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

We bought our Land Rover Discovery 5 for its ability to go off-road and to tow our Jayco Silverline Outback caravan. Today was the first time we put the combination to test on the gravel access road that leads from the notorious Gibb River Road to El Questro where we’re staying for the next three nights.

Now for those not familiar with the Kimberley and northern WA in general, this region of the country is often referred to as Australia’s last great wilderness and it has the remoteness and dirt roads to prove it. Our drive into El Questro was supposed to be on a relatively good road but here ‘good’ should be used only as a comparison to very bad roads. Severely rutted enough to shake fillings loose and scramble eggs, the road contained just as many loose rocks as a landslide.

Where’s the Grader?

According to a sign at the start of the 14KM track the road was in the process of being graded to flatten out the ruts. I can only assume the grader was taking a holiday elsewhere. But this car and caravan were designed to handle this kind of torture even if we, with our ageing backs, were not. Then added in to the mix were the inconsiderate drivers going in the opposite direction as fast as they could creating clouds of dust that forced us to slow even further until we were able to see again. The challenge of cornering on a loose surface with a large vehicle in tow was soon mastered and then came the first of two water crossings.

Water Crossings

Some person we had met earlier had advised us that the crossings were dry. Clearly they had been nowhere near here. It hadn’t rained for months but there was certainly a lot of water and loose, hidden boulders in the first crossing. Still, no problem, we have a high clearance caravan with independent suspension and a 4WD car that can handle a wading depth of 900mm. So, into 4-wheel drive, high clearance and auto traction control and off we went with ease until halfway across… and we stopped. For some reason the auto mode decided we were going downhill and switched to hill decent control. Never a good think to stop in water, I quickly switched to manual control, rock and gravel mode and off we went  again for the remainder of the crossing and up the ramp back onto dry land.

More rough road, more inconsiderate drivers and then the final water crossing. This one three times longer and looking twice as deep. In we went, still in the same 4WD mode and an oncoming driver decided he was going first. Eventually he realised he was in the wrong and backed-up, something we could not have done and the crossing was wide enough only for one vehicle. With a small wave in front and to the side of us and the sound of rushing water coming up the doors, we sailed through without issue and up the bank onto the final stretch of road into El Questro and the Black Cockatoo Camp Ground.

The car and caravan had proven their worth easily handling the challenging conditions even if they were both now coated in a layer of grey dust and about to get a covering of red dust at the camp.

El Questro is an enormous property covering 1-million acres and home to many outstanding natural features, gorges, rivers, fauna and flora – the very reason for our visit and the effort it took to get here.

Tonight is pizza night at the outdoor camp restaurant and after a beer or two, the rest of the day is set aside to relax and rest our aching joints ready for the adventures that lay ahead.

Three times the size of the UK and with a population less than 40,000, the Kimberley in Western Australia is one of the oldest regions on earth.

We’re staying at the edge of Lake Argyle, an enormous man-made reservoir, in the northeast of the Kimberley.

The Lake Argyle Resort sits just above the lake giving views across the water to many of the lake’s islands, bluffs and sandstone hills, which light up at sunset and sunrise. Just how many campsites can provide a view like this in such an unspoilt and remote location?

There are plenty of things to do here for the adventurous and those who prefer to relax by the infinity pool soaking up the sun. Walking trails, 4WD-adventures, helicopter flights, boating, fishing…

Bush Walks

What better way to start exploring our new location than a bush walk to a viewpoint high above Lake Argyle.

Our walk starts directly opposite the campsite and follows a steep, winding path up the escarpment. Tall, dry grasses line the rocky path with sparse trees and shrubs baking in the heat from the sun. It all feels as if one small spark could set the entire escarpment off in a raging blaze.

The effort of the climb is rewarded, though, with magnificent views of the lake and its islands as well as the view back along the Ord River as it flows towards the town of Kununurra. Clumps of bright green grasses dot the hillsides providing contrast to the ancient orange sandstone. And at the head of the river is the Lake Argyle Dam wall. Not huge in the grand scheme of things but impressive in the volume of water the wall is holding back.

To gain a better view of the dam I dropped down from our viewpoint and followed the road down to a lookout just above the dam’s wall and hydro station. From here you get a better view of just how steep the dam walls are and it’s method of construction comprised almost entirely of loose rock and boulders with a compressed core of clay. It’s loose construction was designed to be flexible enough to cope with earthquakes, common in this region of Australia, something that a concrete dam is more prone too. It is especially important in this case as it sits right on top of a fault line and an earthquake in 2016 proved its worth with no damage recorded.

Since construction was completed in 1971 the 98-metre high wall has dropped just 4.5-centimetres due entirely to natural settlement.

Just two-years following completion, heavy rains in the wet season filled the dam to flood level with water pouring from the emergency spillways. They continued to flow through to 1984. In 1996, following concerns of sediment reducing the dam capacity, the spillways were raised by 6-metres doubling the capacity of the lake and plans are in place to increase the level yet further.

Sunset Cruise

Our main trip today, though, was a sunset cruise on the lake, something we had both been looking forward to. Starting from the campsite car park, a coach takes you down and across the dam with a guide explaining the history of the construction project and the attempts at farming in the area. Surprisingly the hydro station was not added until the early 1990’s, 20-years after the dam was completed though provision had been made for it during the original construction.

Our cruise aboard the Kimberley Durack took us from Bamboo Creek southwards to an area popular with swimmers. Immediately behind their moored boats was some of Australia’s oldest know rock approximately 1.5-billion years old. That is long before any known life form existed on the planet. The cruise then continued around the headland towards crocodile bay, named after, not surprisingly, one of its many inhabitants.

Crocodiles

The lake is home to somewhere in excess of 35,000 freshwater crocodiles. It seems an excessive number, calculated at night using torches to pick out the reflection of their eyes, but this is a lake of excessive proportions. Measuring 703-square kilometres (271-square miles) and a catchment area forty-six times larger, the lake holds 10,763-billion litres of fresh water. That is the equivalent of 2.5 cubic miles with an outflow capable of supplying the entire country’s annual water needs every 3.5-hours.

And not surprisingly, sat sunning themselves in the bay, were several freshwater crocodiles. They are timid creatures with a narrow snout designed to catch fish and pose little threat to people. Our cruise guide, Grant, pointed out that they don’t believe any estuarine (saltwater) crocodiles exist in the lake based mainly on the distance of the inflowing rivers from the sea to the north. But with that volume of water who knows?

The cruise then took us past a distant view of the opencast Argyle diamond mine and towards the lake’s largest island where several unique and well camouflaged wallaroos gathered on the shoreline to feed. One female was carrying a young Joey in her pouch but was quite happy with our presence as we all gathered to take photographs.

Further into the lake and the scale really started to show. Right in the very distance were rocks at the eastern edge of the lake – over 20KM away, and that was just one small section of the most northerly region of the lake.

With the sun getting lower in the sky, the cruise moved on to a clear area of the lake where everyone was free to jump in and swim or just float around with a pair of noodles and a glass of wine or stubby of beer in their hands. Below them was 23-metres of clear, mostly crocodile free, water.

Catherine enjoyed a dip where the water was a little warmer than expected but still ‘cool’. As for me, I kept a lookout and helped supply those less wary with drinks and nibbles.

Setting Sun

Finally we started to head back as the sun faded behind the hills and put on a light show worthy of any we’ve seen to date. All we needed were a few more clouds to add colour to the sky, but those, as we’ve found over the last two months, are quite a rarity during the dry season.

It was another great trip and highly recommended. Just remember to bring along your swimmers, thongs, suncream and a can of crocodile repellent spray.

More details at: www.lakeargyle.com-cruises-tours-activities