You Shall Not Pass!

 

Wednesday 9 June 2021 – You shall not pass!

A bit of a leisurely start to the morning with bacon and egg wraps for brekkie.  The wraps were purchased for L’s Holland Track trip and, having not been used then, were frozen for this trip.  Maybe they were a bit stale before being frozen but they didn’t defrost well plus the bacon had to be cooked from frozen as we, once again, hadn’t planned ahead.  Anyway, not the best wraps ever but still okay and better than spending $22 per El Questro brekky burger!!

We decided we would brave the water crossing out to El Questro Gorge.   Even though the girl checking us in and warned us against it, telling us the water would be up over the bonnet, Karen and Jamie had done it a couple of weeks earlier and had said it was doable so we decided to give it a go.  Well it was deep but only one little dip where we might have been glad of our snorkel and we were glad we did as El Questro Gorge is just so lovely.

You walk up the gorge with the little tinkly creek running through it with lush green palms and foliage all around and the sun hitting the red cliffs above.  We took our time walking and stopped numerous times to take photos.  The danger with this kind of walk is you get so busy looking at where you next step should be amongst the rocky boulders and mud that you forget to look up and around at your surrounds so we made sure to take regular breaks.  Numerous people charged past us – as usual more intent on the destination than the journey although I made one family group stop and took a photo of them so at least they will have some idea of the surrounds of their journey.

For my niece Louise who asked me what is a good age to bring kids on this kind of trip, I now have a definitive answer for you.  The above family had three kids and the youngest was 5 and happy to hike the whole thing without being carried (except across the waist deep water crossing).  They had purchased him his own kid sized back pack/camel back so he was carrying his own water (and could take sips whenever he wanted), his own lunch and his own kid sized towel.  The dad said it was great because he wasn’t constantly whingeing about being thirsty and they didn’t have to carry all the water, food and towels for the kids!

About halfway up the track I admired an older bloke’s big walking stick and he very generously handed it over as he thought the worst of the track was behind him.  It was great as it gives you something sturdy to hold on to while negotiating rocking stepping stones back and forth across the creek.  Plus I had a sturdy staff to ward off any Balrogs that might leap out on the path ahead of me!  Larry refused to let me keep it however, as it is just a bit long, so I may have to investigate purchasing a retractable walking stick in Kununurra as it was great for this kind of walk.

We walked as far as the half way pool and were happy to have a  swim there and watch the little fish hiding under the cliff ledge.  Unfortunately the Go-Pro battery decided to die at this point so we couldn’t get any underwater shots of them.  They were pretty elusive as there were lots of people splashing waist deep through the water to continue the walk up to the final pool.  We were happy to meander back down the gorge as the sun was up a bit higher and shining into the gorge so it would have become quite a hot hike had we kept going.  I left the walking stick at the start of the path for the next intrepid traveller and we started back to camp.  Stopped to pick up a nice mother and son whom we had met earlier on the path and were in the process of hiking back to their hire car on the other side of the water crossing so we ferried them across and then went back to camp for showers and a late lunch up at the Station as our lunch supplies are starting to dwindle.

In the afternoon we hopped back in the trusty Jeep and drove across the rocky Chamberlain River crossing  and up to Branco’s lookout.  It really is a fabulous view and Larry pointed out all his old fishing spots from the 1980’s which are now inaccessible due to big crocs having taken up residence.  It was getting on for 4pm and we didn’t want to negotiate the steep descent just as the El Questro tour bus was heading up for its tour (which ends up with sunset drinks at the top of Branco’s)  and then headed off to a place we haven’t been before – Pigeon Hole Look out.  Another steep climb but in a relatively straight line so not as hair raising as Branco’s which hairpins up a steeper hill.

                                

                                

We stayed at Pigeon Hole Lookout until the sun went over the hills with quite a few other groups who spent more time trying to spot a croc lying on a rock in the bottom of the gorge than admiring the view or the sunset.  We drove back to camp in that purply twilight and the dust hanging over the road made it all quite mystical.

We cooked up garlicky chicken parcels and small diced up roasted potatoes for dinner – our version of chicken and chips!