Twinning Around Australia: My Shangri-la - El Questro 11- 14 September

Once upon a time, before marriage, before kids, when David and I were just starting our journey together we embarked on an adventure to the Northern Territory. During our time here we met a family travelling around Australia. I asked the kids what they had like best, without hesitation they replied El Questro. I didn’t know what El Questro was but it sounded cool. Later I looked it up on the net – El Questro looked cool as well, but it was a very very long way away from our lives. Until this day, the day we left Kununurra and made our way to El Questro. Was it as good as the kids had said some 11 years earlier – YEEEEESSSSSSS and more so!

What is El Questro

El Questro is not a national or state park, it is a private working property which has been developed into a wilderness park. El Questro has sensational scenery, 4WD tracks, stunning gorges and walks and a range of activities including horse riding and scenic flights. There is a really wide range of accommodation options starting from camping and caravan sites extending through to the very ritzy end of the market (definitely not where we stayed). But anyone who comes here can experience the natural attractions that EL Q offers and these took our breath away.

Horseriding for kids by Mr C

I was so excited walking to the stables, I can’t wait to go for a horseride. When we get to the stables I find out I have a brown horse with white on its nose and its name was Rambler. I was first to get on my horse, it was a long way down to the ground but I was okay with it. Then I had to take the horse to the water trough. It was harder than I thought, Rambler did refuse a little bit. So he kept trying to eat the grass on the way there. After he had a drink, we lead them off out the gate. We went the long way through the park to our caravan, it was very fun. From our caravan we had to ride the horses back through another paddock to the stables. Rambler did stop and do a wee on the way. Back at the stables we got off our horses. Then we had to wash our horses. We lead the horse to the wash down and kept our horses there while Lauren washed them down. We got a bit wet as well.

The best thing was when I hopped on, well it was pretty fun how I could hop on and hold the reins and steer the horse. I liked it so much I want to get a horse for my own, but mum and dad don’t agree with me. They think the backyard is tooooo small.

4 Wheel Driving with great rewards

EL Q has a range of 4WD tracks and we tackled a number of these. These were fun drives and took us to amazing views – although we did have our first (but not our last) issue with the Pajero accumulating in our first flat. Our 4WD drives took us to Explosion Gorge and Branko’s Lookout with our most challenging river crossing yet.

Exploding at Explosion Gorge

From Branko’s Lookout you can see across the Chamberlain River (the one with the interesting crossing) and off to the homestead – the place we weren’t staying.

Not us but that is what we did

We returned to EL Q and tried the first of the two swimming holes at the campground. The kids were rewarded with finding other kids from a family undertaking an epic journey like ourselves – we have really enjoyed the number of families we have met in both NT and now the Kimberly.

El Questro Gorge

The next day we tackled some of El Q’s gorges. The first was El Questro Gorge and what an amazing walk and swim we had. We only managed the halfway pool, you can go on further, but halfway was fine for us especially as we are now walking in up to 40 degree temperatures. EL Q has an amazing diversity, red Kimberly cliffs and rocks, dry savannah country and then pockets of palms and ferns and green that take your breath away. Whilst the pool here might look small near the small water fall it was over our heads and at one point we were sharing this area with four other families, they nicely left so we could take our photos.

In the afternoon we tried to go to Moonshine Gorge – but instead we ended up helping to rescue a couple who had become bogged in the sand on a creek crossing. Mr L was very impressed with this because it was like the time in his favorite book ‘Are we there yet’ where the family gets bogged and needed to be rescued. Once we had done our good deed we turned back to our car to realise we had a flat – we limped back to EL Q to change our tyre and spent the rest of the day in the other swimming hole there. We did get back to Moonshine the next day but whilst it was beautiful, the water wasn’t running so we didn’t swim.

Zebedee Springs and the drop dead gorgeous Emma Gorge

We started our day with a visit to the thermal Zebedee Springs. The water here is lovely and warm, but not too hot. We had heard that in peak season this place is packed which was supported by the sign in the carpark which read if the car park is full, so are the springs try again later. However, the advantage of being off the peak is that the car park was not full. The walk in is easy and short and we basked for some time before summoning up the effort to leave.

Next we went further afield to Emma Gorge. We had high expectations as this is one of the most photographed gorges up in this part of the Kimberly. The walk in was long and very very hot. It was again over 40 degrees and the track required considerable clambering over large creek boulders which of course were radiating baking heat. Eventually we had to stop and fill our hats with water and empty them over our heads – what an improvement. However, every step, every bead of sweat was worth it when we arrived – Emma Gorge was truly amazing and for me this was one of the most amazing swims I have ever had in my life (and as many of you know I do like a bit of swimming). The water was cool, in fact chilly, but on the side of this large gorge was a thermal spring where the kids hung out. By the time we left the walk was much more shaded and easy going and the colours on the red kimberly cliffs amazing. Emma Gorge truly was one of the most amazing sights we have seen in our lives – we are soooo glad we made the effort to get to this remote part of Australia.