DAYS 83-84 Pilbara – Kimberley Trip
EL QUESTRO
Wednesday 21 May
It was lovely waking up to the sound of birds and water cascading over rocks.
After crossing the Pentecost River and other water crossing our first port of call today was Zebedee Springs. It is a short 750 metre track to the springs – 1.5km return. It is a beautiful spot.
You walk through savannah woodlands with lots of ironwoods, kurrajong, bloodwoods and woollybutt to suddenly enter a totally different area - beautiful palm forest.
Very tall Livistona Palms form a thick canopy overhead and provide shade for the thick undergrowth. Finally you get to the springs. They are a permanent thermal springs at the base of sheer cliff faces and surrounded by the tall Livistona Palms. The water is very warm – they say between 28 and 32 degrees. We soon joined every one else in the water. Just beautiful.
After sitting in the springs for a quiet a while we made our way out and drove back to Emma Gorge to tackle the walk there.
Emma Gorge is part of the Cockburn Ranges – part of the extensive rugged tablelands and mesas that rise up all over the Kimberley Plateau. The gorge has massive scree slopes and cliff face escarpments reaching up to 120m on both sides of the trail.
It is a 3.2 km trail (1.6 in each direction) that is very well marked. It is classified as moderately difficult and most of the walk is along loose, rocky and very, very irregular terrain. You need to really negotiate your way through the rocks so thank goodness the track is marked. See the blue diamond shape on the rocks.
You start with a small uphill section through what they referred to as grasslands with some bloodwood trees. This is definitely the easiest part of the trail. Then very quickly it becomes rocky and then rockier.
As the scree slopes of the gorge close in the boulders become bigger, the rocks larger and looser. The trip notes suggest you take extra care from here on – you have no other choice but to take care or you will have an accident.
We continued on past the very interesting rocks with ripple patterns. These ripples are the effect of sediment being deposited in the flowing waters millions of years ago.
Finally we enter a refreshing rain forest section and before we knew it we were at Fern Pool. I tried to cross the next creek and decided this will do.
Hubby continued on to Turquoise Pool, a 100 metres on and this proved to be a hard section as there were some very large boulders to negotiate.
He went to the end of the gorge and said it was steep and slippery but the gorge was beautiful.
Slowly we made our way back over the same boulders and rocks but they felt different going from the other direction. They say the walk takes about 2 hours – it took us, I was the one slowing down by hubby, 3 hours and 15 minutes.
When we got back we headed for the bar at Emma Gorge Resort for a cold beer before returning to our campsite. There is a beautiful ironwood tree in front of the building.
As we sit here sipping our beer, the water flows, the birds call each other, dinner is cooking and I have just finished writing up today. Our two corellas are back on their branch.
Thursday 22 May
It is Min’s birthday today - a day to celebrate. So after wishing him a happy birthday I made him bacon, pineapple and banana mini pancakes for breakfast.
We went back to Zebedee Springs and for a while we were the only ones there. The orange cliff background for the tall lush livistona palms was just magic. It was just beautiful and relaxing.
We then drove over to El Questro Gorge after making our way over a 40 metre wide, 50-60 cm deep El Questro Creek crossing, followed by a second crossing somewhat shorter and not as deep.
It is a totally different gorge to walk through as the vegetation is so totally different but not the rocky, boulder filled track. You walk through a Kimberley rainforest but it is totally different to the rainforests on the east of the country.
The ground was quite moist and there were planks to walk across in places.
Then the track starts to ascend, became much more rockier, and the vegetation was getting to be quite thick. At one stage a little brown snake darted out from under a small rock about half a meter in front of me and then slithered quickly across the path under another rock. Did I watch where I put my feet after that.
After crossing the creek it got even rockier so at this stage I made the decision not to continue as I was having trouble managing the clambering over rocks as my feet were very unstable. So I turned back and slowly returned along the track. Hubby continued on over a steep slope, still rocky, then through a very, very narrow section with an escarpment on one side and drop off on the other to get to the Halfway Pool. When he caught up with me just before the car park he told me that I seem to have a knack of knowing when to stop in that I would not have been capable of doing the remainder of the walk but made a decision just at that point to pull out. He enjoyed the walk and had a swim in Halfway Pool. The water was very clear and refreshing to swim in.
We drove back to the township to have lunch at the Steakhouse. The view over the Pentecost River, manicured lawns, lovely verandah table made for a delightful setting.
After a lovely lunch we went for a drive to Chamberlain Gorge. We had seen it from the air at 500 feet and were not too impressed with it then. It did not look much from here either except for the lovely water views. There were boats moored at the jetty and the gorge cruise had just left.
We saw the famous Homestead from a distance but this was only the back of the homestead. From the air we had seen it from the front and it is a stunner. We then went along Explosion Gorge Track. Another beautiful huge boab known as the Durack Boab because of the ‘D’ carved into it.
Then a steep descent to cross the Chamberlain River. There were 3 sections of water. The first one was about 15 metres, then after rocking and rolling over rocks and boulders for a few metres we went through about 100 metres of water and then after a bit more rocking an rolling over rocks and boulders a further 40-50 metres of water crossing.
We then went on to Bronco’s Lookout overlooking Pentecost River. Wow what a view! Just spectacular.
We slowly made our way back over the river crossings to our campsite. Min’s been whittling away on some ironwood whilst I have cooked him a birthday dinner of roast pork and cranberry sauce with sweet potato, carrot and salad with raspberry vinaigrette, mango cheeks with custard for desert followed by boab and pineapple cake with a shot of Krupnikas – a lithuanian liquor. In the meantime we are sipping champagne under the lovely bright starry Kimberley sky.
The day was hot - we are still wearing shorts and singlets. However, the nights are cooling down and today is the first evening that we have put on long pants and long sleeved tops as the evenings are getting a bit too cool to sit outside in T-shirts.
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