Nele & Andrew Around Oz: El Questro Wilderness Park, Gibb River Road, WA

Day 117 – 13^th June 2011

El Questro Wilderness Park, Gibb River Road, WA

We kicked the day off with a soak in Zebedee Springs, thermal pools at the end of a short walk through lush and tropical vegetation. The pools are only open in the morning and we made sure to be there early to get some nice photos as it gets very crowded later, especially if a tour bus has arrived – it’s a very popular place. After our natural bath we did the Amalia Gorge walk (3.4km return - 2h). We enjoyed this walk more than Emma Gorge as it’s a very pretty walk all the way with the 32m Amalia Falls at the end – and we only came across one other walker. Andrew went for a very refreshing swim in the pool whilst Nele decided to stay warm and dry. We continued on to El Questro Gorge where we had a quick lunch before setting off for our final walk of the day (6.8km return – 4h). This would be our pick of all the gorge walks we did at El Questro. A more challenging walk than Amalia Gorge, especially at the halfway pool where you have to get wet to cross the pool and climb over some large boulders, but we didn’t hesitate to get into our swimming gear and continued the walk. It is definitely worth it as the second part is very nice. There was a lot of scrambling over rocks but in the end you reach Mac Micking Pool with a small but nice waterfall – and a refreshing swim is a must! When we got back at the station we were planning to go on the Saddleback Ridge 4WD track – good to do at sunset – but unfortunately it was closed for maintenance work. Instead we enjoyed a drink at the El Questro Bar and attended the information session given by the El Questro Wilderness Park ranger Micko.