El Questro (Along the Gibb River Road)

El Questro is a major tourist venue on the Eastern side of the Gibb River road. I was quite surprised how busy it is here. It is obviously run by a large company that owns a few other accommodation/tourist places. It’s also quite expensive to stay here. We are paying $56 a night for a private camp site along the river. Plus you have to pay $40 for a park permit to be able to access any of the attractions. This makes it one of the dearest places we have stayed so far. Our private campsite is nice, the nearest people are at least 100m or more away and we overlook the river. Although we do need to drive back to the station for showers.

 

We walked up Emma Gorge which is 3.2km return with a good deal of climbing over boulders and a couple of creek crossings. At the end you are rewarded with an amazing waterhole and waterfall. We braved the freezing cold water and had a quick swim. The kids then followed some other children up the rocks and found a spot where some thermal water trickles and fills a tiny hole. They had a splash in there for a while before heading back down the gorge. It took us an hour to walk each way, longer than it would if we were on our own as we have to lift kids up and down over large boulders.

Climbing back down the track.

We took one of the 4WD to a lookout.

The Durack Tree

Swimming hole at the station

There are also some thermal springs here, they are only open to the public from 7am – 12 noon. It was certainly a delightful spot. Palm trees line the crystal clear 32 degree water. The only thing that is a negative – the amount of people there trying to get in the water. We were lucky as we got there fairly early in the morning and had a whole little pool to ourselves for a while. The the hoards come and we are not really into bumping knees with strangers in a small amount of water! It’s definitely worth a visit- just go early.

Bungle Bungles–Purnululu National Park

Everyone you talk to says the road into the Bungle Bungles is terrible. It is!! It is the roughest road we have been on so far. It is 53kms in from the turn off and it is rough. The corrugations are horrendous. Our map says allow 3 hours to drive in, thank goodness it didn’t take that long! It only took us an hour and a half, but too rough to even hold a conversation. Everything in the car and trailer remained in tack apart from my spices which managed to bounce their way around the drawer and spread themselves on everything.

Despite the road, the Bungle Bungles are amazing. We did the two main walks – Cathedral Gorge and Echidna Chasm. They both took about an hour to complete and were fairly easy.

 

Cathedral Gorge- This track takes you through some of the domes which resemble striped beehives. The colours are incredible when the sun shines on the rocks. At the end of the track it opens to a large amphitheatre with a small pool of water. A lovely spot to sit for a while and enjoy the surroundings.

Echidna Chasm – this was my favourite! The walking track leads up into the chasm and as it nears the end the width decreases to the width of a single adult. You can still see the sky through the thin slit way above. There are some ladders near the end to help you get right to the end of the chasm. The walls of the chasm are a sandstone and river rock conglomerate. Millions of years ago the area was the bottom of a large river, over time the silt and sandstone has fused the rounded stones together into layers of different colours. Now as parts become exposed to the elements they are eroding away to create the shapes and gorges we see today.

 Looking up from the chasm.

Another highlight was seeing this bower made by the Great Bower Bird – he collects grey and white objects (including bones and shells) to decorate his bower. I was hoping to get a photo of him in his bower, but instead he just squawked at me from a tree above.

The creek crossing near the start of the road into the Bungle Bungles.

Kununurra and Wyndham

After leaving Kakadu we put in a long driving day and arrived at a small township just inside the Northern Territory border called Timber Creek. We had a lovely grassy spot in the shade to set up on. It was a nice spot as a quick stopover.

Our next destination was Kununurra across the border into Western Australia. Along the way we stopped at the Gregory Tree. An ancient boab marked with the date 2nd July 1856. It was carved by one of Gregory’s exploration party when they camped at the trees. They were searching for good grazing land for cattle and sheep. The sign says that there was another large boab beside the others, but they took a slab as a table top and left the stump as a horse trough. I’d be interested in  finding out if that table still exists somewhere and checking it out.

Kununurra is a busy little town with lots of souvenir shops and a well stocked supermarket. We stayed one night, long enough to do a good grocery shop and for Clayton to do an oil change on the car (we had driven about 7000kms already since leaving home).Our one night in Kununurra was a stopover before heading down to the Bungle Bungles (Purnululu National Park).

After one night at the Bungle Bungles (which will be it’s own post after this one) we headed back up and decided that we would have a short stop in Wyndham. This would be to restock before heading across the Gibb River Rd. We stayed in a lovely spot called Parry Creek Farm, about 20kms out of Wyndham. We are glad we did, it was quiet, clean and well maintained. Wyndham seems to be a town that is dying, the croc farm (well advertised in all the brochures) is being demolished. The main servo was all boarded up as well and signs on all the ATMs saying no cash out. We did a small refresh of our supplies as the supermarket was really expensive and had limited range of items. We did enjoy the Five Rivers Cafe in town. I’m pretty sure it was the best iced coffee I have had in a very long time. The 5 rivers lookout is also worth a visit – you can see where 5 rivers converge and spill into the ocean.

The resident croc at Parry Creek Farm

The prison boab tree at Wyndham used to lock up Aboriginal offenders awaiting court.

Kakadu

Our opinion of Kakadu……. wonderful. Kakadu is the largest national park in Australia and has so much to discover. It is World Heritage listed for both its cultural and its natural values. The rangers and traditional owners do an amazing job at protecting the biodiversity of the park. We stayed in the township of Jabiru at Kakadu Lodge. It was such a nice change to have grass to step on when getting out of the camper and CLEAN amenities. We got to spend 4 nights here at met up with the kid’s cousins, which they enjoyed immensely.

Jim Jim Falls and Twin Falls

The first day was a long day doing both Jim Jim falls and Twin Falls. It’s a long 4WD in to the start of the walk at Jim Jim. The walk up to falls isn’t so much as a walk, rather a scramble and climb over rocks and boulders. The end is so worth it though. The falls are more of a trickle in the dry season, but it is pretty spectacular all the same. The kids and Clayton had a quick dip in the ‘beach’ swimming hole. I enjoyed laying on a rock in the shade and marvelling at the amazing gorge walls.

Jim Jim Falls

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Twin Falls – another drive on a road only suitable for 4WDs with good clearance. You need to cross Jim Jim creek with approximately 80cm depth. It’s pretty easy to cross as they have created a stable bottom on the crossing. To get to Twin Falls, you need to take a small boat trip ($12.50 per adult) run by a park ranger. You then need to continue walking up the gorge, which requires some climbing on skinny rock ledges along the edge of the gorge. A little bit scary with the kids at times! It was mid afternoon when we started the walk and everyone was hot and tired by the time we got to the falls. The gorge and falls were very impressive. Needless to say – we were all pretty tired that night.

On the short boat trip to twin falls.

Ubirr (pronounced oo-beerr)

Before making our way to Ubirr, we stopped at Cahill’s crossing. A well known fishing and big croc hang-out. The fishermen are brave standing on the crossing or on the edge of the river with massive crocs hanging around in the water right in front of them.

At Ubirr we did the 1km circuit and admired the aboriginal rock art gallery. There is a painting of a thylacine (Tasmanian tiger) – they became extinct on the mainland of Australia 1500 – 2000 years ago. Some of the paintings were also painted at a similar time. Seeing the paintings and the view from the lookout were definitely some highlights of the trip so far.

Yellow Water Cruise

On the way to our cruise we stopped at most the sights along the way. We did the walk/climb up  to Nawurlandja look out.

We then did the Nourlangie (Burrunggui) where we saw some more amazing rock art and some lovely cool caves.

Our yellow water cruise departed at 2:45pm and obviously wasn’t one of the most popular tour times. The tour boat was pretty empty – which meant the kids could move around the boat to best view the wildlife. We saw heaps of amazing things – massive crocs lazing in the sun, a Jabiru catch and chop up a fish, sea eagles, egrets, etc etc. A Yellow Water cruise is definitely something not to be missed.