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Gibb river road conquered! We were expecting a very slow 4x4 only road possibly taking 2 weeks to complete we did it in 4 nights. Not because we rushed we just didn't stop at every gorge along the road! Our first day out of Kununurra saw us visit The famous El Questro station. We called in to check the place out however due to the expensive cost of camping in yet another dusty site we just stayed for morning tea and headed off to home valley station. This station has so far been the highlight of our trip. After spending 2.5 weeks on the road it really was an oasis. Camping was grass quality facilities, chance to see estuarine crocs in the wild on the beautiful and very tidal pentecost river, this river we crossed just before the station and a tourist bus was on the other side with tourists taking pics of us crossing it... Was a good 150m crossing with water up to the wheel arches of the ute... The station also had a massive kids playground, pool, bar, al a Carte restaurant and plenty of tours including a half day horseback mustering tour - as tempting as this was I couldn't justify moving someone else's cattle for $300 when I can do it back home for nothing!
Paddy was in kid heaven and made quite a few friends, I'm pretty sure he was saying playground in his dreams!
We stayed 2 nights at the station made use of the washing machines and ate at the restaurant on our second night pigging out on crocodile, emu, buffalo and barra... What a combination hey!
After packing up from home valley we hit the road and headed west to a morning tea stop at another station called ellenbrae we were told the scones were worth the 20km trip off the gibb... They saw us coming and as we walked in they asked what we would like after saying we were here to try out the famous scones and getting 2 each one for paddy you would have though he would have said they are quite big... Let's just say we didn't need lunch that day! Worst thing was he asked us what we wanted before we got to the sign that had the prices ... $4.50 ea scone $2.50 tea and coffee... Note to self don't order anything without checking all the signs out, I'm sure he was pissing himself as he was warming them up p****.lol)
Back in the car and only a 100km to our destination for the night "manning gorge". In 36 degree heat we set up the camper and headed to the swimming hole. It was an absolute treat to swim in this Beautiful little refreshing spot, a beach area leading down to a barely flowing river with pristine water that had a mix of deep and shallow spots rocks to club up on and even some public use PFD's to float around on! We made great use of this swimming spot washing off the dust and just relaxing!
The next day we packed up and headed back to the water hole with the plan to just take a couple of pics... We ended up staying for an hr swim paddy bare naked to the amusement of other campers. (Clint and I managed to leave some clothes on! )
Night 4 saw us pull into Bell gorge which was really only a short 2hr drive from manning gorge. Again set up in sweltering heat had lunch, clint and paddy did a tabata workout and then we headed for the water! Walking track 1.5km, paddy told us he could walk and didn't want to go in the backpack Cauz he was a big boy so in our thongs we headed down the rocky track... It was a touch walk but paddy was such a little champion he kept saying "I'm right mummy".. We found the waterfall and swimming hole and paddy once again got naked and went swimming... Worse thing was the thought of having to walk back up those rocks etc to the car thinking we may have to carry paddy and no doubt about the little man he made it all the way with minimal falls just a couple of scratches!
The plan was to head to another gorge for one last stop on the Gibb however we ran out of cash to pay for camping and there was certainly no EFT or credit facilities so Derby it is. So I leave you with this installment of the blog as we just head into Derby WA and 3weeks on the road 5000km down. 1 night in derby is the plan then off to Broome ... What an awesome country we live in!
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fee Had to have a chuckle when I read about the pentecost river crossing - we went thru on the bikes and I actually dropped my bike. There is video footage and yeah, I was so concerned about not getting the bike wet and dropping that the idea of crocs didn't even enter my mind - until later on that night :-) Great to hear you guys are having fun, looking fwd to hearing all about it when you guys get back, but for now keep on enjoying the journey!!