Gibb River Road - Vast lands - the final track

Days 30 and 31 Thursday and Friday 10^th and 11^th May

I still can’t believe that we can finally relax! The wheels stayed on and we didn’t get stranded in the floods. We thoroughly enjoyed our private bush camp at the mighty El Questro station. Our bush camp called “Sea Eagle” was located on the banks of the Pentacost. Would you believe that! The irony of it was that this beautiful pristine clear river was the same one that nearly submerged Paul, I and the Prado!

It was only waist deep and so clear and fresh, we couldn’t resist it. It was 36 degrees! What would any true blooded Australian do? Go for a swim! Right so we spent half of each day that we stayed at El Questro in our own private water hole on the Pentacost. The ranger assured us on the second day that only small “freshies “ inhabited the waters and that they would shy away from us!

We felt we had earnt the right to enjoy several days of just relaxing, swimming and not doing too much hard core sight seeing, ie not too many elaborate walks up all the gorges abundant on this vast million acre station.

El Questro Homestead

We did however visit the Emma Gorge, for obvious reasons, the Chamberlain Gorge and the warm thermal waters of the Zebedee Springs. This country is so vast, so breathtakingly beautiful that the photos are really the only way I can describe it accurately.

Chamberlain Gorge.

Zebedee Thermal Springs.

Day 32 Saturday 12^th May.

Our final day on the Gibb river road! We shuddered and bumped our way over the final 45 Kms of this challenging, notorious track. At 11 am we finally drove past the sign which informed us that all roads were open!! This included of course Bell Gorge road and Drysdale station road, the entrance into the Mitchell Falls, two of the most impressive attractions in the Kimberley (such is Life) I think at that stage we were quite happy to drive onto smooth bitumen with all trailer tyres intact! At least we can say that we survived all that the Gibb river road could throw at us!

We made it - but we missed some of the main attractions. Such is Life!

We spent the next four nights at the Big 4 caravan park at Kununurra on the banks of the Kununurra lake which is all part of the Ord river Irrigation scheme.

Finally a Croc up close and personal! George the resident crocodile at the caravan park - a "Freshie" of course!

After all the incidents and excitement of the last few weeks its good to report that:-

Days 33 to 35 (Sunday 13^th to Tuesday 15^th of May) have been relaxing and consisted of visiting the many tourist attractions around Kununurra and the Port town of Wyndham.

Views at Wyndham of the five rivers lookout.

My photos will highlight the many attractions and vistas that we have seen over these days . The optimum tourist adventure for me was the sunset cruise on Lake Argyle, a vast lake the size of 22 Sydney Harbors. The captain of the cruise boat had to explain the life jacket procedure the same as any cruise ship officer. The lake is so vast that it is considered to be an inland sea.

For me, this lake epitomizes the essence of the Kimberley region in Western Australia.

Vast ranges, vast rivers, vast stations and vast lakes and we have experienced them all.