8 June 2024
The El Questro Wilderness Park is around a one-hour drive from Kununurra. According to their website …
Located in the East Kimberley, El Questro is 700,000 acres of vast and stunningly beautiful terrain. This diverse landscape extends 80 kilometres north to south and 60 kilometres east to west and is mostly unexplored.
Having been there now, I certainly agree.
The drive in takes you along the base of a section of the Cockburn Range, which is absolutely magical to see in the early morning sun.
This also happens to be the end of the legendary Gibb River Road running between Derby and Wyndham (more on this below).
Our first stop was Emma Gorge, where there is a very ‘fancy pants’ lodge for those who like to visit nature in style.
We entered reception to pay for a pass to access El Questro for the day. The (Canadian) person at the desk firstly told us it would cost $23 for the day pass, and we dutifully paid. After we paid, she then decided to tell us the following …
- There was a fair bit of rain last night, so there will be lots of mud and the rocks will be very slippery to walk on.
- What would normally be a Grade 4 (out of 5) walk would today be more like a Grade 4.5 given the above information.
- It ios a very tough walk.
- There have been many snake sightings on the track, so be careful.
Thanks for the warning! It’s lucky we like paying others to risk our personal safety.
There was mud at the start (but not too bad), but the rocks had dried out somewhat. But there were a lot of rocks. Rocks and rocks and rocks and rocks. Small rocks to roll ankles on, big rocks to clamber over, under and around. It was quite a difficult hike really, and I was very surprised to see the age and physical condition of some attempting the walk. However, we only saw one person fall into the water, where rock stepping was required.
There were also some lovely waterholes along the way to take a rest at and enjoy.
When we reached the end of the gorge we were greeted by a heap of people swimming or getting ready to swim, with a magnificent natural chamber and waterfall above. We didn’t swim though.
It was then time to turn around and tackle the arduous walk back out. We did see one tree snake along the way, which everyone was stopping to photograph — perhaps as evidence of the peril they had faced and overcome.
Upon completing the walk, Nicole and I enjoyed a (very good) ‘fancy pants’ coffee at the Emma Gorge Resort. Thank goodness for luxury nature resorts!
After finishing our coffees, it was around 10:30am and only a fairly short drive to Zebedee Springs, which we had heard was a “must see”. We were also aware that it closed at 12:00pm. This seemed strange, so we asked why at Emma Gorge Resort. “It closes at 12:00pm because we provide exclusive access to El Questro overnight guests after 12:00pm”, was the answer. So, ‘fancy pants’ people only after 12:00pm. Curse those luxury nature resorts!
We set off for what we thought should be a fairly quick drive, but soon realised the dirt road was very corrugated, with a number of relatively minor water crossings. After losing a couple of fillings driving over the corrugations at very sedate (perhaps too sedate) speeds, we decided to pull over and let some air out of the tyres. This helped a bit, but we still felt like we were shaking Knight Riders to pieces. I later found a drawer catch had broken — probably from the shaking — but that’s all the damage we’ve found (so far).
We parked at Zebedee Springs car park at 11:40am, which allowed us time to very quickly walk in, take a few photos, then walk quickly back out so that the posh people didn’t have to share the spring with the ‘great unwashed’ like us.
We didn’t have the time or the inclination to head right into the El Questro Homestead (a much rougher drive we had heard), so we decided to end our El Questro experience with a visit to the Pentecost River Crossing. This marks the end of the dirt road section of the famous Gibb River Road.
The road is a former cattle route that stretches in an east–west direction almost 660 kilometres (410 mi) through the Kimberley between the towns of Derby and the Kununurra and Wyndham junction of the Great Northern Highway. Like its namesake river, which does not actually cross the road but runs nearby at 16°06.108′S 126°31.075′E, it is named after geologist and explorer Andrew Gibb Maitland. The Gibb River Road is one of the two major roads which dissect the Kimberley region—the other being the extreme northern section of Great Northern Highway which runs further to the south. (Wikipedia)
As we stopped to pump our tyres back up before the short, sealed road section to the crossing, we saw another Explorer motorhome like ours. It had mud all up the sides and was towing a ‘tinny’. We wandered over and chatted to the owners; a young couple from Coolangatta taking 5 months to do their trip around Australia. They had just completed the Gibb River Road and were, quite rightly, relieved. They said their next stop was going to be a car wash in Kununurra.
When we were chatting about Explorer motorhomes, I mentioned our Knight Riders moniker. When I asked if they knew what Knight Riders actually was, he half-heartedly said it was a move of some kind. I gently suggested he had no idea and he quickly agreed, mentioning something about being a 90s baby.
They were lovely to chat to and asked us to let people know they would be selling their Explorer in 3-4 months’ time, as they need the money back.
We then arrived at the Pentecost River crossing, where we saw a few 4WDs towing caravans coming towards us, and a few parked up on our side wondering what to do. As Nicole and I wandered down to have a look, a grumpy old bloke who was obviously the owner of one of the caravans parked up wondering what to do, came straight up to me and said, “You’re not taking that thing (i.e. our motorhome) across there mate! I’ve driven all over Australia and I’m sure as hell not driving across that!” I could have said a lot of things in reply, including that we had literally just talked to a couple who had that day driven exactly the same motorhome through that crossing towing a boat, or that perhaps it was more our decision than his whether we crossed or not, but I didn’t bother. The water was probably around 2-3 feet deep from what I could tell.
Anyway, Nicole and I promptly validated our earlier decision to not “do the Gibb” this time, but rather drive a bit of it from the Derby end when we get there. Maybe next time.
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