Basically, the hike starts with a bit of fairly fun 4wd track to the parking area. The track was very sandy with some longish water crossings. You then hiked to the gorge through some rainforest-esq surroundings and then up the gorge itself from bottom to top which was around 2 hours of fairly heavy rock climbing and boulder hopping. We were warned to not sprain an ankle as you would be basically 'stuffed' and I could now see why. No way to get a chopper in there so you would literally have to be carried out.
El Questro Gorge Hike - The beginnings
This isnt so hard? I don't know what they were going on about!
At approx. the half way mark, there was this water pool with what appeared to be an almost impassable rock blocking our way. We had been told there was a very difficult section where you had to wade through water and climb up a crevace and had obviously not taken the warning seriously. Im a fairly agile guy, and grew up climbing trees and rocky cliffs most my childhood and only JUST got up there myself. There was no foot-holds and all you could do was push against the two slimy rock walls for traction and then clamber your way up hoping not to slip and fall.
We saw the white triangle / arrow on the rock and thought they were joking!
After the half way obstruction the going got a lot more difficult. There were numerous cliff climbs and rocky traversals along the way. We were thinking to ourselves how often someone must get absolutely cranked on the rocks and have to be stretchered out and just hoping we were not the next one to fall victim to the gorge.
One of many climbs up wet rocky cliff-faces.
At the top of the gorge is an amazing waterfall / deep plunge pool which is perfect for cooling off in after the intense hike. While the waterfall was definitely amazing, it had nothing on the site we were privileged with upon reaching our destination, a 70+ year old hunched back man standing stark naked on his own taking photos of the waterfall. We literally could not believe our eyes! This guy had a full tripod / pro camera setup and had carried it all the way up the gorge. It was a refreshing reminder that you are never too old and where there is will there is way. Still to this day I have no f'ing idea how he managed to get past that half way road block section.
Waterfall at the end of the Gorge
We arrived back to our car 5 hours after setting off on the hike to discover 'someone' had left the headlights on and our battery was completely flat. After a bit of a nervous laugh and sitting down trying to work out what the next move should be, I noticed the car was parked on a slight rocky slope and decided to have a go at reverse hill-starting it. With Nat up the front pushing the bull-bar (rule being she who leaves lights on pushes) we managed to turn the engine over and we were up and running with a huge sigh of relief. Needless to say it was the last time the lights were left on for the remainder of the trip. We left El Questro and returned to the Gibb River Road driving for a couple of hours and decided to camp at Elenbrae Station. It was a fairly basic campsite but still had shower and toilet facilities.
