Wednesday, 20 May 2026
We had a fairly easy day today. We started with a Chamberlain Gorge Cruise on the Chamberlain River within El Questro Wilderness Park. We drove to the jetty to meet the boat and our guide, Matt, and boat driver, Billy. The pace of the cruise was very leisurely, as Billy guided our vessel along a course that is free of rocks! There are many rocks in the river that have fallen from the ancient and spectacular 60-metre cliffs. On the cliffs we were lucky to spy some of the short-eared rock wallabies that live in the small caves on the cliff faces. Only growing 50 centimetres high, these marsupials can leap over two metres and hop around the sheer cliffs with ease.
The section of the river that the cruise operates on sits between two rock walls. We cruised from the jetty just upriver from one rock wall to a second rock wall, one and a half kilometres upstream. Because of the late finish to the wet season, water is still flowing through this section of the river at the moment, but soon it will become a freshwater oasis, as the rest of the river dries up until the rains come again.
Arriving at the second rock wall, the boat was tied up and we were offered refreshments. Sparkling wine, orange juice and sliced fruit. We were also given pellets to feed to the fish in this designated fish sanctuary. The stars of the show were the seven-spotted archerfish. These clever fish spit water to knock flying insects out of the air into the river where they can snap them up. The fish here have been trained to spit in return for food pellets! They have a very impressive spit too, with all of the passengers getting quite wet while holding pellets over the side to tempt the fish. Joining in on the action were some catfish and a couple of large barramundi.
These fish are only fed during the dry season and have to fend for themselves when the wet season comes. Even so, they remember the free handouts and each year, when the cruises start up, the fish appear ready to perform in return for food. Billy told some of us at the back of the boat that the fish have been studied extensively in aquariums. Even though they have very primitive brains they can be trained to target a triangle in return for food, while they ignore the squares. They have also experimented with facial recognition and the fish quickly learn which face(s) to associate with being fed.
On this morning’s cruise we didn’t see any crocodiles of either variety! The river is home to both estuarine and freshwater (Johnstone) crocodiles. We did, however, spot quite a few rockodiles and logodiles, ha, ha. Others on the cruise were disappointed that we didn’t see any crocs, but we were happy enough to have spotted several of the wallabies. Everyone was oohing and ahhing over the cute rock wallabies when Matt told us that the mothers will sacrifice their young when threatened by a predator. With a gestation period of just 30 days they can quickly produce another one. That’s harsh isn’t it?
Our plan for after the cruise was to drive the 4WD track to Pigeon Hole Lookout. However, word on the boat from Matt and Billy was that it was CLOSED. Damn, the plan was to do Pigeon Hole first as it is graded ‘Moderate’ and then tackle the more difficult Saddleback Ridge with a bit better idea of their grading system. As we drove back towards The Station we kept an eye out for the Pigeon Hole track so that we could check if it was still closed.
Somehow we missed the signs for Pigeon Hole and found ourselves at the turn off for Saddleback Ridge which is rated ‘Difficult’. Our guide to the self-guided activities at El Questro advised it is a very steep and rough track – recommended for confident and experienced 4WD drivers only. We talked to an MU-X driver coming out, but he confessed they had only gone as far as the river (Pentecost) and decided to unload some kids, recruit some other friends from the campground and return to drive up to the top of the ridge.
Having looked at the map for the drive, we could see that there is a parking area half way up, so we decided if it was looking too difficult there was an option to bail out half way up and return. At the river, Bernie decided to let some air out of the tyres in preparation for the rough track. We crossed the river and we were driving the early section of the track when we stopped to give way to a vehicle coming across a muddy section. They were waving at us and pointing at the front of the truck. What? What’s wrong?
The passenger jumped out and called out to us that there was a snake crossing the road in front of the truck. It must’ve been so close to us that we couldn’t see it over the bonnet. The passenger jumped back in and as the El Questro vehicle drew abreast of us the driver told us that a black whip snake had just crossed the road in front of us. Well, there you go. We missed it slithering across the road so … we still haven’t seen a snake. Other than the olive python at Cutta Cutta Caves which doesn’t count because, hey, it was only a python, not one that can actually kill you!
Still optimistic that the Pigeon Hole Lookout track might have reopened, we drove back out towards the jetty looking more carefully for a Pigeon Hole sign. The confusing thing was that we were driving past the private campsites all with bird names. Ha, found it. The turnoff for the Pigeon Hole Lookout track was also the turnoff for several bird-named camp sites so that was how we missed it. A wasted trip back though, as the track still had a CLOSED sign across the entrance.
We returned to our bungalow. I read the Emergency Evacuation sign in our room and learnt that our cabin is actually described as a bungalow. Parking in front, we set out to put air back in the tyres and managed to re-inflate the rear tyres to 40 PSI. Bernie then had the front tyres rigged to the compressor when, bang, a hole was blown in the hose from the compressor to the gauge that splits the air to the two hoses attached to the front tyres. Bugger! We did a little bit of MacGyvering with some duct tape and then managed to pump the front tyres back to 40 PSI. We’re going to need a new compressor hose though at some point.
We were very lazy for the rest of the day. They had 36mm of rain here on Saturday so quite a few of the self-guided activities are closed. Two of three 4WD tracks are out of action and two of five trail walks are not currently accessible. After no rain at all to interfere with our planned activities in the Northern Territory, Western Australia is raining on our parade! The forecast indicates that the weather should be fining up for the next few days. Fingers crossed because we will be sleeping in the swag over the weekend.
At 6.30pm we wandered over to The Steakhouse. Rather strangely for a steakhouse, they only had one steak on the menu. We have some steaks in our freezer that we will be cooking in the next few days, so we opted to order the prawn linguine tonight.
Steps: 5,820 (3.97kms)
