The quest

Looking for a wilderness adventure? Seeing gorgeous gorges, waterfalls, natural springs?  Have some serious four wheel driving to do?

That sums up our day yesterday as we headed out to El Questro Wilderness Resort, just an hour from Kununurra.  We tried to get an early start, which baffled the caravan park owners - it would be too cold!  We reminded them that the night time temperatures here are the same as the day temps in Canberra. 

Emma Gorge was first on the list. The boys thought that this was the better one of the day.  Mark had a sore tummy so I ended up going back to the resort with him and waiting for the others to finish their trek.  We are hoping everyone is through this tummy wog now... He did pick up after an hour rest but was not his  usual 'spritely self' during the remainder of the day.

Next was Zebedee Springs.  The water in these pools was crystal clear and the temp stays at 32 degrees year round.  Everyone was crowded in here by mid morning as they shut down access at midday.  Apparently, this is for ecological reasons but I wonder if the same people were spread out throughout the day instead of being all bunched together at the start of the day whether it would make much difference, ecologically, that is?  It would certainly make a differnce to the enjoyment factor...

We decided to go to El Questro Gorge, have lunch and then go on a walk through it.  This time, the swimmers would be on and not back at the car and everyone was ready to go.  That was before Andrew saw the hazard signs on the 4WD trail that warned for high clearance being needed and a depth of half a metre for the upcoming water crossing. It was his first 4WD test and he was unsure.  Thankfully, a woman was coming through in the opposite direction at that moment and showed him it wasn’t so difficult.  She even let him know which sections were deeper and  gave the following encouragement - it’s fun!

He now “gets it”, why is 4WDing so appealing?  It’s that next level of toy, albeit an expensive power toy, and looking at his face, it comes with an adrenalin rush that’s priceless!

I loved El Questro Gorge.  It was lush and cool in there, water trickling through and then, starting to gather to and babble over stones and rocks. The last section, past the pool, involved clambering over rocks to a swimming hole behind.  Though we went, we had discarded our shoes at the earlier pool so this was hard going for the feet. It was lovely up there and such a wonderful way to end the day.

We came back and had our first takeaway meal for the trip.  I’ll try to remember to write about camp kitchens, grey nomads and backpackers another time.