It is a little over 100km along the Gibb from Home Valley Station to Ellenbrae, then 5 km off the Gibb to the station. Ellenbrae is another cattle station that runs camping facilities on the side during the dry season. It is famous, or is it just well known (?), for its daily baked scones with jam and cream. Some 21,149 were baked in the 2024 season. Looking forward to one, or two…

Leaving Home Valley we are greeted by 10km of sealed road, followed by 10km of gravel and then another 10km of sealed road.

For the next 70km it reverts to fairly good gravel, some rough spots and corrugations. In a couple of places we get short stretches of sealed road over steep climbs. The road is not too bad, maybe early in the season and it will deteriorate in coming weeks.

Some 16km from Home Valley there is a pull over area and a short drive down a bush track to the 10 minute walk to the Bindoola Gorge. Quite a spectacular view of the bottom pool, although the falls are not flowing.

Further along is the currently dry crossing of the Bindoola creek with water pooled either side of the roadway. Pretty spot. The creek is a tributary of the Pentecost and joins it down near the river campground at Home Valley Station.

The main river crossing on the way to Ellenbrae is the Durack River, named after the famous Kimberley pastoral dynasty. Like the Pentecost there is generally some water to navigate. The free camp here is being disrupted by extensive roadworks either side of the crossing. Sealing this area will make the approach and escape from the river much easier one suspects. Not too deep, but a but a bit of mud makes for a slippery exit for us.

We arrived at Ellenbrae mid afternoon and had some cloud and sun as we set up in the campground.

As the evening drew in clouds began building and light rain set in about 8pm. It got heavier as the night wore on. The weather bureau proved right and we sat under our awning the following day with steady drizzle and occasional down pours.

We decided to stay another day and dry out with the sunny conditions predicted. During the night all was good, no more rain. In the morning it was cloudy with patchy sun, but cleared up in the afternoon…blue sky at last to dry roads out!

Allthego went off on a short drive and had a swim at Sandy Gorge, a very nice quiet spot and true to name had some sandy banks and clear warm waters at least to waist deep.

The road reports are not good! The Gibb River Road is closed at the turnoff to Drysdale River Station, the Gibb River and further along the Drysdale River are flooded preventing access. This prevents us from driving up (without the van) to the Mitchell Falls by the 170km rough track to stay in the APT lodge for a couple of nights. Maybe a blessing anyway?

We are also unable to proceed further along the Gibb River Road as there is a flooded stretch too and that way is closed as well. The Hann River is reported at about 1.6m deep. We can do about 60cm ok. We can only go back!

So we are sitting pretty at Ellenbrae for a few days to see what happens road wise.