An early start today for an organised tour of El Questro Gorge, Zebedee Springs and an afternoon river cruise on the Chamberlain River.

Our guide, Emma, takes our group of four by 4WD 30-minutes along gravel roads and water crossings to reach the start of the El Questro Gorge trail. It’s only 8.30am and pleasantly cool as we start the rough track through savannah woodland towards the start of the gorge.

Like much of the surrounding 1-million acres of this remote wilderness park, El Questro Gorge is comprised of King Leopald Sandstone, 1.8 billion years old and predating multicellular life. It is an extremely hard form of stone, which splits easily into square blocks before tumbling down into ravines, gorges and valleys. It is responsible for much of the layered hills and escarpments typical of the Kimberley.

Here, over tens of thousands of years, water has penetrated cracks in the rock creating the gorge and its micro climate shaded from much of the intense sun. It is full of life. Towering Livistona trees line the creek that flows from the gorge backed by bright orange sandstone cliffs. Ferns thrive in the shade and provide habitat for small lizards, insects and frogs. Harmless Golden Tree Snakes are common but recent sightings of the highly venomous Death Adder means keeping a close eye on where you place your feet.

Emma showed us the unusual trick played by Spear Grass during the wet season. Water causes the seed spikes to twist around and dig into the soil. It’s a peculiar sight to see a plant moving of its own accord. But then this is a country of extremes and diversity and it takes this type of unusual action to survive.

A little further on Emma reached for three stones hidden among tree roots by a pool. She had collected samples of ochre used by aborigines for rock art and ceremonial body paint. Orange, yellow and white ochre are rubbed against stone to produce a fine powder, mixed with water and painted directly onto rock or their skin. Charcoal is the final ingredient and is used to produce a deep black completing the four colours used in the aboriginal flag.

Deeper into the gorge we came to an abrupt stop where an enormous boulder had fallen reaching out to both sides of the gorge wall and blocking any further progress. A small waterfall fed the clear pool where we stopped to take a few photographs before heading back the way we came.

It is definitely a walk requiring suitable shoes or boots for clambering over rocks and boulders and a walking pole is recommended.

Morning Tea

A short drive takes us to a pleasant riverside rest area where a few brave people were having a swim and the less brave took to the riverbank fishing for barramundi. Beside us stands, if that is the correct word, an enormous boab tree hit by lightning during the last wet season, which literally blew it apart. Boab trees store a lot of water and the lightning strike would have instantly turned the water to steam ripping the tree apart from the inside out. What remains is a mass of fibrous sheets, each being similar to the rings of a tree. An unusual feature of the boat’s survival technique – just beneath the bark of a living boab is a layer of green cells used by the tree allowing it to photosynthesise meaning it isn’t entirely reliant on its leaves – a good thing following a bush fire.

Morning Tea today is apple or orange juice and a tasty slice of cake. Too hot for anything but a refreshing cold drink.

Zebedee Springs

Another drive takes us to a series of thermal pools known as Zebedee Springs. Normally open until just midday with the afternoon reserved for guests, such as ourselves, of El Questro. We arrived as people were starting to leave, which meant we will have the place to just the four of us. Perfect. Now I may finally be able to get a photograph without the crowds.

Just a short walk with a couple of boardwalk water crossings and we’re surrounded by palms, rocks and orange cliffs within a narrow gorge. It’s spectacular. This is the kind of scenery we were hoping to see and Western Australia has excelled. Some have likened this gorge to a place you would expect to see dinosaurs roaming about, they are not wrong.

Running through the gorge is pure, clear water. But this water sits between 28 and 32C. Rising from deep within the earth the water brings warmth and minerals along with it providing nutrients to the rich flora that flourishes here. Much as I am apposed to using beautiful places like this to swim, at least the numbers are controlled and it isn’t a National Park.

Lunch Time

The day was still not over and Emma was driving us back to our camp for our lunch of grilled barramundi and beef, included in the full day’s tour. We were joined by a very tame, and probably very well rehearsed, visit by a Kookaburra happy to pose for photographs.

The afternoon adventure was another drive but this time over to the Chamberlain River. Now we were starting to see the true extent of this property with countless group campgrounds leading from the dirt road into the bush. Our driver and guide, Silvia, took us to the jetty where we boarded our cruise boat and set-off down the river.

Before long we had spotted a rock wallaby well disguised on a ledge in the cliff and then a freshwater crocodile basking in the sun. There was plenty of life in the water too, as we later found out, and not what you would expect.

Attack of the Archers

At the midway point of the cruise where are path is blocked by rocks pushed downstream during the wet season, we stopped and were quickly surrounded by many species of fish. Large catfish, seven spotted archer fish and barramundi hiding somewhere just out of sight. Vinnie, our skipper, handed out fish food and suggested holding it over the water. Was he expecting the fish to jump out of the water or was he getting us to lose a limb to a crocodile?

All of a sudden spouts of water were shooting out of the water and all over us. These were archer fish and they had learnt to shoot a jet of water at insects hanging on to tree branches and knock them in to the water. They have an amazingly accurate aim even allowing for the diffraction of vision through water. It had everyone on the boat laughing as we continued to get wet, though that may have been helped by the sparkling wine!

As we made our way back our eyes were searching for more creatures and a bottle of bubbly was on offer for the first find – or $5 donation to the Royal Flying Doctor if it was the same animal we had spotted before.

Another great tour and a great introduction to the Kimberley. Again highly recommended. More details available at www.elquestro.com.au