El Questro Station 26-29 July

El Questro Bush Campsite

Our private riverside camp 8.3km from the ElQuestro Station was where we are spending  a relaxing 4 nights.  Camp is on the freshwater side of Pentacost River with plenty of timber for fires.  Our camp had shallow rapids so we risked lying in the water but keep a weary eye out for Salties as per warnings of their inhabitant from staff and signs. (Campsite cost $56 per night for 2)

Pentacost River Beside Camp - Living
on the Edge.

The days temperatures reach the mid 30’s with low humidity which makes it quite pleasant.  We can’t sit still for long and so were off daily exploring the countryside.  At ElQuestro you are required to pay a once off $20 each on top of your camping fees to gain access to the parks many gorges and tracks.  We can highly recommend Zebedee Springs, Emma Gorge, ElQuestro Gorge and the 4wd track up to Saddleback Ridge.  Each gorge is not only picturesque but provides a refreshing safe place to swim.

Zebedee Springs



 

El Questro Gorge - one of the
swimming holes along the way






El Questro Gorge the track- Have to climb up it
and back down

Day 3 we spent 4wding the Karunjie Track, starting at the Pentacost River Crossing on the Gibb River Rd that takes you to Wyndham.  We continued the back way from Wyndham to Kununurra to collect supplies for our fishing journey to Kalumburu.  We have 16 days ahead without much access to any essentials and from experience, supplies are very limited and prices are prohibitive the futher you travel from major centres.


Boab

We never tire of looking at the magnificent Boab Trees that the Kimberley’s are renowned for.  They seem to be trying to express a personality of their own.


Prison Boab - Wyndham


If looking for fuel Wyndham was the cheapest at $150.0, Kununurra $159.9 and we will top up our tank on way out tomorrow at ElQuestro Station before leaving for $2 per ltr.  Always the question of gas as well, do you take the risk in half a bottle or refill?  We refilled at ElQuestro a 9kg bottle for $42.50


Emma Gorge



A little story for our last night at ElQuestro.   Realising we had not yet taken the powerful Croc spotting handheld HID light down to the river off we went.  Now remember this is the spot in the photo with Donna laughing as we have been joking laying around in the shallows thinking we are safe as Crocs don’t like rocks or so they say.   We see two tiny red eyes right in our bathing spot and keep shining the light trying to convince ourselves they are Crocodile eyes.  Next thing a real Croc from where those eyes were, launches off the rocks and splashes into the water with great gusto and heads straight toward us, a ripple in the water.  Mesmerised we are still laughing and saying  ‘Wow look it is a Croc’ when suddenly it emerges from the water towards us mouth wide open!!!  Well, armed with only with a flashlight and without DLM (more about that later) it was lucky to be 1 metre long, however it may as well have been 6 metres, cause we SHIT ourselves.  Brave Croc spotters we are, we bolt back towards the light of the campfire.  Donna in front ahead squealing like a stuffed pig,  running through long grass no light and in her thongs.  Obviously the ‘Ice’ epidemic has spilled over into the Kimberley Salt Water Crocodiles and we have had first hand experience of it.   Someone please call Tony!

  





Mataranka 23-24 July

Arrived at Mataranka and headed for the Elsey National Park camping area.  I thought I had researched the park well and was looking for the spots to camp on the river.  However, as nice as the campground was with large shaded sites, there was no riverside camping.  Determined to find water I was back on the internet again and found the riverside camping was at Bitter Springs Cabin and Camping.  There is only 3 sites on the river all unpowered and were lucky to get the last one.  A difficult small site to set up on but just right for a camper like Alice.



Camping at Bitter Springs Cabins and Camping

The bonus of this camp was the easy 500mtrs walk to the Bitter Springs Hot pools.




   Trying out the new Go-Pro whilst protecting contact lenses

Bitter Springs





The Springs a constant 33 degrees all year round and very busy all day long.   Whilst lots of people floated down on their noodles, we were having too much fun trying to stay afloat and work out the Go-Pro. 





Brisbane to Mataranka

Day 2 - Monday 20th July 2015

We stopped at Barcaldine at the Lloyd Jones Weir for the night at a recommendation off Wiki Camps. The area was very clean including the flushing toilets, felt safe and enough room for all the Grey Nomads, their generators and dogs.  All considerate and friendly but this is not really our idea of bush camping.

Stopping for a coffee break

Lloyd Jones Weir - Barcaldine

Day 3 - Tuesday 21st July 2015

A early start with a pack up in the dark and on the road before dawn breaks.   Another long day driving we are putting in another 800+ km today. We have travelled these roads many times before so the idea is to get to Mataranka by just driving with overnight stops and then rest for a few days.   Our stop tonight is more to our normal routine, being completely on our own, enjoying a glass of wine while cooking on a fire and having the privacy to pull out the shower on the camper, and put on some clean clothes.

Day 4 - Wednesday 22nd July 2015

Driving around Australia means long hours spent in the car.  I am very fortunate that I don't get car sick and enjoy reading aloud.  I get right into character and narrate novels with different voices.   I have read literally hundreds of novels aloud whilst driving, right back to when the boys were little which helped keep them entertained.  I have just started a new novel 'A Man you Can Bank On -  by Derek Hanson'.  Set in outback Australia a fiction crime comedy, it is early days yet but as Gene said it has set the tone for some rollicking fun. 

 

Banka Banka Station - NT

In search of Crocs Rocks and Great Fishing Spots

See ya Later Bitches

Gene and Donna welcome you to our holiday.  We are heading off for a seven week holiday from Brisbane to the Kimberley's WA.  This is the 2nd time we will have the privilege of visiting the Kimberley region with our first visit being in 2009 with our then 16 and 12 year old boys Adam and Fraser.  We plan to revisit some places and explore new ones as we have found no place is ever the same twice and experiences are always different.

Let me take you back to the year 2009 when we fished at Home Valley Station, Kimberley WA.  The locals in good humor asked if we were fishing for bait as we cast our 12 pound line with number 2 hooks.  Slightly embarrassed and determined to have a fishing holiday as that was what the Kimberleys is renowned for, we drove into Wyndham and purchased a cast net, 100 pound line, with massive hooks and sinkers. We laughed all the way back to camp thinking we had just wasted a couple hundred dollars.

86cm Barramundi - Home Valley Station
Pentacost River and Cockburn Range in background

2009 Adam - Threadfin Salmon

This was the best money we spent that year, learning how to cast net on the Pentacost River inhabited by very large Crocodiles, we caught 3 pop eye mullet and using this live bait had a strike rate of 3/3 catching our 1st Barramundi, Threadfin Salmon and Mulloway.  We learnt many a new skill with fishing that year and each part of the Kimberley's we found offered a different fishing experience.  We tried lures on the King Edward River in Kulumburu where we spent 2 hours catching and releasing fish after fish. Our family holiday in 2009 was all land based fishing and we came home promising to return one day with a tinny.             And so the time has come.....

2009 Donna - Barracuda from King Edward River.

2009 Fraser - Mulloway