Kimberley cattle stations

Our first stop in Western Australia was Kununurra,  where we visited a Sandalwood factory,  a rum distillery,  drove past  fields of white chia (which looked a little like lavender)  and had ice cream by the lagoon while crocodile spotting.  (We saw a 1.5m freshwater croc.)

From there,  we headed into one of the hottest and most remote areas of Australia,  the Kimberley region, to stay at El Questro Station - a former cattle station now turned tourist venture.
Access was via a very rough corrugated dirt road and our first river crossing. We elected for a riverside campsite away from the station facilities but with the bonus of a private bush site, complete with river acess for swimming.

Our four days at El Questro were mainly spent swimming due to the extreme heat. 

We explored the station as much as possible,  but were restricted due to not having a high-clearance 4WD.

The only gorge we were able visit was Zebedee Springs -  an easy five minute walk through a palm grove to a thermal spring.  It was tiny but gorgeous and we didn't even mind too much when a snake decided to join us for a swim! (Obviously we all got out of the water until the snake had gone,  but then we happily got straight back in.)

After El Questro, we travelled to the central south of the Kimberley,  halfway between the tiny towns of Hall's Creek and Fitzroy Crossing,  at Larrawa Station.  Larrawa is a working cattle station which has a  paddock for camping. We were immediately relieved to discover cloudy weather and cool breezes. 

We enjoyed a few walks around the property and caught up on some school work. We were able to help feed some of the animals, including pigs,  sheep and chickens,  which the kids enjoyed very much. 

On our last morning the kids were invited to ride on the back of the farm quad bike to feed the calves.  Unfortunately the bike hit a large termite mound,  resulting in a farmhand crushing her ankle. The children were completed unhurt,  just a little shaken. I was relieved to discover that my nursing skills were not quite as rusty as I thought, and in conjunction with the Flying Doctor (via telephone consultation) I was able to make the injured girl more comfortable prior to her transfer to hospital. We heard later from the station owner that the girl had an overnight stay in hospital,  a plaster applied to her fractured ankle and flew home to her family in Northern NSW to recuperate.