Tour Australia

We left camp early morning heading south and then turned onto the Gibb River Road. We traveled down to El Questro. The road is sealed all the way up to El Questro and a few hundred metres beyond. The El Questro driveway is around 16km to get to the campground and is unsealed. They maintain it pretty well and have their own grader on site. It is worth noting that there are 2 water crossings as well, one was only around 30cm deep and the other 40-50cm deep and a bit longer. They both have rock bottoms so are not a problem for a 4wd.

 

El Questro Day 1

We booked in our camping and set up in a nice shaded unpowered site. We quickly got ready and headed to Zebedee Spring as it is only open from 7am to midday. The spring is well shaded by palm trees and they ask that you do not wear sunscreen to minimise pollution. It is a hot spring and sits between 28 and 32 degrees. It is not a large swimming area and consists of many small pools, most of them quite shallow, with the water cascading off the rocks. We stayed mostly in the lower pools today and relaxed until midday.

   

We headed back to camp and had lunch. We chilled out and caught up on a few things plus some blogging. That afternoon we made our way up to Brancos Lookout for sunset. It took around 20 minutes from camp to get up there. It included crossing the Pentecost River which wasn’t so much a water crossing but more of a rock crossing. It is a ford which is made up of large rocks and boulders.

The drive up to the lookout is not difficult but a 4wd is required as it is steep and a little rock in some spots. The view is fantastic and overlooks the Pentecost river. You may even see a salt water crocodile in the water below if you’re lucky. This lookout was a real treat to finish the day with.

El Questro Day 2

We rose early this morning and made it out to Zebedee Spring by 7:30am. There were already a number of people there including a tour bus. We were a little disappointed but went in and found ourselves a little pool. This time we worked our way up the springs to have a look and enjoy the water. We spent around 3.5hours relaxing and hanging out in the different pools.

We were very wrinkley by the end but had a great time. We then went to Moonshine Gorge for a look and a swim. We only stayed a short time but it was a very lovely spot.

We had a late lunch and I did an oil change and tyre rotation on the Jeep in the afternoon. Just before sunset we drove up to Saddleback Ridge and enjoyed the lookout for sunset. We had company up there but we enjoyed a good laugh with them and watched the sun go down.

El Questro Day 3

We packed up the caravan and made our way back to the Gibb River Road and back 9km’s to Emma Gorge. The road to the gorge is again unsealed but only a few kilometres long and well maintained. The walk out to Emma Gorge is not difficult but does involve some scrambling over rocks. Towards the end of the gorge there is a gorgeous pool called Torquiose pool which as its name suggests is an amazing torquiose colour.

At the end of the gorge is another plunge pool but this time much bigger and colder. The amazing thing about this pool is that there is warm water coming in. At the right side of the pool there is a rock overhang. If you swim under the rock overhang and feel the dripping water you will notice that the water is quite warm. It is a great way to warm up after swimming in the cold water.

 

Closer towards the bank on the right side is a spring of water coming out of the rock. Again this is nice warm water and we enjoyed a bit of a shower in the crack of the rock. It is an amazing place!

We left the pool and walked back to the Jeep. We decided to drive down Gibb River Road to see what the condition of the road was like and to talk to someone who had come from that way. We made our way around 9km down the Gibb and decided to turn back. The road was very rocky and rough and very corrugated. We stopped to have a chat with a gentleman who had just done the Gibb River Road and his report was that it gets worse and is back all the way to the Mitchell Falls turn off. That made up our mind, we drove back to the tar and made our way down the Great Northern Highway. We camped at the same rest area that we had been at just days before when we visited the Bungle Bungles. We felt a bit disappointed but we didn’t want to take the caravan on 600km of non-stop corrugations.