Gibb River Rd – Ellenbrae Station – 12 to 13 August 2010

We left King Edward River reluctantly and retraced our steps to Drysdale Station and then back to the Gibb River Road. We had lunch again at Drysdale Station and not long after lunch we encountered the two Whippets, one a 1926 Vintage and the other a 1928 Vintage. We stopped, chatted and donated to the Make a Wish Foundation, their fund raising project. The Whippets, built in the old Holden body works in South Australia on a Willys Overland Chassis and Engine were doing fine, but the trailer of their support vehicle had broken a spring. So much for modern engineering on these primitive roads!!
Having rejoined the Gibb River Road we drove on in relative smoothness to Ellenbrae Station, now owned by Rino Grollo, and an oasis of scones and tea in the pastoral landscape. We loved the series of welcome signs as we drove up the entry road, and the welcome was indeed warm and friendly.





At the campsite were happy to see an old style “Donkey” hot water service, which reminded us of our first house. Being experts so to speak we fired it up in the morning for our hot showers, much to the delight of other campers, all of whom were foreign German, French,Dutch and Japanese tourists possibly intimidated by the imposing bulk and presence of the Donkey, like some dark sentinel in the middle of the camp kitchen.
We enjoyed our brief stay here, there is a nice waterhole by the campsite and we had the luxury of tea and scones before setting off in the morning. The Double Barred Finches were almost tame as they flocked to the seeds in the bird feeder.