On the road by 8:30AM and headed back down the road from Drysdale to the Gibb River Road.
Ellenbrae Station. Great Cream Teas… and a Dunny to remember!
We stopped at Ellenbrae Station because we’d been told that it does very good Cream Teas. What we weren’t told about was the nasty little creek crossing on the road to the station. The slopes in and out of the creek were pretty steep so we crept in at walking pace. The car rocked and jolted from side to side as we rode up and over some pretty big rocks, and there were a couple of bangs underneath the car and trailer but no damage done.
After the dry and dusty conditions of the Gibb River Road Ellenbrae was like an Oasis. It had lush green lawns and plenty of shade from the large trees including a giant Boab tree, at the bottom of the Boab was a small shed in which there was a bath with lovely views down across the sloping gardens.
The Cream Tea was excellent:
Ollie Likes Ellenbrae!
So does Emily!
“Blimey, the Dunny is an experience! It’s a short drop and you need to mind yer head when you go in”.
The statement came from a bloke with a shell-shocked expression on his face.
As I approached the little shack on the far side of the garden I was met by a woman coming the other way, she had the look of someone who had just unexpectedly eaten a whole lemon. Her only words to me were “Be prepared!”.
Sure enough, the corrugated tin roof was low enough to take a chunk out of the unwary visitor’s head – especially if they were in a rush. And inside with the door closed was an overwhelming experience. Nuff said!
After negotiating the creek crossing (more bumps under the car) we joined the Gibb River Road and continued towards Home Valley Station. It was rough going in places – the corrugations were rock-hard – and we were down to 40 kph in places.
We reached Home Valley Station at 1:30PM, expecting to stay but the campground near the station was full and available sites were 4km away. So we decided to have lunch in the cafe then go on to El Questro.
Pentecost River Crossing
The biggest and most famous river crossing on the Gibb River Road is the Pentecost River crossing. In the Wet season it is very deep and wide and, at times, impossible to cross even in a 4WD. In the Dry it can also be a challenge – we had watched videos of the crossing so we were getting excited as we approached it. The river is also inhabited by Saltwater Crocodiles.
The 2013 Wet was actually very dry, hardly any rainfall compared to “normal” Wet seasons, so the Pentecost crossing was shallow and not as wide as I had expected. Never the less it was great fun with a few big rocks to keep the pulse rate high:
A few kilometres later we reached the El Questro turnoff and after cruising down the beautifully graded road we arrived at 5:30PM (9 hours after leaving Drysdale).