Monday, 17 May 2026
Reading in bed last night, before turning the light out, I started getting cramps in my hamstrings. First one leg and then, just when I managed to stretch it out, cramp in the other leg. Aargh! I haven’t been having cramps like this since before we left home. It must’ve been the 11 kilometres of hiking catching up with me? Anyway, in and out of bed like a yo-yo, trying to stretch/relax my hammies enough to be able to get to sleep.
After getting to sleep, I woke to hear rain on our tent at 12.22am. It was only gentle rain but that didn’t stop me from feeling anxious about being stranded in Purnululu if it rained too much overnight! I only managed to doze until it stopped about half an hour later. I don’t think it rained again until after daylight, when we had another very light shower. Thank goodness. In the last 24 hours I doubt we received the 15mm forecast, let alone the torrential downpour that might have led to the park being closed.
We made our way across to the restaurant for breakfast. We had barely sat down when some very raucous birds started calling from the trees. We jumped up to try to see them. We only caught a glimpse of them up in the eucalypts, but the staff told us they were blue-winged kookaburras. They don’t sound at all like Victoria’s laughing kookaburras. Their call is still very loud but it’s not at all laugh-like. Still it was a lively start to the day having a family of kookaburras serenade us with their loud, maniacal, screeching calls from the trees tops.
After breakfast we packed all our gear (again, after yesterday’s precautionary pack) to make ready to hit the road back out to the highway. We popped back to the restaurant to fill our water bottles from their filtered water unit. Hein and Bianca had arrived for their breakfast and told us they had heard dingoes barking during the night. Bernie told them that they had actually been hearing barking owls. Hein looked at Bernie like he was barking mad. It took us a while to convince them that they had been hearing a bird, or birds, ‘barking’.
Gosh, now it’s a case of return to Friday’s diary entry and read it in reverse! We spent much of the day re-tracing our route, back to the junction with the Victoria Highway. First, the 53 kilometres with multiple water crossings, to reach the Great Northern Highway. The water crossings may have been just a little deeper than they were on Friday but all were negotiated without difficulty. Just before pulling out onto the highway, we parked in the information bay, where we were able to replace the air in the tyres, ready for driving on the bitumen.
The section of highway near the Purnululu turn off has been upgraded, so it was in stark contrast to the 4WD tracks we have been driving on over the weekend. The sandwiches we purchased at the Warmun Roadhouse on Friday were so good, we stopped in to buy sandwiches for lunch again today. As we pulled back out onto the highway there were wild horses all over the road. There were seven or eight bay horses galloping along the road getting rather frisky with each other. They were seemingly oblivious to the traffic, crossing back and forth across the road in front of us and two other vehicles ahead of us. Fortunately there were no collisions between horses and motor vehicles.
We did not top up the tank at Warnum because Petrol Spy had alerted Bernie to the huge difference in the price for diesel between Warmun and Doon Doon. With diesel $1.06 cheaper per litre at Doon Doon, we continued to the roadhouse there to buy our fuel. With apps like Petrol Spy and only 100 kilometres between you and your nearest competitor, it doesn’t make sense to (try to) sell your diesel for so much more. We had enough fuel to go the extra distance and saved ourselves nearly $60.00 at the pump.
We pulled into at the Dunham River Rest Area to eat our lunch. Sounds nice with ‘river’ in the name doesn’t it? However, there was no view of the river from the picnic tables. It did at least have clean picnic tables and shade shelters over the tables so, it was much better than some we have stopped at in the past.
As we ate our lunch, there were ore road trains passing in both directions along the Great Northern Highway. We had also seen several while on the road this morning and more back on the road after lunch. Because I am a nerd, I Googled to find out what is being mined in this area now that the Argyle diamond mine has closed. Google says: Iron ore is currently being mined by Kimberley Metals Group at the Ridges Iron Ore Project. And, the miner Tivan, jointly with the Sumitomo Corporation, are developing Australia’s first major fluorite mining and processing operation at Speewah. The area has also been explored for vanadium and titanium.
Finally, after more than five hours on the road, we were back at the junction with the Victoria Highway where we turned left to continue on the Great Northern Highway towards Wyndham. Just eight kilometres later, we had reached the turn off for the iconic Gibb River Road. We turned left and pulled over to take photos of the start of this 654 kilometre route across the Kimberley between the Great Northern Highway and Derby. After taking daggy tourist photos of the road conditions sign – ALL OPEN – and the ‘Next Fuel 341km’ sign, we took a moment to be blown away by the stunning grandeur of the Cockburn Range. Wow!
Well, we didn’t drive much of the Gibb River Road today, turning off for El Questro after only 33 kilometres of bitumen road, ha, ha. One of the Top 10 4WD Trips of the Kimberley, it has started out pretty tamely. Until a couple of days ago, I knew that I had to be prepared for many (many!) kilometres of corrugated dirt road driving, but I didn’t know that we will also be making some epic water crossings. Bronwen burst my bubble of ignorance during dinner on Saturday night talking about their experience ‘crossing the Pentecost’. What? But anyway, THAT is not for a few more days.
Getting back to today’s final leg, we had to travel 16 kilometres of unmade road to reach our accommodation at El Questro Station. As we travelled along the Gibb River Road, I said to Bernie that it looked like we were driving into rain. Ahem, we didn’t actually catch up to the rain BUT it certainly appeared that the rain cloud had dumped its load all over the road into El Questro. Rivulets of red, muddy water were flowing along the sides of the road and we had to cross a few muddy creek beds. The final challenge for the day, to reach the El Questro Wilderness Park, was crossing the Pentecost River, albeit at a narrower point than we will face on Thursday morning. Practice, I guess?? The marker told us the river was at 60cm deep but, that was what lay between us and our bed for the night so … in we went and … made it to the other side.
We checked in at reception where we were given a key to our room/cabin. We’ll have to remember we have a key again, after three nights in a tent with no key needed. We drove the truck around to our cabin and transferred our gear inside. We have solid walls again for a few nights AND, more importantly, power in our room to charge all our devices. We also have a lovely balcony overlooking the river, so we will be lulled to sleep tonight by the sound of running water.
We wandered over to the bar for dinner, both opting for the steak sandwich. Breakfast and dinner are not included in our room rate here so we will be back to self-catering breakfast. I will also be quite happy to be eating just a single course for dinner rather than three-courses like we were having at the Bungle Bungle Wilderness Lodge.
Steps: 5,669 (3.85kms)
