Day 37 – 30th May 2014 Friday. Up early and left at 6.15 for drive to El Questro. Arrived at Emma Gorge Reception area at 7.15 and purchased our day pass $24. From here we travelled further along the Gibb River Road and turned off toward El Questro Station on a dirt road. We stopped at Zebedee Springs which are thermal pools at the end of a short walk from the carpark. You walk through lush and tropical trees and palms to get there. The springs are something else. There are pools layered over cascading rock, a small waterfall and the water is a constant 25C to 32C. A nice way to start the day. We left here at 8.30am and headed back down the dusty road to Amalia Gorge. The walk in was quite difficult over the valley floor covered with river rock. The gorge is more of a steep sided valley than a narrow gorge. We climbed and clambered over falls and large sandstone slabs. I managed to take a tumble onto my arse and was lucky not to hurt myself. The views were spectacular and at the point where I couldn’t go any further (Ochre Falls) there was a plunge pool. We were told there was a ‘freshie’ there and we should only swim if willing to share. To get to this point we had to go through ‘Amalia Squeeze’ which is a small and very narrow section with a 4m drop. This was the most dangerous point (point 8) along the entire trail but we squirmed through here. I was unable to climb a cliff at Point 10 of the 12 point walk as I couldn’t negotiate the 3 ft vertical climb with no footholds. I pushed Kevin up so he could get on top of this section but he also decided not to proceed. We turned back and hurried back to the car and more cold drinking water. We then headed back to Emma Gorge Reception area and had morning tea. We decided to do the Emma Gorge walk before lunch so we headed off at 10.45. The walk in was very invigorating but fortunately we were mostly in the shade. The trail is very scenic with changing vegetation, crystal clear pools and waterfalls. The gorge s characterised by massive scree slopes and cliff face escarpments reaching up to 120m on both sides of the trail. We passed Fern pool and Turquoise Pool where you can cool off if you wish. At the top of the walk there is a waterhole with a droplet waterfall enclosed on 3 sides by 65m sheer cliffs. The plunge pool at the top was icy cold and Kevin was not keen to get too wet. It was very refreshing. We headed back once we had cooled off and had lunch at the restaurant. We headed off and on the way back the police had set up a road block on the Wyndham/Gibb River Road turn off and were asking for drivers licence and then breath testing. Kevin was driving and didn’t have his wallet today so they took his name. The breath test, passed as we only had water with lunch. We arrived back at the caravan park at about 3.30. Decide to watch a movie. Dad came over and told us he had spent the day at the hospital. He had a small pimple like thingie under his eye which had been getting worse for a few days and overnight it had swollen even more and was changing colour. He spend all day waiting to be seen. He even left and came back for lunch and then went back to the hospital, all the while keeping his place in the queue.
