It’s not all bad! I may have painted the wrong picture – we’ve seen some great stuff on this huge property, just a drop in the ocean of the Kimberley.
First, we went to El Questro Gorge – about 15min drive, a couple of creek crossings and then about 30min walk. You go from hot pounding sun, surrounded by long dry grass and sparse shade from scattered trees, to a palm filled gorge, walking along a dry river bed, that soon has pools that get bigger and bigger till you reach an oasis of crystal clear water and the temperature has gradually dropped to about 25 degrees. You would never think such a place could be hidden here.

There’s some rough tracks to explore by 4WD. We went past this great Boab (below), inscribed by the Duracks. It’s just at the entry to the Posh House.

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Arriving at the well-known El Questro Station was rather a shock. I’m not talking about the posh homestead perched on the cliff top for a couple of grand a night. Just the spin off venture that caters for the mass market – ranging from fly-in-fly-out guests who stay in stone bungalows with ensuite bathrooms, to day trippers from Kununurra (it’s only about 100km away), to campers like us towing our house around who have been on the road for anything from a week to months – we camp under the shade of the huge old trees on the banks of the Pentecost River. There’s the shop, the bar, the restaurant, the stables, fuel and gas for sale, and reception – where you can book any manner of guided tour/river cruise/horseback ride/station tour. You name it, you can pay for it. We had read that you can take your own canoe up the Chamberlain Gorge, but that has changed and you can only rent the El Questro boats with a motor (minimum 3 hours). We felt a bit like a sausage in a machine. It’s private property so the National Parks Pass doesn’t help here – you get to buy the El Quetsro pass.
One thing that really stood out was the absence of the Grey Nomads. The other guests were mostly families, Europeans or tour groups. Maybe they just stay on the bitumen.

Excepting the community of Kalumburu, Wyndham is WA’s most northern town with a history of early explorers, the cattle industry, and a meatworks constructed in 1919, which closed in 1986. It’s not on the way to anywhere, and 100km from Kununurra. Although it still has a busy wharf area and the usual crocodile farm attraction for the tourists, there’s not too much else to keep you here. They got commercial television in 1985!
After an accident whilst working on Drysdale River Station in 1989, John flew to Wyndham with the Flying Doctor and spent a week here at the hospital. An entire week. Now that would be challenging. I also passed through on my way to visit him in the Kimberley. I took the mail plane to Kalumburu, stopping at station homesteads on the way. I see this flight is now a well promoted tourist activity for $400!
I think Wyndham’s biggest drawcard is the fantastic Five Rivers Lookout. Guess how many rivers you can see from it? The Pentecost, King, Forrest, Durack and the Ord all join into the Cambridge Gulf here. Unfortunately the smoke haze was quite thick from local fires, so the extent of the view was reduced.

We moved on, heading south towards the Gibb River Road. We stopped for a swim to cool off at The Grotto. This is a permanent pool, said to be 120m deep! No-one reached the bottom jumping from the rope. And I’m glad about that!

You can just see Harry about to launch a jump from the rope.

Everything seems a little plain after Purnululu, but we’re soldiering on anyway. We came back north on the Great Northern Highway, (heading the right way this time) to restock the larder, the fuel tank and the gas bottle (which didn’t really need to be refilled just yet).
We have taken the back road to Wyndham, just because we can, and are camped on the Ord River where we caught no fish. Again. And another camper taught Harry learnt to crack a whip.

As I type this, it’s 8.30pm, dark, still, about 20 degrees, and I can hear all manner of splashes coming from the river. Could be fish, birds, crocs – or all of them. At least there’s some other campers between us and the water if it’s crocs. There are NO MOSQUITOES, but there’s a billion stars up there.

From Echidna Chasm we drove the short distance to visit Mini Palms. This is a 4.5km walk into a gorge where the Livistona palm has its own nursery of juvenile palms.
The walk in is along the creek bed, over river stones and has some rather tights passages through huge boulders that have fallen from the gorge sides. We called it the fatty boomba test. Luckily I passed.

The walk continues up the creek bed over river stones – perfect for twisting an ankle. Of course, the ranger has warning signs of the many, endless risks of walking up the gorge. Nonetheless, it was a great walk.

Ferg and Harry took these very picturesque photos of the many Livistona palms below.

It’s been a long day, and as we emerged from the gorge, the sun was setting on the red walls that towered above us. This time we were close up to the colour, and it lit up our faces as we stared at the evening show.

What a day! Our total for walks came up to 19.5km and as it was nearly all flat walking, my knees coped rather well. Just don’t ask me to walk up, and then down, for 19.5km!
We all loved this place. We have been lucky to make the trip here, and maybe we’ll get back one day to feel the magic again.