Heading up to Kununarra and will do a day trip (tug only) into El Questro first few days in July. Are there any members up that way who can report on the condition of the road from the turn off into the resort. (17 ks of dirt I think ).
Not sure how the road can deteriorate over a few weeks, so will ring the resort before I head off, but would still appreciate reports if members have used it lately. I think there are also some water crossings to go through.
Thank you for your feedback, Barry
-- Edited by bazzle22 on Monday 29th of May 2017 04:01:00 PM
We haven't used it this year, but the 16k of dirt road is continually graded during the season and I've never heard of it being in anything but reasonable gravel road condition once its declared open. The water crossings can be high early in the season so you could ring the resort to check the heights, particularly if you have a low van.
After 2 to 3 days that road in is twice as bad as the Gibb River Road.
With 500+ vehicles travelling on it every day it is graded sometimes as often as every 3-4 days.
There's nothing but excessively priced commercialism at El Questro, $60/night for unpowered sand with generators running everywhere.
If you are new to 4x4 and want to do some relatively safe tracks they have a half a dozen places to visit but you could do them all in a day.
Zebedee Springs on the way in is worth doing for a warm soak (500M very easy flat walk), and Emma Gorge (1km medium walk, last 50M over some large boulders) is spectacular.
The entire Gibb RR from Kununurra to Derby is a stock route approx. 1KM wide, so you can camp on it wherever you want. Just pick a nice spot.
Better to drive the extra 20km past the EQ turn-off to the Pentecost, cross it and then drive another 8km to Home Valley Station and either camp near the homestead for all the luxuries or camp on the River and fish.
Just let your tyres down to 20PSI and drive to the conditions. The dirt varies and you'll notice colour changes quite significantly and each type deteriorates differently . Very dark brown patches appear out of nowhere in 50M patches and corrugate very badly, so just slow right down to about 10kph for those. Once past Home valley the road has very little traffic and is just another gravel road.
Consider staying and leaving your van in Kununurra and doing easy day trips on the Gibb RR. The 115KM trip to Ellenbrae is worth it just for the scones made to order with Jam & whipped cream. mmmmm. Then you can go around the seal (Great Northern Hwy) stopping off at the Bungles etc and to Derby where you can again stay and leave your van and do day trips in the Gibb RR from that end.
Unless you intend to head up the Kulumburu Rd to the Mitchell Plateau/Falls there really isn't anything in the middle.
Tunnel Creek, Windjana Gorge is best driven from the turn-off 44km west of Fitzroy Crossing. There is a beautiful free camp at Mother Earth if using Wikicamps where you can walk through and over the reef for something extra special. Both these two can be done in a single day trip if you get going straight after breakfast.
Bell Gorge is 250km from Derby and there is a mixture of seal and dirt for the first 100km.
