A stay at El Questro Station offers adventure and fun.
I’m clinging to a rockface, belly pressed against vertiginous sandstone as we scramble up the side of a waterfall. My arm presses protectively against my youngest daughter, while the older one shimmies ahead of us. Behind me, my husband has our five-year-old son in a partial bear grip as they shuffle across a shallow ledge, trying to avoid the slippery, wet rocks. It’s about this time I’m thinking I’m a bad parent.
We’ve done some wild things in our travels – canyoning, caving through an underground river, swimming with freshwater crocs – but this hike through El Questro Gorge takes the cake. It’s strenuous, long and a bit perilous, but years from now it will remain one of our greatest and most thrilling family hikes. It helps that there’s an outrageously secluded waterfall at the end.
We’ve arrived at El Questro Station in the East Kimberley after taking the cheat’s route across the remote north of Western Australia. Not prepared to risk our rig on the infamous Gibb River Road, we instead took the Great Northern Highway from Derby, via Fitzroy Crossing and Halls Creek, with a three-day detour to Purnululu National Park (the Bungle Bungles).
