Introduction
The Gibb River road was the longest stretch of camping we have done on the trip so far and covered many gorges, waterfalls, swimming holes and some wonderful natural and amazing locations. This is the first in a series of 3 blogs on this part of the trip that I wrote on the road but with no phone or internet at the time, I will publish over the next few days ☺
Today we began our 2 1/2 weeks exploring the Gibb River road with the first stop, 3 nights in El Questro.
It feels a little bit like a holiday park with a restaurant, shop and live music at night, but along with all that is the howl of dingos, kangaroos crossing the tracks and remote 4wd tracks and walks, reminding me this is a wildnerness meca. Spent the afternoon swimming in the river, scanning for crocs, nibbled by a few fish. Very cooling and pretty relaxing. A nacho feast for dinner with our own ‘happy hour’ glass of wine.
Next day was spent exploring some of the many 4wd tracks including Pigeon Hole lookout, billabong and the fabulous views from Brancos lookout. Lots of rocky tracks including a long rocky river crossing. Another river swim at our local swimming spot and a relaxing afternoon reading and soaking up the sun.
Visited some more swimming spots today, including an early visit to Zebedee hot springs followed by Jackaroo waterhole and Moonshine Gorge, then returned for a final swim in our local waterhole, even saw a small river snake.
Then an afternoon cruise in Chamberlain Gorge with champagne and orange and spitting fish a drink at happy hour and listening to a local musician before calling it a day.
Did the famous Pentacost river crossing on the way out of El Questro and stopped at a lookout for some pics. Arrived at Ellenbrae Station, our camp for 1 night, around lunchtime. After one of their famous scones we setup camp and headed down to their local river swimming hole for a cooloff. Got talking to a few other campers and got some track info and tips about some of the next leg of the trip. Helpful to be prepared and get some recent info. Lots of bugs but a nice campsite and hoping for another serve of scones tomorrow 🙂
Reached our next stop at Drysdale Station around lunchtime and after a sandwich and hot chips for lunch setup camp. My priority was then a nice long warm shower followed by a lemonade as we watch other campers arrive and setup a round us.
Now theres a first, literally locked in the loo when the lock broke. After getting some attention tried unscrewing the lock with a screwdriver someone passed me but couldnt free the lock, so some kind person kicked the door down for me!
Seems like a good place to finish part 1 of this adventure. Stay tuned for part 2!
Learning to write a novel 