Mount Elizabeth Station

It was a lovely morning and before heading out I took some pictures of the area.

Our first stop today was the Gibb River Road store, it advertised ice cream and fuel. Our fuel light had just come on so an ideal time to fill up. We do have plenty of spare fuel with us but much better to keep that in reserve. We pulled up to the “store” (shack) and Clyde came out to pump the fuel for us, a big local aboriginal ready for a chat. That suited Trevor and Jock cause you know how they like a yarn. Michelle, Emma and I headed inside the store to check out the ice cream freezer. What a disappointment, it was empty and no coffee!! We had a wander about looking at the expensive goods, $5 for a pkt of chips (crisps). We checked out the small art area and saw some lovely little paintings with silhouette boabs on them, they really were lovely but $25 each. Early days yet, will wait and see what other nice things we find on the road. Apart from that, Michelle and I reckoned we could do our own…..watch this space!!! lol Jock asked Clyde if we could top up our water and he told us to go for it. Excellent, fuel and water now we were set for a few more days free camping. Like the fuel we do have spare water but again best kept.

Once again there were lots of lovely birds to see, Clyde was telling us there were 130 different species in this area alone. Clyde also assured us that the road does get better about 20k onwards. At the moment it is thick red dust and terrible corrugation. Our next planned stop was Hahn River, we pulled in there and decided it was not suitable and continued up the road. Michelle found a gorge for us to go and see, 11k off the main highway so we all agreed what a great idea. Warla Gorge. Well, the description was, rocky road but ends right next to the beach at the gorge, perfect right???? OMG! It was a one lane track through trees, no where to turn around and the rocks were more like boulders. Remember we are towing a caravan! Trevor had gone ahead and at the beginning when we first saw the track Jock radioed Trevor and said, “did you go along the track with all the boulders”? Trevor came back, “yep”. So Jock gingerly started over the rocks wondering if this really was a good idea. It was a very slow 11k’s and some of it was a bit hairy but OMG great fun. Had we been on our own we probably would not have taken the track but so glad we did.

Sure enough the track finally took us to the beach side of the gorge. Not much water but was lovely to see. It was always in the back of my mind that we had to go back the same way!! We opened all the windows of the caravan and left the dogs in there. There had been huge signs on the way in about dog baiting so we were not going to take any chances. Jock also checked the van with that being such a rough ride, all was good. We did see a tree on our way that Trevor clipped. We took lots of pics and had a wander along the gorge.

Now for the return trip. I have to say it didn’t feel so bad on the way back, we knew what was coming. So Highline caravans can be pleased with themselves as the van took the whole thing in its stride. Jock definitely enjoyed this kind of driving. We met Michelle and Trevor back at the gate and decided time was getting on, we definitely did not want to be on the road coming into dusk so we would pull in at Elizabeth Station just up the road. It is a huge camping facility but nothing special considering all the wonderful places we had camped for free. Every was tired so we ate, showered and retired. Did not bother to unhook cars as we would be heading off first thing in the morning.