14th September
100km further on from Home Valley Station, Ellenbrae was a nice little stop. The road was pretty bad between the two. Again deeply corrugated in parts and more of the dreaded sharp rocks. The shredded tires at regular intervals are a constant reminder to take it easy. Again we travelled slowly – much slower than anyone else on the road – and arrived dusty, but in one piece after about 3 hours.
Neither Ellenbrae, nor Home Valley are working cattle stations anymore. They just serve as a campsite for those travelling the Gibb River Road and are only open in the dry season (approximately May to November). As it’s getting late in the season, there is less water in the pools and some of the falls have stopped flowing. But it’s a trade-off, because there are fewer tourists around and the campsites and waterholes are nice and quiet, which we prefer, and most places you can still swim anyway.
The waterhole here at Ellenbrae is only accessible to those who are camping here, so we had the place to ourselves and I thought it was one of the prettiest little creeks we’ve seen.
The campsite was really quaint, with a wood-fired donkey burner to give us hot water for the showers. We had a visit from a couple of roaming wild bulls and shared the shower with the green tree frogs.
We are still travelling with our friends from El Questro and met another nice couple, so had another great night around the fire – good conversation, drinks and marshmallows for the kids.
Ellenbrae is famous for their home-made scones, so we stopped in at the homestead this morning to have some for breakfast before heading off on the next leg of the Gibb.
Click on the link for Gibb River Road – it’s a wrap!!
The Travelling Dixons 