Home Valley Station 19/20/21/-06-2012

Up nice and early today the 19th of June, nice crisp morning. Went over to check how John K and his Car were fairing, John was going to attempt the drive to Home Valley station some 254K's from Drysdale. It may of been a safe bet with both Kieran and I to watch over them on the way and help out if the Radiator packed it in. Anyway the trip never got started as the radiator dropped its guts and that was that, end of the show for Johnny K. I said to John and Family I wouldn't see him stuck and let me get my trailer to Home Valley and unload then I will come back for him and family to tow his trailer to Home valley, From that point John could organise a mechanic and hire car in Kununurra the following day. I said to him to plan for me to be back around 2.30-3pm. I wish.

Kieran and I drove out a short time later, we made the costmary river crossings and made pretty good time once we got off the corrugations of the Kallumbaru rd.

As passing Ellenbrea station it was to hard to pass by the almost famous scones that are made here, it was approx 10am and all was good, The families went in and had a nice time watching Azra demolish her scone, not to mention Kieran demolish his 2 as well, all with cream and jam, so I can only recommend to all who travel the Gibb river road to stop at Ellenbrea and try for yourselves, it is almost Iconic to do so!!

We kept heading to Home Valley, the road seemed to be in good condition, from the turn off past Ellenbrae for certain was in good condition, then as expected the road started to show its notorious side, shale rock, sharp edges and lots of it to the sides of the road. We were approx 20K's from Home valley when the first of the rear tyres copped a piece of shale through the4 side wall, bugga, almost there as well. Once we had changed the tyre and kept going we climbed the last of the ranges before heading down hill the Pentecost River and Home Valley station, there is the most spectacular views to be had on top of this hill, it overlooks the canyons and river below, truly worth the stop, you can see for miles upon miles. This is the only area where you can receive internet for phone as well, it transmits from Wyndam some 200K,s away, once you leave the top of the hill though it is gone. We stopped here to catch up with news and any messages from home, some three weeks without internet and phone has been nice but reality says we need it!! Vikki's phone went stupid with 250 emails coming through, crikey even job offers!!, once we saw there was nothing worth replying to down we went to Home Valley, what a nice surprise to see green grass for the camping area, it is the first place we have stayed where there is grass to camp and walk on. But this was a short visit for me as getting back to Johnny K and family was pressing on the mind to get the job done for them as well. Once unhooked Vikki was left to set up the camp and what a good job she did as well. I headed back to Drysdale, it was 1.30pm.

30 Bloody K's from Home Valley and bang, went another tyre, this isn't good I thought, thats the last of spare wheels and some 450K's to travel, It's worth noting here the amount of nice people that stop and offer help to those of us that have got a flat or mechanical problems. I decided to press on as it would be a rotten time for the Kraznic's and surely I couldn't get another, if I was to get another puncture we would have to sit on the side of the road waiting help, I knew Kieran would be watching the clock if it got late..I finally got back to John and family at 5.30 pm, I went to get fuel first and see if there maybe any tyres for sale to fit to the spare 2 rims. Everything was closed and no fuel sales after 5pm, like WTF I'm on empty now!! Johnny must of worked his magic on the 2 ladies from the store as they both came over to get the pumps working and fill me up, I must thank them very much as Im told its strictly company policy not to fuel up vehicles after 5pm, In fact talking with the ladies they told me they encourage people not to drive the section of the Gibb at night because of the amount of stray stock and possible road wash outs etc that cannot be seen until upon them. There wasn't much we could do except be careful and drive slowly, which we did. We headed of at 10 past 6 in the evening, both the kids were really good, they had had the s***s all day with being packed up with nothing to do but wait for me. Poor bugga's, once away though the kids fell asleep and both John and Sharon kept their eyes peeled for stock, to cut the story short after 4 lots of Kangaroos, 3 lots of cattle, 7 lost Aboriginals' and the odd wild cat we made Home Valley at 10.30pm, We got the camp set up really fast and I high tailed for the shower. Totally exhausted mentally, Fell asleep alongside Vikki and woke to bloody crow's at 5.30am, if only I had a pea rifle or even a sling shot!!!

The following day it was time to head into Kununurra with Kieran and John, 2 tyres please I said to the friendly man at the tyre store, he said 980 dollars please, what do you do? John was kind enough to pay for one of them as he said I wouldn't have got the puncture if I hadn't been coming back for him. Cheers mate. We also needed to do some supply shopping as well, this was a bit of a shock as the local liquor do not allow sales before 2pm, Kieran, John and I became tourist for the next few hours then, found a ripper cafe and had a feed for lunch, got to Toyota to see if Johns car had been delivered yet and what the diagnoses was for it, do we shot it and put it out of its misery or is it fixable?? Either way I think it was going to cost John an arm and a leg!!, Once 2pm came around we headed back to the shops to get our supplies, we lined up in the crowd at the liquor store and told you could only have 2 bottles of wine per day, Gosh how could I break the news to Vikki haha, we ended up doing 3 stops at various stores for supplies and back we went to HV.

Dinner that night was fantastic, the restaurant is wonderful with tin roof and solid oak walls and post's. They were having live music with a local man named Kevin, boy could he play the guitar but bloody hard to understand the words he was singing. Another chap was to sing as well, none of us could understand why he is out in the boon docks and not in the big cities, he was fantastic.

We were also lucky enough to catch up with Dean and Janice again here; we had dinner together and shared a few frothie's

The following day Vikki and I headed up to the hill to phone home, at this point I spoke with a couple of blokes that were riding Postie bikes from Derby to Kununurra to raise money for Kids with Cancer. As we spoke the guys mentioned they were part of a group of 40 coppers riding together to raise funds and they were targeting $100,000 dollars this campaign, bloody good effort I reckon. We were to see all these blokes and Ladies later that night, Crikey can some of them drink, the ladies that is, we befriended one poor lady that had lost her husband, apparently he rode past the turn off and took to the road to Drysdale, the corrugations alone would be bad enough let alone missing the rest of the group, I reckon his spine and rest of his bones would feel like he had been crushed the next day!!

Kieran, John, Dean and I were to go on a boat fishing charter on the Pentecost river today, Big barra, threadfin salmon and jewfish had all been caught during the days earlier. Dave a local chap met us at the office to drive us down to the boat, some few K's away, blow me down as we were driving through these paddocks he stopped to sound his car horn, when overcame his favourite animal, a cow named "MOO" yep he was to feed Moo some lollies and fruit, the bloody cow actually put his head inside the car for a pat and a kiss from Dave. The story goes that Moo has been on the farm for some years and won't be sold to the market as he is Dave's pet. Fantastic I reckon, what an eye opener. We got down to the river where we met Joss, bugga me, he tells us it's his first day as the tour guide and doesn't know the waters as yet, you might have guessed by now that we caught absolutely nothing for our four hours and $260 each!! Not happy Jan..

The next day was to see us leaving Home valley and travel the last section of the Gibb to El Questro, This will be added to high lights real that's for sure..