Tuesday 23 July 2013
El Questro
We arose this morning after a good night’s sleep by all. The
first item on the agenda was to head out to Zebedi Springs before 7am. This is
a thermal pool open from 7am to 12 noon. They are very popular and the car park
quickly fills as we have been told and they then close them off. The water
temperature sits at 28-30 degrees Celsius. We managed to drive out there and be
in position when the ranger opened the gates. The springs are smaller than I
envisaged and cannot cater for large numbers. We managed to find several small
pools up near the source and plonk ourselves down – in the early morning it was
just magic. The springs are set at the base of a cliff and run all year round.
There is a large stand of Livistona nasmophila palms, remnants of an earlier
age, many around 18m high. They are quite magnificent and seem to be thriving
in and around the springs. After we had a bathe for an hour or so we returned
back to camp and enjoyed a breakfast of cereal, fresh milk and banana.
We then decided to explore the area – the only way is by car
– so we headed out to the Chamberlain Gorge to locate the jetty where we will
undertake a boat cruise tomorrow afternoon. After we found it we decided to put
the Red Beast into 4 wheel drive and do some exploring. We crossed the
Chamberlain River on an extremely rocky river crossing – the Nissan experienced
a few whacks from large rocks with the sump guard working overtime. We managed
to climb a steep hill and found ourselves on top of Branco’s Lookout looking
down at both the Chamberlain and Pentecost rivers. We got a good view of the
homestead where guests pay 2500 dollars a night to maintain their privacy. We
then headed to Explosion Hole another gorge that was accessible by 4wd. Had to
use both high and low range to negotiate the track but the views at the end of
the 30 minute drive in were worth it.
El Questro Homestead
Pentacost River from Branco's Lookout
Pentacost River
We returned and had an enjoyable lunch of fresh bread, sweet
chilli tuna, tomatoes and cheese, followed up by our famous Stirling Oranges.
Still in good nick and as sweet as ever. A nice change from our normally
austere lunches. After lunch we did our own thing with Paul chaffing to do some
repairs to the trailer. He replaced the shackles on the underside of the
trailer and replaced and rewired the trailer plug that had effectively been
destroyed. Rob had a snooze and I decided to post a blog. I have accessed the
wifi here – quite expensive and very slow. I was successful with one post after
one hour of time but had lots of problems so thought I would now wait until we
were in Kununurra before I tried again.
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