrong!!  Everyone else must have had the same idea because we joined about 100 others for the walk up the gorge.  Lot’s of rock hopping again but the reward made it all worthwhile.  Quite a lot of the rock was obviously part of the floor of the sea at one stage - there are lots of ripples and other patterns in the rock. Emma Gorge is quite stunning with a large swimming hole at the base of the falls (not a lot of water coming over at this time of year).  There’s even a warm spring feeding into the pool at one spot.  After a very refreshing swim and walk back to the resort we ordered that well earned coffee and a g/f cake which we enjoyed sitting in the grounds of the resort.

Rock formations at Emma Gorge

Next stop was the end of the Gibb River Road where we paused for photos.  It was then on to Kununurra where we checked in to the Lakeside Caravan Park.  Lots of shady sites but fairly crowded in.  It is the show weekend in Kununurra after all.  After setting up we headed for town for a bite to eat.  Mango Café and Gelati Bar looked pretty good but it was too late for lunch (It’s 2pm).  Coffee Frappes and cake would have to do.

The end of the road

Called into the ARB shop for them to have a look at the fridge.  It’s been unwilling to start when the battery voltage drops below 12.6v.  They checked it out and couldn’t find any problems.  It was on the highest cut out setting (11.8 volts) which shouldn’t have been a problem.  Changed the cut out setting to low to see if that makes a difference.  Think I might buy an extra cable and swap the merit plug for an Anderson Plug.  Have never been that confident that the merit plug and socket provide a good contact.  Having the fridge plug straight into the Anderson plug at the battery will overcome that concern.  Apparently there will be an ARB expert at the show tomorrow so will have a chat to him.  Also called into Coles for a few essentials before we do our big shop on Sunday.

Back to the caravan park for a swim and a rest before dinner at the caravan park.  Fish and Chip night tonight - $15.  Jill had the fish and chips and I paid an extra $3 for salt and pepper calamari.  All quite nice.

Crimson Finch