I have had the ultimate start to the day… I have seen Gouldian Finches at last! I woke up at 6am and headed back to the bird
hide. Fortunately, there was a
birdwatching tour group already there and they didn’t mind me sharing the hide
with them. At least with a tour guide there
I knew I was sitting at the right spot at the right time to be spotting the
elusive finches. First up, an entire
flock landed on a boab just behind the hide (apparently this is very unusual). There would have been at least 20-30 adult
and juvenile Gouldian Finches sitting there… I was quick to jump up and focus
on them with my binoculars, but even so, it was only a matter of seconds before
a Sparrowhawk flew overhead and scared them all away. I went back to patiently waiting and
watching a small puddle just in front of the hide… I was not disappointed… a
short time later a red faced and four black faced Gouldians landed right in
front of us… awesome!!
This is what the Gouldians look like (thank you Google). If you are wondering what all the hype is about it is simply because they are rare, endangered, ridiculously skittish and they look super cool with all their colours!
Today’s expedition was a hike into Emma
Gorge. Although it is still part of El
Questro, Emma Gorge is 11km further along the Gibb River Road and has
accommodation and restaurant facilities of its own (but no camping).
Part way along the gorge you come across Turquoise Pool
We continued to the end of the gorge where you are greeted with a waterfall into an icy cold plunge pool… it felt like Karijini all over again…
We discovered there was a spring off to the right (behind the rocks on the right hand side of the photo) and the water coming out of the rock was warm. Dave and the kids managed to jump in and swim around to it… I wasn’t so brave and found a way to clamber over the rocks to get straight to the warm stuff…
This is us all huddled around the warm water
We turned tail to head back out of the gorge. On the way we stopped for a swim and a play at Turquoise Pool. This pool actually gets a bit of sunshine so it was slightly warmer…
I have never seen water as crystal clear as it is here at El Questro… Spidey is relaxing on a rock that is about a foot underwater
After lunch we took our little mud map and hit the 4WD tracks. Once again we had to cross the Pentecost River further upstream. How’s this for a river crossing?
On the other side we climbed a STEEP hill to reach Branko’s Lookout. This is looking down on the Pentecost River. The patch of tall trees toward the back of the photo is the El Questro Homestead. That’s where you pay $3000 per night for a room… obviously us mere ‘campers’ can’t get anywhere near the place, even for a look…
If you look real close you can see three tufts of grass
sticking out of the river on the right side of the bend. If you look even closer, just in front of the
grass you can see the resident saltwater croc…
The river crossing going back the other way. There was quite a crowd of observers watching us cross… not one of them drove the crossing after seeing us drive it…
This is a view of the Homestead and accommodation chalets from the 4WD track. This is about as close as we can get…
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