GRR Bush Camp, Ellenbrae. HV8, El Questro, Wyndham 2018

Getting away from the usual Must Do Places we were all keen to just do some camping in the bush, we found two very beautiful places off the road by following some tracks. One was called Frog Creek and it lived up to its name with hundreds of croaking frogs, there was also a large water monitor that liked eating frogs and it wasn't the least concerned about us interrupting his dinner.

 

Places like that and another spot we found are far more enjoyable to us than the tourist stops. Camp fire and five million star sky, beautiful.

But travelling the Gibb, you have to call in at places especially as the Billy's had not been here before,Gibb River Station, Ellenbrae Station, Home Valley Station and El Questro were all places we visited. At the GRR station i bought a music CD from the station owner / manager, it wont make the Hit Parade but it put us in the feel of being In The Outback,I don't think I've played it since though.

Ellenbrae was the go to place for a Coffee stop and Scones, Jam and Cream,they were nice BUT Vickie's are way better, Nice gardens though and some lovely finch's flying around the bird feeders. Years ago we stayed here and the campground was just a dusty unattractive area, nothing like the surrounds to the Station and shop.

 

Home Valley, this is the place to stop and wash away the dust and thirst, with two main camping areas, the Station and down by the Pentecost River,we chose the green grass of the Station with the swimming pool and Bar, we booked in for the evening meal which was very enjoyable with a guitar playing entertainer.

We left after two days but went and checked out the Pentecost River Camp, spectacular views especially at Sunset but we weren't hanging around another night at Home Valley prices so moved on to somewhere even dearer, El Questro.

Yes, we have been here before, checked out the attractions, gone for drives, It was busy and really not our scene, Dave and Jo took their opportunity to go up in a Helicopter but it meant staying an extra night, so we decided to leave them and head to Wyndham and have them catch up with us there.

The Caravan Park at Wyndham is quite good, we were not crammed in and had plenty of space. A mate told me to look out for any Gouldian Finches and i said i would, less than an hour after being asked i had found some and taken some photos to send to him, he couldn't believe my luck as he lived up in the Kimberley for many years and was a rare occurrence when he saw some.

We went up to the five rivers lookout for sunset and like previously it was very nice. One of our visits many years ago Vickie bought a carved Boab nut from a young local lad, Joseph Johnson, we asked another local if they knew him and it was sad to find out he had been killed by his wife a few years before.This wasn't a nice thing to hear and we felt very melancholy after wards.

Joseph Johnson, Boab nut carver [deceased]