Calamity at El Questro

After many people giving their differing veiws on El Questro we decided to back track to El Questro to experience one of the icons of the Kimberley for ourselves, as well as catch up with our good friends the Cowling's.

It was with mixed emotions we turned into the drive into El Questro, would it live up to our expectations or would it disappoint us like it had other people we had met along the way.

We crossed the water crossing into the main station where we had to pay, Ross and I along with Jane and Noel had tossed up whether to pay the extra for a private site, we decided we would like the privacy as well as being able to have our own campfire. Fortune looked upon us and there was a great private site available that would take two vans, Corella it was named, all the private sites were named after native birds. We were so blessed it was a beautiful site facing the Pentecost River with little rapids directly in front of us which meant we could sit in the water and be fairly safe from crocadiles.

On our first faternoon we did a drive around to suss the place out, firstly Ross wanted to check the river out where you could fish, so off to Chamberlain Gorge we toddled, then up the lookout on the way to Pidgeon waterhole. Well!! I just looked straight ahead as the track ran along the ridge, just wide enough for a car, and you all know how much I dislike heights. When we got to the end of the track for the cars, there was a walking track continueing along the ridge but this time it was about a metre wide with a HUGE STEEP drop on either side, once again I looked straight ahead got to the end and turned around and walked back to the relative safety of the car. Ross had a lovely time taking photos, I just stuck my camera out the window for mine.

Next we headed further up then down to Pidgeon Waterhole, the track was pretty steep and rough, Ross even got out and waked some of it, that is how rough it was but we made it to the bottom. Ross had a fish then we had to turn around and retrace our steps. Yuck!!

Zebedee Springs beckoned, I was thinking of our good friend Julie who loves warm thermal springs to swim in as we headed off for the drive. As we started off on the walk my expectations started to rise as we were surrounded by beautiful tropical vegetation including pandanas palms and ferns. We crossed a lovely little stream that had water lillies in flower everywhere. We turned a corner in the track and there was the first pool with palms growing right up to the edge of the water, there were a few people in the first pool so we clambered over the rocks and boulders and climbed up to where the water came out of the cliff face and slid into a natural rock pool with luxurious warm water pouring into it. We sat there looking up at the majestic red cliffs surrounding us, the graceful birds soaring on the thermal air currents and discussed what a magnificent creation God had designed.


After soaking in the pool for some time we headed back to camp to play in the rapids in front of ouur camp. There was ahorn blowing announcing the arrival of our friends, it was great to catch up with them as we had not seen each other in over four months. We sat around and caught up with all our news. We decided that we would do the El Questro gorge the following morning.


After breakfast around the campfire we packed our backpacks and headed off towards the gorge. I decided to take my hiking stick as I was not sure how my ankle would handle all the rock climbing and walking on loose rocks. I felt a bit like a grandma heading off with my stick (oh thats right I am a nanna to three beautiful grandchildren, who I am missing).

To try and do the gorge justice with words is an impossible task. I can tell you my thigh muscles got a work out climbing up over boulders for the next two hours but it definately was worth it. Ross and I took heaps of photos and we had a swimat the halfway point and decided not to go any further, as when we arrived there was a middle aged woman who ws stuck trying to climb up between the cliff face and a boulder, she couldn't go up or get back. So Jane and I decided that we weren't going to put ourselves in that position with everyone looking at our bottoms while we were stuck.

After recovering from our walk we decided to go for a drive out to Explosion Gorge. Not a wise choice in hindsight. When we pulled up to admire the veiw Ross turned around and noticed water pouring out from our radiator. Not a good thing! We poured some more water in and as fast as we poured it in it came out. There was a nice family there who came over to see if they could help. The consensus was Noel and Jane would go back to camp and bring two twenty litre jerry cans back full of water and Ross and our new friend would take the radiator out there and try to patch it as Ross aka Harvey Norman had some stuff he thought might repair it to get us back to camp. We managed to crawl back to our campsite but had a very unsettled sleep worrying about how much this little exercise was going to cost us as we thought the NRMA would not cover our tow which would result in an account of over one thousand five hundred dollars.

Early next morning Noel and Jane drove us to Zebedee springs which was very soothing. On our return to the station house we bought a phone card so we could use the public phone as there was no mobile phone coverage.

Our first call was to the 13000 number for the NRMA which directed us to the Western Australia equivilent, after being forwarded on to the NRMA we were pleasantly surprised at what our cover provided us. Full towing back to Kununurra, a weeks car rental and $750 worth of accommodation. We decided to just to take a caravan site as we had to keep power to our van to keep all our food frozen. After a full days phone calls the tow people said they would pick us up in the morning.

Bright and early the next morning we were packed up and waiting at the stationhouse area. We waited and waited and waited. I was becomming quite stressed. At around 3 o'clock I convinced Ross to ring the tow company. OH! we thought we picked you up yesterday, we may be able to fit you in this afternoon. I was NOT impressed. Tim the tow man turned up I struggled to keep my tongue still especially when he bragged he left a back packer on the side of the road 150 ks out of Kununurra the day before. I must admit i shed a tear or two out of frustration especially when Ross told me the Toyota dealer would not even look at the car for three weeks. God was looking after us as Ross found someone who would look at the car the next day. He also said he would be able to get a radiator up from Perth in lessthan a week, which he did. God continued to provide for us as we were able to find a powered site in Kununurra which is usually impossible as you usually have to take a non powered site and wait for a powered site to beome available as we would have no way to shift the van.


I asked Tim the tow man would he be able to tow our van to the caravan park for us that night and his reply was no you can sleep on the side of the road out the fron of the workshop. As we came into Kununurra Tim asked which van park we were staying in, after telling him he said I will be able to tow you there with his own car as that is the van park that he lives in. How good is God?

Boy he drove that truck fast over the rough road, the truck was over thirty years old and it showed it, it is the only tow truck that does the Gibb River Road.