OUESTRO FOR GLORY

Ancient and modern, rugged yet luxurious: Western Australia's captivating El Questro Wilderness Park offers adventure-seekers the best of many worlds.

- MAX VEENHUYZEN

Is it rude to stare at a beautiful river? Asking for a friend. Meanwhile, I’ll just be here, staring rudely at the beautiful Chamberlain Gorge before me and the guests at El Questro. The sky’s graduated bands of mauve and pink are mirrored in the water’s glassy surface while the ridgeline silhouette glows in the fading light. The views in the Kimberley hit different and I still can’t believe I’m here, admiring the sunset. Not just because, six hours earlier I was rugged up against the August cold in Perth but because the 2022 season of El Questro almost didn’t happen.

Less than two months away from El Questro’s April opening, thanks to a closed Western Australian border and staff shortages, the entire 2022 season was still in doubt. Thankfully, the government eased travel restrictions, green-lighting the travel plans of 35,000 people to visit El Questro. Getting the all-clear to open last-minute certainly added drama, but drama is par for the course here.

Stretching across 700,000 hectares of outback terrain, El Questro exemplifies rugged, up-north beauty. The mighty Pentecost River muscles its way through the property. Wandjina rock art speaks to the connection between this country and the Ngarinyin – the area’s traditional custodians. During the wet season between October and April, an average of 800mm of rain re-energizes the land.

There’s no sign of rain during my three-hour flight between Perth and Kununurra – the nearest airport to El Questro: just opportunities galore to coo at this ancient landscape. The fractal mudflats. The scorched, pikelet-like salt pans. Hills bubble out of the red earth, their surfaces speckled with hardy deciduous trees.