31 August - Zebedee Springs and Emma Gorge, El Questro Wilderness Park (ELQ)

31 August 2016 – 185 821

Zebedee Springs and Emma Gorge, El Questro Wilderness Park (ELQ)

We all awoke early and packed up – off to start the Gibb River Road.  We arrived at El Questro just after 9:00am and set up. 
https://www.elquestro.com.au/ 
https://www.elquestro.com.au/explore/activities-and-experiences/self-guided-hikes

 

 

Our first item on the agenda was Zebedee Springs – these are beautiful and will definitely require a second visit.  They vary in temperature between the different pools.  As they close at noon, one cannot spend the whole day here, no matter how tempting it is.  

We then drove to Emma Gorge for a picnic lunch.  The hike into Emma Gorge is very easy in some spots and quite challenging in others, varying from a sandy track to almost scrambling over large boulders.  The walk each way was just over 2km and took about 45 minutes.  The waterhole at the end was definitely worth it – a beautiful hole set in a deep red rock, fern covered gorge with a raindrop type waterfall from the overhanging rocks.  The water was quite cold, but off to one side was a thermal spring.  A truly beautiful spot! 
https://www.elquestro.com.au/emma-gorge 
Back to camp this evening for a small campfire.

30 August - Preparations for the Gibb River Road

30 August 2016 – 185 512

Preparations for the Gibb River Road

We packed up this morning, reinflated the tyres and headed back to Kununurra.  First stop was a butcher to order some cryovac meat.  Then off to the supermarket where we filled two entire shopping trolleys – this is by far the most I have ever spent in a supermarket in one go!  Back to the butcher to pick up our meat – again I think the most I have ever spent in a butcher in one go!  Last stop was to fill up the van and jerry cans with water, and the car with diesel. 
http://ordco.com.au/product-range/diesel-fuel-retail/ 
We drove out of Kununurra to a free camp and have spent the afternoon working out how to pack all the supplies into the van and car in a way that minimises bounce, ready for the corrugated roads.  All set to start the Gibb River Road tomorrow morning.

29 August - Bungle Bungle (Purnululu) National Park – walks of the Northern Section

29 August 2016 – 185 372

Bungle Bungle (Purnululu) National Park – walks of the Northern Section

This morning we got up at 5:00am and were out at the park ready to start walking at 8:00am.  Drew let the tyres down and this gave a smoother ride, but probably not much difference in driving time. https://parks.dpaw.wa.gov.au/park/purnululu  Today we went to the Northern Section of the park – this is quite different to the Southern Section – in my opinion it is more spectacular.  The first walk we did was the Homestead Valley walk, followed by the Mini Palms Gorge; both from The Bloodwoods.  

The Mini Palms Gorge walk was my favourite in Purnululu National Park, and surprisingly we saw almost no one on this walk.  

We then drove to the Echidna and walked to and into Echidna Chasm – this was pretty cool – it looked like you had reached the end, only to find a narrow opening that went around boulders and up ladders to reach the true end.  The height of the walls on each side was amazing.  https://parks.dpaw.wa.gov.au/site/echidna-chasm

On our way back to the caravan park we stopped at Kungkalanyi Lookout – this gave a great view of a small part of the burnt out area of the park. I was so tired that I fell asleep in the car on the way back to the caravan park despite the very rough road.  When we got back to camp we did some sorting out and stocktaking in preparation for our departure and shop tomorrow (before tackling the Gibb River Road).

28 August - Bungle Bungle (Purnululu) National Park – walks of the Southern Section

28 August 2016 – 185 219

Bungle Bungle (Purnululu) National Park – walks of the Southern Section

This morning we drove from the Bungle Bungle Caravan Park to Purnululu National Park.
https://parks.dpaw.wa.gov.au/park/purnululu
This is 53km of challenging dirt road, this took a bit over an hour and a half.  We then signed into the National Park, even if you have a park pass you need to sign into each park each day in Western Australia; but you don’t need to sign out.  From the Visitor Information Centre we drove to the Southern Section of the park (27km more of rough dirt).  https://parks.dpaw.wa.gov.au/site/piccaninny-creek
We arrived just before 10am and set out on our walk.  We visited The Domes, which are like what I expected of the Bungle Bungles, individual domes of striped rock.  We then walked to Cathedral Gorge, which, even in this extreme dry, still had water in it.  This would be amazing to see (although far too dangerous on foot) with water flowing down the waterfall during the wet season.

We then continued to Piccaninny Creek Lookout and The Window which each gave different views of the Bungle Bungle Range. If you were stopping here, it is probably not worth the extra walk to The Window from Piccaninny Creek Lookout.  However, we continued on into the far end of Whip Snake Gorge – this was lovely and cool and quite pretty.  We enjoyed a picnic lunch in the cool shade.  We then headed out back to the carpark.  All up, this was 14.3km and took four hours.  This was an extremely exposed walk, in that we were walking on either bare sand or bare rock ninety percent of the time, with heat reflecting off the surrounding rock faces and no shade.  Despite the large quantities of water we were carrying, we had used all of it up and were keen to reach the car and have more to drink – lesson learnt and no harm done – take even more water if there is no protection from the sun, and it is worth getting up really early tomorrow.  When we got home we all enjoyed a shower – mine was somewhat interrupted as the power went out multiple times, resulting in the water stopping and each time I had to wrap my towel around me and go and find someone to turn it back on, of course this hadn’t started until the shampoo was in my hair!!  Eventually I ended up clean.  Alarm is set for an earlier start tomorrow as we plan another long walk.

27 August - Great Northern Highway

27 August 2016 – 184 770

Great Northern Highway

We woke early and packed up this morning.  We headed a little out of town to ORDCO for fuel, at 125.4 instead of 136.9.  Then we drove south to the Bungle Bungle Caravan Park and set up the van.   https://bunglebunglecaravanpark.com.au/
We had a quick lunch and then headed south almost to Halls Creek, where we visited Drew’s Aunt, Uncle and cousins.  Then an hour’s drive back to the caravan park and bed.  There are only 12 other van/tents in the Bungle Bungle Caravan Park tonight.

26 August - Mitchell Falls, Kalumburu and Kimberley Coastline

26 August 2016 – 184 770

Mitchell Falls, Kalumburu and Kimberley Coastline

This morning we got up early to be ready for a 6:30am pick up for a 7:00am flight. 
https://kingfishertours.com.au/project/wandjina-kimberley-coast/ 
After arriving at the airport we were all weighed, we were assigned to an eight seater small aircraft with our pilot “Sam”.  He briefed us on all the usual safety requirements and exactly where we would be going.  After take-off we headed over the Gibb River Road, seeing Emma Gorge, El Questro and Home Valley Stations before turning north-west across the Kimberley countryside.  We then circled in close to Mitchell Falls, which are still flowing despite what many people have told us.  This was enough to make most of us feel a bit sick on the plane.  We then headed out to the coastline and followed this to Kalumburu. We landed at Kalumburu; this was once a Catholic Mission but is now mainly an Aboriginal Community (about 400 people).  It is quite beautiful at Kalumburu.  We also visited some Hudson Bomber wreakage left over after WW2.  We took off again and followed the magnificent Kimberley coastline to the Cambridge Gulf and then the Ord River back to Kununurra.  This was an amazing flight.  We got back to the van about 4pm – very tired and very happy.  Hayden was very nervous on the first flight but enjoyed the second flight, overall we all enjoyed the day very much.  Such amazing views!!  And a swim to finish the day.