El Questro & Katherine

Days 12-16

When we stay in one spot for a couple of days I end up with too many photos to fit them all in and forget to take notes for the blog so if things seem a big hazy that's because this bit was over a week ago. First photo is the view from our campsite at El Questro then Zebedee Springs then a lookout on the Explosion Gorge Track, then Emma Gorge and finally the caravan park at Katherine.

After leaving the beautiful Bungles behind we drove back to Kununurra for a quick restock then headed off again to El Questro Wilderness Park which is a private Pastoral Lease.

According to the information the owners provide, El Questro doesn't actually mean anything. The story goes that the two brothers who pegged the claim for the land in the mid 1950's were reminded of stories of the red bluffs of New Mexico and the Rio-Grande and wanted a spanish sounding name. Apparently a mate wrote down some words that roughly translated to 'land of great beauty and big mountains'. However apparently the two brothers then hit the town to celebrate and lost the piece of paper before they lodged the claim, and ended up coming up with a spanish sounding name instead.

El Questro is around a million acres in the Kimberley's and contains some spectacular scenery. There is a township with a store, restaurant, shower, toilet & laundry facilities and general campground then there are quite a few private campsites along the river named after Australian birds and animals. We were lucky to get the last one which was called Kite and was quite a way from the township on the other side of the river. I've included a photo of the view from the campsite. Image driving down your driveway and having to cross a river every day. :-)

We managed to fit quite a bit into our couple of days. After spending the first night settling in and the first morning doing all our washing and making good use of the lovely warm showers, we drove a couple of 4WD tracks to Pigeon Hole and Branco's Lookout as well as a bit of Explosion Gorge. We also got to spend a morning at Zebedee Springs, a series of warm springs surrounded by palm's, very tropical. We had dinner at the Steakhouse on Friday night which was very nice then joined in the township BBQ Dinner on the Saturday night.

On our last afternoon we drove to Emma Gorge but unfortunately it had closed for the day. Also one of the drives we had planned to do, which was a 100km round trip passing through private property, was also closed so we rejigged the trip itinerary yet again (Plan B 4.0?) to fit Emma Gorge in the morning, a final quick stop in Kununurra (third time this trip) and then camp somewhere on the side of the road as close to Katherine as we could get. I didn't do the walk but waved my family off with the rest of the group and settled in for a lovely morning reading my book under the palms at Emma Gorge Resort.

On our previous trip I did a good number on my ankle, tearing the tendons on both sides of my foot when I fell, ending up at Halls Creek Hospital for x-rays and crutches. Unfortunately my foot has started to cause me some grief on this trip as well. It doesn't hurt too bad when I walk on flat ground but when I walk over rocks or on paths that go uphill or downhill (stretching the tendons) I can guarantee it will be throbbing by the end of the day.

That night we found a fantastic little spot just off the side of the road and decided that we would have an 80's night. With Simon's ipod hooked up to our stereo we spent a great night singing along to 80's music and trying to remember as many 80's films as we could. This carried on the next day over the CB as we drove through Timber Creek, Victoria River Downs and onto Katherine.

We stayed at the Big4 Katherine Low Level Caravan Park and it is a fantastic park to stay at. After setting up the tents and doing a bit of shopping we spent lots of time just lazing by the pool. Unfortunately we weren't able to canoe Katherine Gorge like we'd planned as that morning they had found two salt water crocodiles in the river and it was closed. Hundreds of fresh water crocs inhabit the river but they are more docile that the salties, so we had to make other plans.

We had dinner one night at the Park's Fig Tree Bistro and listened to a bit of bush poetry and country music for entertainment. We got to explore Cutta Cutta caves which are really, really nice and made me think we should go and explore the Limestone Caves in our own backyard down in the south east at Naracoorte, SA.

All in all a very pleasant week.