We headed along the Victoria Highway road to Wyndham,
turning off at the famous Gibb River Road.
We had gone less than two kilometres down this stretch of
sealed road, when a dingo ran across in front of us, and then to our enormous
surprise we spotted two beautiful huge grey brolgas standing beside the road.
They are huge birds, with beautiful graceful bodies and a red patch on their
heads. As we couldn’t stop I did my best to lean out the window and take a
quick picture backwards.
Our first stop was at the badly signposted Emma gorge walk.
Emma Gorge is one of the Kimberley’s most well known and spectacular gorges. It
took about an hour to walk in the very rocky path, sometimes crossing the river
on stepping stones.
45 mins in we came across the beautiful lower pool,
surrounded by beautiful fern like vegetation. By now we were getting hot and
couldn’t wait to get to the main gorge for a swim, and we weren’t disappointed.
When we reached the top, we found a spectacular plunge pool
at the base of a three sided steep gorge, into which a huge droplet waterfall
tumbled over the edge. We swam around in the very cool water, swimming over to
underneath the falls, and then over underneath a rocky ledge where we were
surprised to find warm thermal waters trickling down through the rock to drip
on our heads below. Amazing!
After a refreshing swim, we walked back out, and then had a
brief look around the Emma Gorge Resort. It looked like a nice place to stay,
but we jumped back in the car, and pressed on towards our destination – El
Questro.
Before long we spied the turn off the Gibb River Road, and
onto Station land. This is where our adventure on a rough, corrugated dirt road
began.
The road in was not too bad, if not very bumpy and dusty. We
did a couple of river crossings, and were a bit concerned about how much water
would be entering our caravan, but we pressed on.
Finally we made it to the main Station area, and checked in.
The check in area is really nice – and all outside, under verandahs. On opening
the caravan door we discovered the step covered in water, and few handles had
worked themselves off (screws fell out) from the corrugations, but all in all,
everything was fine. Whew! The info centre back in Kununurra was a bit vague on
the road condition in, so we were relieved to find the van survived the trip
in.
We picked up some information about all the different walks,
drives, and other things to do during our 3 night, 4 day stay here. After
settling the van in, we went for a walk to explore the area. There is an art
gallery attached to the main restaurant.
After a walk around, we were getting hot again, so we
decided to take a dip in the nearby Pentecost River. A lovely spot to cool off.
They have a full stable here, if horses are your thing, so
we wandered over to the stables to check them out.
The sun sets quite early here (around 5.15pm), so at 4.30pm
we decided to head up Telecom Hill to the lookout and watch the sun set over
the ranges.
No comments:
Post a Comment