El Questro
No review of 5 star camping on the Gibb can ignore El Questro.
Yes, it’s expensive. Yes, it’s crowded, but so is everything on the Gibb. Yes, it’s probably overhyped.
But it’s also beautiful. With grassed camping by the river were there’s a ‘croc proof’ swimming area, restaurants, bar, music, hot showers, and helicopter flights to various gorges.
It’s a definite 5 star experience, and one where you expect a certain level of … service? Maintenance?
So when I went out to El Questro gorge and dropped into a hole in the long water crossing on my way back I was surprised, to say the least. Also extremely pissed off. With myself as well as the station. Particularly as I’d told them at reception where I was headed and didn’t get any warning.
The last metre, of the last water crossing, on the last track I was doing on the Gibb, and I’d damaged my car.
When I dropped in there was a big thump. My first thought was “f*ck, that sounds expensive”. I pulled up once I got onto dry land and checked everything underneath. I couldn’t see anything obviously wrong, but that doesn’t mean there wasn’t anything.
I drove very carefully back to the campsite testing the brakes and the steering. There didn’t seem to be any problems. I checked underneath again when I got back. Something about the wheel looked off, but I thought I’d let everything cool down (me and the car) before I did a more thorough check. (See my insta page for the full video)
Next morning there was a post on the Gibb River Road facebook group “watch out for the hole going in to the El Questro gorge”. Great, I could have done with that the day before. Seems a few people dropped into that hole and did some damage.
I got up and checked the wheel again. I wasn’t happy with how it was looking but wasn’t sure. I put out a call for some help which was answered by a bloke camping opposite me. He came over, looked it over and reassured me that there didn’t seem to be any damage.
Still, I took it easy driving in to Kununnurra.
I know it’s a 4wd track. But still, it’s El Questro, they could at least warn you. I (and it seems many others) expected better.
Bell Gorge / Silent Grove
Bell Gorge is beautiful. So many people told me it’s their favourite. But the camping ground at Silent Grove gets my award for the most officious campsite host.
The first night I was there he wandered over to my campsite. As you do in those situations I said hello
“I’m …” he said “I’m checking campfires and things”
I smiled. “I don’t have a campfire. I’m not going to have one tonight.”
“But you have an open flame” he said, pointing to my citronella tealight candle in a jar on my table
“I’m sorry” I said “Is that not allowed?”
“You have to be careful” he responded. “If that tree catches fire the whole site can go up very quickly.” He pointed to a nearby tree. Nearby, not one I was right under. A healthy, green tree.
“Okay” I said “I’ll be careful.”
With that he gave a huff and walked off.
If I do it again I’ll stay at Imintji nearby, which I heard great reports about.
The rest
Free camping by the rivers is beautiful, and camping by the river crossings can be a very social activity. But none of them have any facilities and you can’t swim, so they don’t make the 5 star rating.
Windjana Gorge was my first stop, at the beginning of school holidays. While I generally get along with kids and love seeing them out have fun, there were some really feral kids running around this campground, screaming and yelling at each other. Unsupervised. They ran straight through my campsite, and one even ran across my solar blanket set up next to my car.
Was it as bad as people say it is?
Yes and no.
There are really shit parts of that road. Highly corrugated. Corrugations you can lose a wheel in. Corrugations that seem to go on for miles.
But other parts were easy.
The Gibb is being graded constantly. I mean constantly. There were 3 graders that I passed working on the Gibb plus one on the Kalumburu Road. I have friends who travelled the Gibb when it first opened after the wet and was freshly graded. They said it was like a highway.
So how does it get so corrugated?
It’s a good question, but talking about fingernails was bad enough. I’m not going to start an argument on tyre pressure and speed over corrugations.
And my fingernails survived the whole trip.
