Blogs from El Questro Wilderness Park, Western Australia, Australia, Oceania - page 2

El Questro Wilderness Park is a 400,000 ha working cattle station. We arrived and joined the que to book in. You are told to make camp where-ever you find a spot. As its school holidays it is extremely busy. You can get it all here; horse rides, helicopter sightseeing, heli fishing, boat hire, a restaurant and casual bar, live entertainment each night. We originally booked in for two nights, but after reading about all the 4 wheel drive tracks, walks, fishing spots and gorges to see we decided to book in for another two. Day 1 It’s quite hot so after setting up camp we cooled off in the river that flows behind the camping area. Then in the afternoon we took off for the Saddleback Ridge track to watch the sunset. Day 2 We are ... read more

Today we drove from Gregory to El Questro. To get to El Questro you must have a 4WD because there is bad corrugations. To get into El Questro there are two river crossings that are very deep. We crossed the Pentecost River. Once we reached El Questro we booked our private campsite And drove down to our private campsite. Our private campsite was called Willey Wagtail and was next to the river with crocodiles in. We went for a swim in the river but didn't see any crocodiles. Then we went back to the tent and had dinner. The next day we went on a tour of the cattle station. After that we went on a cruise down the Chamberlain Gorge. I got to feed fish that spat at you, they were called Archer fish. I ... read more

Day 23 – Sunday 22nd July – El Questro The car told us that the morning temperature was 9 degrees so it was a nice cool night in the mossie net. For our last day at El Questro we needed to go to the Zebedee Springs and do the El Questro Gorge walk. The springs apparently get busy early so the plan was to get to the springs for 7am when they open and stay for an hour until it gets busy. At 7am we were the second lot of people in the springs. The air was cool but in the top pool nearest the source of thermal springs, the water was a beautiful temperature. We lay around in the pool swapping tips and experiences with other travellers and enjoying the scenery and stayed ... read more

Day 21 – Friday 20th July – El Questro on the Gibb River Road Up at 6, cup of tea and on the road again at just before 7am. We had a quick stop at the start of the Gibb River Road to a) take a photo of the Gibb River Road sign(!) and b) reduce the tyre pressure for the rough, unsealed road. We were a bit disappointed that the first 15 or so kilometres were actually sealed! The turnoff to El Questro is about 30 kms from the start of the Gibb River Road and it is a further 16 kms along a 4WD track (with two decent water crossings) till you reach the Township. We rolled into the Township just on 8am and had been counting the camper vans/ trailers leaving ... read more

Today we had another long drive ahead of us as we made our way to El Questro. However we made a quick stop to get rid of some energy before starting the long journey, stopping at Mount Nina. At 90m high it was a mountain by Australia's standards but only took an hour to get up and down. It was a steep climb with loose rocks all the way up and Spinnifex grass covering the mountain. The Spinnifex grass is very sharp and feels like needles digging in you if you catch your ankles on it. The last stretch of the climb involved some clambering over boulders to reach the summit and I think everyone got to experience just how painful the spinnifex could be. It was the birthday of one of the Swiss girls on ... read more