The Gibb River Road
Well, we didn’t make it far on the Gibb and definitely didn’t make it to the gravel section before we were stopping. The first stop on the Gibb was Emma Gorge, part of El Questro Station. We did the short hike from the Resort to the gorge. It was a stunning gorge, one of the best we’ve seen and a beautiful swim.
We hiked back to the car park which was pretty hot so we decided to break into the resorts pool for a dip before moving on.
We were staying at El Questro station for the next 5 nights. The station was about a fifty minute drive from the resort so we headed there before parking up at our private river side camp spot. Unfortunately we couldn’t swim in the water despite the heat due to the possibility of saltwater crocodiles.
The next day we did the El Questro Gorge hike. This hike was hands down the best hike we have down around Australia. We hiked up the lush gorge, next to the crystal clear creek to the halfway pool. This beautiful clear pool was the stopping point for many people, but for those able, the hike kept going but stepped up a notch in difficulty. To pass the halfway pool, you need to swim your bags and shoes across and then rock climb above the pool. The hike from here became very interactive with boulder scrambling and climbing up waterfalls. We were rewarded at the end of the hike with another crystal clear waterfall fed pool. We spent a long time here and then slowly made our way back, dipping in the creek as we went. It was such a fun and fantastic hike which we followed up with a beer at the pub!
Each day we did a different hike at El Questro while it was cool in the morning before heading to the pub in the afternoon for a beer, and going back to camp in the evening. The days and nights while we were here were very hot and the bush aircon (spray bottle filled with water) was getting a workout.
We had a stunning sunset at Pigeon Hole lookout and spotted a massive freshwater crocodile!
On our last day, Hannah and Joe had day tripped from their accom at Lake Argyle to join us. We redid the Emma Gorge and the El Questro Gorge with them and they loved it as much as we did.
Soon our time at El Questro was done. We absolutely loved it here and I think this is the longest we’ve stayed somewhere on the lap!
We continued west, crossing the famous Pentecost River to our free camp for the night, a beautiful spot on top of the Durack River. Rein had a bit of a fish, but once again no luck.
In the morning we headed to Ellenbrae station to get some of their famous scones and then by lunch we were at Mt Elizabeth station. We had a delicious pie filled with meat from the station for lunch, and we picked up a bunch of other beef products made from station cattle for the freezer too. Coming out of Mt Elizabeth we noticed that we had a flat tyre on the rear! We pulled over and found a very sharp rock had pierced the tyre and made a puncture hole. Our rear tyres were getting toward the end of their life anyways so we weren’t too surprised. We did a roadside puncture repair then hit the road again.
Our camp for the night was at Manning camp. It had a beautiful swimming spot right at camp which was perfect!
We noticed the tyre was still leaking a little bit so we took it off so we could access it better and redid the puncture repair.
The next day we hiked to manning gorge, which required us to swim across a river to get to the start of the hike. We gorge was awesome which some cool jumping platforms.
We moved on and swam at Galvins Gorge (which might be my favourite spot, clear water under a boab tree plus a rope swing!). After that we headed to Adcock gorge but we didn’t swim as it looked pretty stagnant and we saw a freshwater croc.
Our camp for the night was at an indigenous community and the next day we headed for Bell Gorge. It was another hike to another lovely swimming hole though we decided that we were starting to get gorged out and these beautiful swimming holes were all starting to blend together and lose their wow factor.
Next we headed to Mt Hart Station. This wasn’t part of the original plan but we got chatting to another traveller who said it was good. It was quite the trek to get there but we were surprised by how fancy it was when we did get there! Camping was expensive but they offered free laundry so that was a bonus I guess. There was a swimming hole right at the campground and the next day we headed to one of the gorges on the property. We didn’t walk the full way though as Rein had hurt his ankle so we only walked far enough to take a dip in the river before moving on.
It was a long drive to the next destination, Tunnel Creek. Tunnel creek is a 2km hike through a tube cave that requires wading through water and BYO torch. Oh, and there are freshwater and saltwater crocs in the cave……
We saw some sick rock art on our way in and then scrambled into the cave. It was an epic cave with water flowing through it, bats, fossils in the walls and yep, crocs. We ended up seeing 3 small crocs in the cave, all less than a metre and all tucked away from the main walking section. Still it made wading in the thigh deep water very scary. Least their eyes glow in the dark with a torch making them easy to spot. The water was also filled with fish and cherubin. Overall a very sick hike!
Next we headed to Windjana Gorge. There was definitely no swimming here as there were big freshwater and saltwater crocodiles. We ended up seeing five crocs on our walk.
After tunnel creek and Windjana, the rest of the Gibb to Derby is sealed thank god. While it wasn’t as bad as people make it out to seem, the noise and shaking definitely wears you down after a while.
We enjoyed our time on the Gibb but we are feeling very gorged out. Next stop is to check out Derby before heading up to the Dampier Peninsula.
