9th June 2013

9^th June 2013

After leaving Kununurra our next destination was El Questro in the Kimberley’s, although you drive along the notorious Gibb River Road for several kilometres it is a good bitumen road through to the turn off into El Questro station and then 16kls of badly corrugated gravel road. Once again we were camping in an area without any sort of phone or internet signal and although we had access to fresh water we had to rely on our own power. Our fridge is working well on gas now. During our time at El-Questro we hiked in various gorges and bathed in beautiful thermal springs. On one particular hike in spectacular Emma Gorge the gorge ends at a large crystal clear water hole enclosed by cliffs towering 65metres above where water droplets gently cascade down creating a welcome cooling off swimming pool.

We bathed in Zebedee Springs a beautiful natural thermal area, where a small  stream of tepid thermal water trickles through rocky pools amongst prolific exotic palms specific to the area. So you can sit in lovely warm pools of crystal clear water turning into a prune while protected from the harsh sun by cooling palm shade. The springs are popular and you are only allowed to go to them between 0700 and 1200 midday this is to allow private El Questro tours to have access or if no tours it gives the place a chance to rehabilitate. So far they have managed to keep the place very natural.

Then there was El Questro Gorge another beautiful hike up a narrow winding gorge of ferns and over hanging palms back and forth across the bolder strewn creek (always a challenge for Nancy). We stopped half way where to go any further would have meant wading through waist deep water and scaling a large rock in the middle of the creek. Here we rested and had our snacks and waited until more venturous younger people who had continued on with a tour guide returned and then watched as they worked out how to get back down off the rock. Some took to plunging into the water at a deep point but the tour guide got himself into a position where he was able to lower people down on his shoulders to a point where they could clamber down and drop into waist deep water, then by creating a human chain they passed all of their equipment such as clothes, cameras etc to the pool side. We weren’t with the tour so traversed the gorge at our own pace.

Travelling south we stopped for two nights at the Bungle Bungle Caravan Park on Maple Downs cattle property Spring Creek. The caravan park is new and very very basic, we certainly weren’t interested in paying $45 per night for a powered site on dirt, crowded and where you had to boil your water to drink, so we lobbed into one of their paddocks for $25 and used our own facilities.

From here we were able to drive (cars only) 54kls into the Bungle Bungle National Park on a road that would be worse than the Gibb River Road. After registering at the park headquarters we drove another twenty something kls to where we wanted to do a couple of hikes, one into an area called the Domes where you see the famous beehive looking rock formations and another into Cathedral Gorge that terminates in a humungous half cave where the choir sang in a scene from the famous Qantas advertisement. We then took a chopper ride over the Bungle Bungles, just the two of us and our friends went later, no doors, me in the front and Nancy with white knuckles hanging on for dear life in the back – sensational and even though Nancy kept telling everyone how she hated choppers, I think deep down she enjoyed it.

On the way back one kls from our caravans we had a blow out in a back tyre and destroyed it. We left Brisbane with a large cut in the side wall of that particular tyre. The tyre people said they couldn’t do anything with it but as it wasn’t through to the fibres, it should be all right on the back and considering some of the roads we have been over, we think we were lucky to have got this far with it.

Saturday 8^th June 2013

Unfortunately on the run from Spring Creek to Halls Creek a wheel bearing on the caravan gave out, on inspection I found the brake drum and hub was damaged beyond repair and I don’t know if the hub failed first or the bearing as the bearings were all replaced in Darwin. We limped 70kls into Halls Creek on three wheels and a local servo is trying to get parts. Of course nothing will happen until Monday, if the parts come from Darwin we should get them Tuesday if they come from Perth they don’t get put on a truck until next Friday and arrive the following Monday. So at this stage I don’t know how long we are going to be stuck at Halls Creek.

I shall proceed to down load some photos and will eventually get some onto the blog.