Road Trip – Day 77 (May 31)

Today we did our last group day trip as in 2 days we leave the group and start heading for home, leaving Viv & Eric, Denise & John and Carol &
Alan. We left early to visit El Questro Station. El Questro is a 1 million acre cattle station that has been turned into a wilderness park. In order to retain their pastoral lease they must continue to run cattle and muster them at least once every 5 years. In 1991 the station was purchased by an English lord, Will Burrell who, together with his wife, developed the homestead into a luxury accommodation experience. In 2005 they reluctantly sold El Questro to a resort corporation.

El Questro is off the Gibb River Road, which is famous for being a 4WD experience when driving the length of the unsealed corrugated road. I can see why as by the time we got back onto the Great Northern Highway my stomach felt like the choc milk I had had for lunch had become a milkshake.

Our first stop in the El Questro Wilderness Park was the Zebedee Springs. These are a permanent thermal spring surrounded by Livistona palm trees. The natural thermal spring, which comes out of the ground quite high up the cliff, forms several shallow pools at the base.

It was at the thermal springs that Denise & I saw a snake from the distance while Viv was happy to get up close and personal to the snake, who was just crossing the path we were walking on. We were assured it was a 7 foot python.

There were a lot of people at the springs and not a lot of room so we didn’t have a swim in the springs, which were about 28 Celius in temperature.

After morning tea we headed for the El Questro township. We were not able to get close to the homestead where film stars and the rich stay in luxuary accommodation. It was a little exciting as we had to cross the Pentecost River to reach the El Questro township, which is really a shop and the budget accommodation area of the station.

We drove past the camping area on our way to the Chamberlain River and Gorge. Wow, another awesome sight.

The building you can see in the distance is the famous Homestead where is costs a minimum of $1600 per night.

Lunch was at the park beside the El Questro shop. Kurgan was also allowed to walk in the park so he settles down and waited for his pack members to feed him (or so he hoped).

On our way back along the Gibb River Road to the Great Northern Highway, we encountered a number of cyclists and their support vehicles. They were participating in the Gibb Challenge, a socially competitive, team relay mountain bike event raising money for charity. This year, half the money goes to the Ryan Marron Trust. Ryan Marron is a 30 year old police officer from Halls Creek who remains critically ill after contracting Murray Valley Encephalitis from a mosquito bite.

These bikes endured tough riding conditions with corrugated dirt roads, and dust.

Finally after a bone rattling ride, we arrive back on the Great Northern Highway. We were going to visit Wyndham, the northern most town in Western Australia and home to the BIG Crocodile.

We had a look at the new jetty opened in February 2012, where we saw a girl fishing for mud crabs for tea. Here is Eric holding  one of her mud crabs.

We went up to the Five Rivers Lookout to see the magnificent views from the lookout.

 

On the way I took advantage of the fabulous light just before sunset to take photos of Boab trees. These trees seem to have so much character.