We got away by 8am, not 7.30, but that was still pretty good. It was a 20min drive back along the Gibb River Road to the turnoff to Emma Gorge, then just a short drive to the carpark. There is a ‘resort’ with accomodation at the entrance to Emma Gorge. Some people stay here, rather than at ‘the station’.
We parked and were ready to start the walk by about 8.30. It was already feeling warm. It took about an hour to walk all the way into the gorge to the waterfall and swimming hole. The walk was a bit scrambly at times, over rocks a lot. It was not as pretty as El Questro Gorge walk, but the swimming hole at the end was lovely and made it worth the walk. There is a tall sheer cliff face which is in a semicircle shape around the waterhole. At this time of year the waterfall is only fairly small, but I can imagine it pouring down in the wet season. All of us except Michael went for a swim (too cold for Michael). Lauren and Sam swam to under the waterfall (it was very deep here) and said the droplets of water were like pinpricks, they were falling so fast. As we were getting out of the main swimming area, a lovely older couple said to us “We can see your kids are having such a great time, so we just wanted to tell you about a nice ‘spa’ area tucked away behind those rocks – its nice and warm over there”. We thanked them and went to discover the thermal area – we found it and enjoyed sitting there for a while. We then warmed up in the sun and changed back into our walking gear ready for the walk out. A couple of stops along the way for drinks and lollies/biscuits helped everyone get back OK (although Bethany needed a piggy back just for the last 5 mins – she had done magnificently well to do what she did). It was about 12noon when we got back to the car, and we were glad to be in the air-conditioning.

We ate our sandwiches for lunch as we drove towards Wyndham. We had to continue backtracking along the Gibb River Road back to the Great Northern Hwy and then turn left to head north towards Wyndham. It was about a 30min drive then. Everyone was still a bit hungry and we had decided we would find a cafe at Wyndham to have a milkshake and maybe a muffin or something.

We drove into Wyndham about 1pm. There was a big croc at the entrance to the town. The main thing we wanted to do here was see the Five Rivers Lookout, but thought there may be some other things to do also. We found the information centre and I went in to get a map and find out some information on things to do. The port area was a little further north than the main part of the town. We decided to drive there and see if we could find a cafe there. We walked down the main road of the port area and found a shop that sold souvenirs – we asked them if there was a cafe, but were informed “No sorry – there is only the pub”. There was a small museum at the port area, which could have been interesting, but the kids weren’t keen, so I thought it best we just head back to the main area and find a cafe. We were told there was the Five Rivers Cafe on the main road which should be open until 3pm. We found this cafe just after 2pm and it had just closed! And this was a week day. It was a sign of how small and isolated the town was and how it did not benefit from tourists passing through – only those who wanted to make the trek to the end of the road. We continued our search for a place to buy a drink and we eventually found ‘Lu- Lu’s Asian restaurant’ – it only had hot food but at least it had some takeaway milkshakes. We enjoyed these and got some muffins out of the freezer from the caravan to eat.

We then drove to the base of the hill where the lookout was. We had been told we couldn’t take the caravan up the hill because it was quite steep and had some tight corners. But there was a large area were we could leave it. This we did and then drove up the hill. It was a great view from the top, looking out over the Cambridge Gulf. This is a deep gulf that comes south from the Timor Sea and where 5 rivers start. Those 5 rivers are the Ord heading south-east, the Durack heading north-west, the ? heading west, the Pentecost and ? heading south-west.

We were all fairly tired so decided just to head straight back to Kununurra, rather than taking the 50km detour to see the prison boab tree. There is another one near Derby which we might try to see.

So we drove the hour back to Kununurra and went back to the Kimberleyland Van Park. We asked if there was a site close to the pool, and we were fortunate to get a spot close to the pool, the playground and the amenities. It was great. The kids were keen for a swim, so I took them over to the pool while Michael set up the caravan and started to get dinner ready. We had showers, then dinner and then were all ready for an early night again.

El Questro Wilderness Park is about 130km west of Kununurra along the Gibb River Road. It used to be a privately run station, but has now opened itself up to tourism, having accommodation at the homestead or camping area and running guided tours or allowing for selfguided tours to the many gorges and waterholes and rivers and lookouts. It is 1 million acres in size. We had heard of it from a few friends as a good place to visit and to stay overnight. So we decided to go and stay there 1 or 2 nights rather than doing it as a day trip from Kununurra.

It was Saturday by this stage and there were markets on at Kununurra on a Sat morning from 8am, which I said I’d like to go to before we headed off. I was up early with the younger girls anyway, so had most things done by 8am. It turned out that Michael, I, Hannah and Beth all went to the markets while Lauren and Sam stayed home and read/watched a movie. We were back bys 9.30 and packed up ready to leave the van park by 10am.

We had a little detour on the way as we missed the turn onto the Gibb River Road and were heading towards Wyndam a little while before we realised. Then we got back on track and were at El Questro Station by about midday. We checked in and set up and then proceeded to get some lunch. It was a very hot day again (around 36 degrees) and, because El Questro campsite was all unpowered, we couldn’t use the A/C – oh no! We struggled through the chores and then headed for a swim at the Pentecost River beside the campsite. I was very happy to go in also. The kids found a deep area where there was a tree with spreading branches overhanging the water. This was just perfect for adventurous kids – climb out along the branch and jump into the water. Sam could have done that for hours. Lauren and Hannah joined in for a bit, but also played some other games with Bethany and so on. They had a ball and I had a nice relax in the water and then warming up again on the sand bank. We went back to the caravan for a snack and a rest and then Michael took them for another swim before showers, dinner and to bed – not before deciding what walks and swimming spots we were going to visit tomorrow. We were going to have to start early to do any walking before it got too hot. So we decided to try to be ready to leave the van by 7.30am and do the El Questro Gorge walk and then Zebedee Springs in the morning.

So we did get away around 7.30 the next morning. We all had our swimmers on under our clothes as there was a swimming hole at both spots. It was a 15 min drive to the start of El Questro Gorge walk. The information had said about 1 hour walk to the halfway pool (which was as far as we were going to go) along a rainforest area by the creek. This is one of the reasons we had chosen this walk – it would be cool along the way. And we weren’t disappointed – it was a lovely walk beside a cool creek within the gorge – very pretty. It took us about 50mins to reach the halfway pool and there we enjoyed a lovely cool swim. We were then refreshed for the walk back. We then drove 5 mins down the road to the Zebedee Springs carpark. Zebedee Springs is a thermal springs and it is only open to the public from 7am until 12 noon. It is closed in the afternoon for private tour groups. We arrived at the carpark at 10.45am and it was only a 5min walk to the springs, so we would have plenty of time for a swim. They were fairly crowded but we were able to find a spot to sit and soak – it was lovely! There were a series of little pools as the water cascaded down the rocks and then there was a larger pool at the bottom where the kids could move around a bit more. We stayed about an hour and then headed back to the car and then back to the van, having enjoyed our morning of walks and swims.

We had lunch, a short rest and then the kids were keen to have another swim in the Pentecost River beside the campground. So they swam, had a break for some afternoon tea and a play and then swam again – 4 swims in a day. Then all of us except Lauren and Bethany (who wanted to just rest) went for a short drive to a lookout as the sun set.

Then we came back for a BBQ dinner. We had eaten every meal, except breakfast outside whilst at El Questro because it was cooler outside. We made plans for the next day – we were going to try to be packed up and away by 7.30am again so that we could do the Emma Gorge walk on our way out of El Questro, once again before it got too hot. So we all got to bed reasonably early.

We had read that triple J tours do great informative cruises on Lake Argyle (and also up the Ord River). We decided to do the 2 hr morning cruise, feeling that was long enough for the kids. We weren’t disappointed. It was a fantastic cruise with a very friendly and informative tour guide, Graeme.

We had to leave the van park at 7.45am for the 50min drive to Lake Argyle, southeast of Kununurra. We needed to be at the Lake argyle Tourist Park by 9am. We were there in plenty of time and had a look around at some of the maps and things in the office area. We then got on the bus which took as the short drive to the boat ramp and got on the boat called the ‘Kimberley Durack’. The boat was much more roomy than the smaller ones we had gone on at the Daintree. It was actually a catamaran and it had a toilet on board and also a servery area for tea and coffee and homemade morning tea biscuits and slice. There were eskies filled with soft drinks and juices also for the kids to have whenever they liked – the kids loved that idea!

The boat could actually go quite fast too. We sometimes travelled slowly and looked at things on the shoreline, and we sometimes travelled quite fast to cover the long distances.

On returning back to the tourist park and to our car, we drove the short distance to the Durack Homestead museum. The Duracks had been a pioneering family in this area of Australia and their homestead was on the grassy plains which were going to be covered in water once Lake Argyle started filling. It was thought they would have a couple of years to move before the lake got that big, but it filled up quicker than expected. A group of people were able to move the house (a stone house) but not any other buildings from the homestead. It was perfectly restored in a different location near the lake as a museum and testimony to this family. It was interesting to look through.

We then drove back to Kununurra and our van (which was hot!), put on the aircon, and rested a while before a swim and then an early dinner. The younger girls were still trying to adjust to the new time zone, so were very tired by evening.

The younger girls were awake around 5.30am local time. It was quite light outside already and the birds were becoming noisy. They rested in bed for a bit longer but then I got up with them. Sam also got up fairly soon after. We all had breakfast and then Sam suggested he take the 2 younger girls over to the playground at the park across the road. I was happy for him to do this and it gave me a bit of quiet time before I prompted Michael and Lauren to get up, so we could get going to do a bushwalk early.

We left the van park a bit before 8am and drove the 10mins to Mirima NP, right on the edge of Kununurra. This NP is known as the mini bungle bungles, because it has the same beehive shaped domes as the real bungle bungles, just a smaller version. We did the main walk up to the lookout where we could see over the domes and also over the town. It was very hot walking, even at 9am and we were glad we didn’t leave it any later. All the kids were great troupers though and persevered (with the help of some snake lollies every now and then – and lots of water of course). We then headed straight back to the van to sit in the airconditioning for a while and get our strength back.

Michael took the kids over to the pool (which we were glad was covered). Then we had lunch and a rest. Then it was another swim. Then we went for a drive to the Diversion Dam wall just west of Kununurra. This is all part of the Ord River irrigation project, whereby they damned the mighty Ord River and created Lake Argyle to be able to have a permanent water supply for farming in the area. The diversion dam near Kununurra is the smaller dam wall. On the upstream area from the dam wall is Lake Kununurra (really just a section of the Ord River). It has a swimming area where they do croc checks and feel that the chance of saltwater crocs is minimal. We had a look around here, but didn’t have our swimmers with us, so didn’t swim.

Our last stop on the drive was at Kelly’s Knob lookout – at a hill within Kununurra. We enjoyed the views.

Then it was back to the van to prepare dinner and the usual night time routine.

Victoria River area is a beautiful spot. It would have been nice to explore it a bit more, but we felt we needed to keep going to get to Kununurra at a reasonable time today. But even just the drive through the Gregory NP was lovely. Many red cliff faces and amazing mountainous scenery to view. I decided not to start the kids on schoolwork straight away that day, so that I could just sit and enjoy the scenery for a while. I took some video while we were driving.

We got to Timber Creek about an hour on, and stopped at a shaded grassy area near the roadhouse to have morning tea. If we felt that it hadn’t been warm enough on our travels yet, that was certainly changing now – big time. It was well over 30degrees that day – there was definitely no standing in the sun. Timber Creek was also close to the Victoria River and we drove down a side road to get a view of the river and take some photos – but were then glad to be back in the air conditioned car. We continued on the further 250km to Kununurra.

We had forgotten about the fruit and vegetable quarantine going over into WA until a couple at the caravan park that morning had asked us which way we were travelling – they had wanted to give away some fruit they had, rather than throw it out. I realised that we still had quite a bit of fruit and veg that we wouldn’t be able to use up that day. We ate as much as we could for morning tea and lunch that day, but still had a bit when we got to the border. Before going to the quarantine station, we stopped to have our photo at the WA border sign (defying the heat again as we stepped out of the car). We then drove over to the quarantine station, which at least was under shelter. We found out that we also couldn’t take honey over the border – so had to give up our almost full honey jar plus the completely full spare. I had thrown out fruit already, but wasn’t sure about veg. The quarantine officer came into the van to check our fridge and pantry. I found out we could keep sweet potato and mushrooms bought at the shop. We could also keep carrots as long as we cut off the heads (which we then did). The officer said there are about 100 diseases that they are trying to keep out of WA. He admitted that they know they won’t be able to keep them out forever, but the longer they do, the better. He also reminded us we needed to turn our clocks back an hour and a half now. So it went from 2pm to 12.30pm as we crossed over.

It was then only another 50km to Kununurra. We only came into 3G range about 5 mins out of Kununurra, so i didn’t have much time to research caravan parks. But we ended up at a park near the Lily Pond Lagoon called Kimberleyland. It suited us fine. We set up quickly in the stifling heat and put the aircon on in the van as soon as we were hooked up to power. Then stayed in the cool for a little while. I then took the kids over to the pool, while Michael went and saw the Toyota dealer (about having the car serviced) and picked up some groceries.

For dinner that night I cooked up the cherapin we had caught at Katherine and had them as an aside to a prawn stir fry. We were all a bit disappointed in how little ‘meat’ there was for the effort put in to catching them. We would have had to improve our hunting techniques to survive like the aborigines!

We put the kids to bed a little later than their usual bedtime as we had to adjust to the time change. We knew they’d be waking up early for local time, but thought this would be a good thing, since we wanted to get out and do some sightseeing before the main heat of the day.