Wilsons on the road: Friday 7 June 2013

Friday 7 June 2013 - Drysdale Station

We’ve had a busy time these last few days. After leaving Digger’s Rest, we set off straight to Home Valley Station, which has a great playground and pool for the kids. The added bonus was the arrival of Mum and Dad and their tour group, who all arrived on the ‘bus truck’ they’d been touring the Gibb with for the past few days. The next morning we followed them to El Questro (the opposite direction to which we had been travelling, but it was only about 50km), where we all spent two nights.

The kids had an awesome time, not only with their own grandparents but with all the others who were quite happy to adopt them as stand-ins for their own grandchildren! Glenn helped out with the battery issues the driver had been having with the bus and we were very kindly invited to share dinner with them for the two nights at El Questro in return.

While we were there, the girls and I joined Mum and Dad on a sunset cruise of Chamberlain Gorge, which included champagne and local Ord Valley fruit. (I bumped into a couple who we’d first met at Digger’s Rest on the boat too!) At the end of the gorge, we were joined by some archer fish, a turtle, a few catfish and a couple of barra! Afterwards we went to check out the Durack Tree and the oldies drank sundowners as the sun, well, went down.

The following morning, Mum and I went on a two hour horse ride, which included some little creek crossings, a bit of trotting and some quite varied country. On returning, it was a quick smoko and then we drove a few k back to do the El Questro Gorge walk (it had a few deep creek crossings on the way there). The gorge walk should really be called a rock clamber – it’s billed as the most challenging one on the property. Because we had the girls, we decided to only go to the halfway point, which had a little swimming hole to cool off in. Glenn would have loved to have done the whole thing, but he wouldn’t have been able to take Sienna on the backpack for the second leg (apparently it got quite awkward) and as Grandpa had been carrying Yasmin over most of the walk, there’s no way she would have coped with it either. But it was still a good one and we were all pleasant exhausted at the end of it.

Glenn doing his technical stuff at Home Valley Station

Sienna getting technical on the playground

Yasmin's turn

Sienna and Grandma

Yasmin and Grandma

View from our second Pentecost crossing

Yasmin posing (she'd already done her bush wee, she just chose to stand that way...)

Look what we found on the side of the Gibb!

Pretty water

Sunset cruise at Chamberlain Gorge

The rock almost glows in the afternoon sun

Pretty

Big rock

It's a barra, bottom centre/right

Happy cuddles

Almost looks fake... not sure whether it's been touched up or not but was my first Aboriginal art sighting

More rocky gorge images

Yasmin and a sunset

Grandpa cuddles at El Questro Gorge

Grandma braves the cool water in the gorge

Looking up at the top of the gorge

The little waterhole

Sun's in our eyes

Snake snoozing in a rock crevice

Glenn and Sienna on the walk back

Swimming at Zebedee Springs

Grandma at Zebedee

Looking up at Zebedee

The 'crocodile bus' and Grandma and Grandpa's Adventure Wild tour group

After saying goodbye to everyone at Zebedee Springs (beautiful little thermal springs at El Questro) yesterday, we set off westward again, driving for a few hours until we reached the Durack River crossing. There were a few little free camps there that were nice enough, if a little exposed to the sun, so we pulled up for the day. After an uneventful evening, we set off again in the morning.

Ellenbrae Station was only 20km up the road and we stopped in for a delicious Devonshire Tea (the scones were huge – Glenn and I both agree they’d have to be the best ones we’ve ever seen!) and a little look-see. We then pushed on until we hit the Kalumburu Road turnoff, where we stopped for (our second) smoko. After a painful 60km (not caused by the corrugations but by Sienna whingeing and moaning), we finally arrived at Drysdale Station. We decided to camp by the river (a few k down the road), but had lunch and did a load of washing at the homestead first. We got chatting to the blokes in the shop and one of them asked us where we were from, saying our faces were familiar. When he learnt we were from Mackay, we discovered he knows Buddy, our neighbour and good mate in Shoal Point! (His name was Wayne Matthews, from the gas works – if any of our other neighbours are reading this, you can pass it on to Bud for us.)

Drysdale is much less ‘dressed-up’ than Home Valley and El Questro, although it looks like it still gets busy here as there’s stacks of room in both campgrounds. As I mentioned, the Miner’s Camp is down by the river, which is quite pretty. Apparently it’s safe to swim, but we didn’t because it wasn’t really hot enough as there was a bit of cloud cover and a fair bit of wind today. It must have been an ill wind though, as both girls were quite out of sorts this afternoon and were packed off to bed at 6:30pm sharp! Glenn and I enjoyed our dinner (a tasty Eddie curry) beside the fire and after doing the dishes, decided to kick back in bed and watch a movie on the laptop. Our first bit of ‘TV’ since we started the trip (excluding the intermittent viewing at Mittiebah and Limbunya)!