We left Timber Creek on the morning of 17/10/21. On the way we visited Gregory’s Boab tree. In 1855 the explorer A. C. Gregory sailed from Moreton Bay around the coast of Queensland and the Northern Territory and up the estuary of the Victoria River. Gregory`s boat was wrecked at the site of Timber Creek. It is claimed that Gregory named the site Timber Creek after he had cut some timber to repair the hole in his vessel. The boab tree marks the area of Gregory`s “entrenchment camp” from October 1855 to July 1856 and still bears inscriptions noting the date of arrival and departure from the camp.

Around 2PM we crossed the WA border and police checkpoint. As we spent over 2 weeks in the NT and had relevant passes we applied for earlier we had no issues with crossing over. We continued driving until we arrived at Lake Argyle – the 2nd largest fresh water lake in Australia. It is actually classified as an inland sea. The Caravan Park itself is awsome as well with large sites, restaurant and the famous infinity pool overlooking the lake which we used at least twice a day. We stayed here for 4 nights. The highlight of the stay was the sunset lake cruise. 3 hour cruise where we explore the lake and its shorelines. We saw rock wallabies, lots of birds and of course fresh water crocodiles. There are over 30,000 of them in the lake. We also got to swim in the lake in couple of very deep spots (45m deep) at sunset. We enjoyed floating while the crew delivered bubbly and threw cans of beers for us, which to our surprise floated in the water (or at least Great Northern did 😀.) The sunset and its colours were absolutely stunning. Doing a family float under the boat hull was also very exciting as the water reflection underneath the vessel provided amazing green colour tones.

On 21/10 we left Lake Argyle and travelled to El Questro station located at the start of the Gibb River Rd. We considered doing the whole Gibb River Rd (600+ km) as part of the trip but given how late in the season it is, how rough the road is, the high temperatures and fact that many places are now closed due to the impending arrival of the rains, we decided to give it a miss this trip. El Questro was scheduled to shut on the 24/10. The access to it is relatively rough with massive corrugations (biggest we drove on to date) as well as some river crossings. It was the first time I had to adjust the tyre pressure in the car and van tyres – definitely a wise move. River crossing was also fun. I was impressed with how our traveling set up managed to easily do both. OK so I have been saying its getting hotter and hotter but this is getting ridiculous. We hit 45C on the way to El Questro and above 40 degree days were to stay with us for some time. Ahhhh another “smart” decision was to stay in an unpowered site here… we thought we’ll see how we will go with minimal aircon as we are still working out our solar and battery and learning the ropes. All I’m going to say is the night of 21/10 was like a night from hell. HOT, WET, HUMID, STICKY… wow…….. First thing in the morning we packed and went for a hike to Emma Gorge. Walk there was about an hour and while the beginning was easy half of it was on boulders and rocks so I ended up carrying Patrick a fair bit. The Gorge itself was stunning. We went for a swim and got realy close to couple of freshies. One small one another one about 1.5m. They were very curious and playful and didnt seem to be bothered by the people at all. After the return and a quick lunch back at El Questro we went on the Chamberlain River cruise where we saw more wildlife, awesome gorge cliffs and got to feed spitting archer fish, which was a wet experience. What a packed day, we were all stuffed but happy. Plans were made for another big day the following day with a helicopter flight to remote waterfalls, more swimming, as well as drive to a lookout for sunset…..

Well…yet again we needed to adjust our plans to circumstances. I had a massive attack of kidney stones which took me by complete surprise given what i went through 6 months earlier. I was cleared so these had to be new ones. The night was a nightmare with only Panadol and Advil on hand to try to manage the pain, which was not enough. Attacks started at 11PM and only subsided to manageable level around 5AM.

In the morning we scrapped our plans and decided to go to Wyndham as it has a hospital. We could not risk being stuck so remote with my issues while El Questro was being shut the next day. We arrived in Wyndham after lunchtime. It was deserted and felt a bit like a ghost town. The Caravan Park was officially closed but we managed to stay there anyway with only a handful of other people. Parked in a spot right by the pool and had the place pretty much to ourselves. As another wave of attacks started I went to emergency where I was really taken a good care of. While no doctor on duty here we were patched to Kununurra ER as well as specialists all via video links. After a few hours I was released with advice to go to Kununurra to do scans to confirm stones. I was given some stronger painkillers and left. On the way to the caravan park we visited the 5 rivers lookout. Amazing looking place where 5 rivers meet before going to the sea. The next day we visited Perry’s Lagoon billabong for some bird watching and the historical wharf of Wyndham and jetty.