El Questro Day 1

Day 17 Sunday 13^th May  

El Questro

Odometer 21160 Temp 32

I enjoyed eating breakfast out on our balcony where I had Kingfishers visit each morning

I made wraps to take for lunch –Chicken, avocado, baby spinach, beetroot, tomato & Coles honey mustard dressing, YUM..

 It was 10.20 before we left El Questro to head back to Emma Gorge. We spotted this scrawny looking dingo standing under a tree out of the sun about 10 minutes from the Emma Gorge turnoff. 

There was a sign at the head of the path saying all guests needed to check in with the staff before proceeding, but this was only to ensure we had paid the entry fee the the property. This was included in our tariff at El Questro.

Dining room at Emma Gorge

Before we headed off on our walk we made a quick stop. Got to love signs on toilet doors in the outback

We were finally on our hike by 11am. Mark wasn't keen to walk to the end

 Initially the path which was overgrown ran beside the creek on the opposite side to the permanent tents.

 The path became more difficult and involved clambering over small rocks.

 At the water crossing Mark decided it was safer just to walk through the water as the rocks were slippery 

Along the way everywhere we looked was ripple rock, fossilized river banks. 

We clambered over larger rocks

we spotted some very shy wildlife

We came across this pool just before the end of the gorge which was as far as Mark wanted to walk. Other hikers told us it was only a little bit further, but we had to clamber over some rough terrain to reach the end of the gorge.

Even though the hike became progressively more difficult we were rewarded with a beautiful natural swimming pool at the end. 

The water was a little cool in the shade. There was still a little bit of sun peeping over the edge and the water was warm enough to allow us to stay in the water for 30 minutes.

A friendly 1m long water dragon decided to join us in the water briefly before moving onto a rock to watch everyone.

On our way back we snapped these photos of  'First Pool', the first pool we could have swum in.  

We were back at the car park and on the road by 2.30. Next stop the Pentecost River crossing. Having seen lots of video of people tackling the crossing we wanted to check it out for ourselves. We saw two 4WD vehicles cross. The water was approximately 1m deep at its deepest.

We stopped to take photos of the large mountain range to the north not realizing it at the time but they were the Cockburn Ranges (pronounced Coburn).

It was 4.30 by the time we arrived back at El Questro. We decided to book the afternoon Chamberlain Gorge Cruise for the next day ($75pp). The station pool was part of a natural spring that ran behind our room.

I had had enough swimming for one day so I spent the rest of the afternoon sitting on our balcony listening to the babble of the water and the birds whilst reading the book about Bob Wainright (of EKT tours) written by his wife Norma. Dinner was easy, ham and an assortment of salads we had bought in Kununurra.

Mileage 102kms

Total Mileage 8317kms