Glamping at El Questro

Accommodation for the next 3 nights

Leaving the caravan at my brother's we headed bush for 3 nights glamping at El Questro Station. Located in the East Kimberley, El Questro is 700,000 acres of vast and stunningly beautiful terrain. This diverse landscape extends 80 kilometres north to south and 60 kilometres east to west and is mostly unexplored.

Dust and stunningly beautiful gorges. What a combination. Throw in the Pentecost River meandering through and you get an amazing place. Did I mention the dust. Here the birds fly backwards to keep it out of their eyes.

Native to the Kimberly - The Boab

First day on the way to El Questro - Zebedee Springs

Short video of the water crossing to get to EL Questro Gorge - The deepest we have done to date, just under a metre and 100 metres long. Snorkel equipped 4x4 vehicles only. Check out Leonie's reaction - hilarious.

Some of the locals.

Half Way Pool in El Questro Gorge.

El Questro Gorge. The walk in rough and hard on the body of us older folk but worth every step.

The Pentecost River from one of the many look outs.

Sunset through the dust and the Boabs.

The walk in for Emma Gorge. Again very tough walking and climbing over rocks

From under the water fall

Hard to get a perspective of the size but the pool under the falls are approx 200x100 metres.

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A few days to get the car serviced, van ship shape and loaded and then we depart Kununurra on the 3rd August. We will do a short blog on our stay in Kununurra later.

Stay Tuned :)

Lake Argyle

Having served our time in solitary we are now out and about exploring the area around the East Kimberly Region.

First stop a full day trip to/on Lake Argyle.

To try and give you some inkling of the vast area that is Lake Argyle I provide the following. The dam wall was completed in 1971 with the lake first deemed full in 1974. It provides water to irrigate almost 20,000 hectares with a final aim of 45,000 hectares. Surface area 980 square kilometres. The lake holds 21 times the water volume of Sydney Harbour at average levels. Full storage volume is 10,700,000,000 cubic metres. The dam has it's own hydro-electric plant which supplies enough power for most of the surrounding area.

It's BIG

The first small lake area above the dam

50% of "Team Wilson". There is a men's shirt out there but we haven't found anyone selling it yet.

The hydro plant at the base of the wall

One of the Rock Wallabies and Joey that live in the caves and crevasses in the cliffs around the lake.

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"To those of you who have commented favorably on the photos (many thanks), I can tell you that I am very much loving the camera/lens upgrade kindly approved by the Wilson Corporation Finance Officer while we were in Darwin". For those with a photography bent I stayed "old school" and upgraded my old DSLR to a Canon 77D DSLR (runout sale) and have added a new 18mm-400mm Tamron telephoto lens.

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There are Salt Water Crocs down the southern end with Freshies like this one throughout the lake.

Ever get the feeling somethings watching you?

The Lake has it's own, not inconsiderable, islands.

Some of the previous inhabitants, from time to time, can still be seen.

There are over 270 bird species within the lake area

Jabiru

My old mate the Pelican

A Turn of some sort (but not for the worst).

Duck

A Kite (No strings attached).

Sunset on one of the Islands.

You don't have to be faster than the Croc chasing you, just faster than the person you're with :)

Sunset from the water

What are the chances of bumping into a Croc on a high cholesterol diet.

Quite a feet to get this shot.

Time to find our way home.

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Here in Kununurra till the 3rd August with more to see and do.

Stay tuned.

COVID Interruptus

On the 27th June, due to COVID cases increasing in both NT and WA we decided to abandon the idyllic seaside fishing village of Dundee Beach (One of us has not stopped crying since), pack up the van and make a bolt for the WA border before it was closed.

Driving 866klms stopping at a road side camp site for the night we reached the border before noon on the 28th.

TOO LATE. Border was open but all people crossing had to have a location they could isolate for 14 days that met all WA requirements.

LUCKILY - My brother Alan and wife Jan live in Kununurra, just across the border, AND have a self-contained stand-alone unit on their property. where we are now ensconced.

Our current accommodation

So - We now have 7 days left in our very comfortable confinement. during which we have to take a COVID test, then we will be allowed out.

The plan is to then spend 2 weeks looking around the area, (there will be a Kununurra post), leaving here on the 3rd August slowly heading for Derby (seeing the sights along the way), where we have an appointment to have our second COVID "Jab".

Stay tuned...........