The Gibb River Road

First thing in the morning a man we met at the caravan park called Dave, took the boys fishing on the Ord River. Tom had some success, catching a small bream which was too little to keep. We then packed up and drove north from Kununurra and stayed in Wyndham for the night. It is like being in the wild west up there! Very friendly people in the caravan park who were happy for us to leave our caravan plugged in while we went bush for a few days.
We left in the morning after packing all our camping gear into the Landcruiser and hit the dirt and gravel of the Gibb. It is an absolutely beautiful drive past the Cockburn Ranges and we even got another river crossing in as there was still plenty of water in the Pentecost River. We stopped at Home Valley Station which had the greenest grass we have seen for months. It is a working cattle station where you can camp or stay in very expensive hotel rooms. Lovely to camp on the grass for a change, nice to get away from the ever present dust.






We went for a drive in the afternoon which the kids enjoyed because Michael let them steer!









Got back to the tents and got the fire lit for the marshmallows and damper. The damper was a bit undercooked but not bad for our first attempt.

The next day we packed up and left early as due to the early sunrise the kids have been awake by 5am. We drove back the way we came along the Gibb to El Questro Station. It is a one million acre wilderness park which is used for cattle and tourism. They have "The Homestead" where you can stay for about $1000 per person per night which was a bit out of our budget. Would have been great though as they don't allow kids under 12. We stayed in the campground which is right on the river. It was very quiet and peaceful, at least until we arrived!

There are heaps of things to see here. Lots of gorges, some hot springs, and lots of 4WD tracks to go on. Since the Zebedee Hot Springs close at 12, we thought we would check them out first. They were great as the water stays at about 28 degrees all year round. Perfect swimming temperature for me!


We decided on a bit of 4WD action for the afternoon after sharing our lunch with a visitor.


We drove along a track and up to Branco's Lookout which gave us a great view over the Chamberlain river.


Here is a picture of a Boab tree we saw which are everywhere in the Kimberley area. This one is probably over 1000 years old, they are amazing trees.


We then drove on to Explosion Gorge. Unfortunately the track was closed so we couldn't get down to the water but it was very pretty.


On the way back we had to stop for another large lizard to cross the road in front of us and then we got held up by a cow!


When we got back to the campsite it was feeding time for the 5 week old calf. Charlie wanted to take him with us but we couldn't fit him in the caravan.



The next day we decided to attempt a gorge walk, this time El Questro Gorge. We met some people from Beaumaris who have 2 boys called Jack and Tom. They are each a year older than our Jack and Tom and they all got on very well. The walk was an hour to the halfway point where you could swim. The walk itself was lovely. The gorge was like a rainforest with lots of palms.








It was quite a hard walk and Charlie did really well. Michael and I stopped with him at the halfway point and the Jacks and Toms went further with Rick and Charmaine (the other Jack and Tom's parents).


The photo above shows what the rest of the walk was like. This is where you had to climb to keep going past the halfway point! They were exhausted by the time they got back to the campground as they walked for another hour and a half before turning around and coming all the way back again.
Charlie couldn't even stay awake for his dinner!


We could have stayed at El Questro for a few more nights but I had had enough of the tents after 3 nights. Also I forgot to pack towels so was keen for a shower. We drove back to Wyndham to get the caravan, stock up on a bit of food and some barramundi and got back onto the Great Northern Highway to check out the Bungle Bungles.