A Series of Unexpected Events

 

Sunday 6 June 2021 – A series of unexpected events

Coffee and cereal and another shower in the ablutions as they are so nice and we have paid for another night here so we may as well get our money’s worth!  As we hadn’t unhitched it was a relatively quick pack up and we were back on the road by about 7.30am.  The road was just as rough heading out and sometimes the corrugations were a bit hard to see as the morning sun was still low enough to throw long shadows over the road but somehow the trip didn’t seem so bad.  Maybe because it was mostly downhill back to the GRR so maybe a bit of gravity assisted driving helps iron out the bumps!

The first part of the GRR wasn’t too bad and we made fairly good progress.  We passed signs for “Fuel in 5km” and realised that Gibb River Station is now a bit bigger an operation than it has been in the past when we have passed it and this was confirmed when all our phones started pinging and downloading emails, facebook messages etc so they have obviously upgraded their tower recently also.  We pulled over to check what messages we had and then rang Kate and Ben to check on them but it being 9am on a Sunday morning they either didn’t answer or weren’t very conversational. 

Just as Larry got impatient with Jenny checking social media and started to drive off again he noticed something out of the corner of his eye and as he slowed again the tyre that had been tethered to the roof rack slowly slid down the front windscreen and landed on the front bonnet. That got Jenny off social media quick smart!  We were so lucky it decided to come off just when we were going so slowly – it could have been quite a big deal if we had been doing 70km at the time!  As it was, we were already pulled over to the side of the road where there was a big sandy bank so it wasn’t too hard for the two of us to lift it back into position and strap it down tightly again and, amazingly considering the traffic on the GRR, absolutely no-one came past as we were doing so and therefore we didn’t get liberally coated in dust.

The rest of the trip was relatively uneventful even with plenty more water crossings than we have seen on the Gibb in the past.  We made the turn into Ellenbrae Station and headed straight up to the Homestead.  The car park was very busy and we met up with the people we had seen come in late at Mornington with no lights on their Jayco pop  top and chatted to them for a while as they had waved us around them just before the turnoff to Ellenbrae even though we had told them we were happy to follow them in.  They have had no end of bad luck with lots going wrong with both car and van and Larry offered to help them with a new Andersen plug but they had only stopped at Ellenbrae for scones and were going to head on El Questro where they would have power so we continued on inside to book in for 2 nights and to eat an early lunch of toasted sandwich and scones.  The place was heaving and we had to queue as, just like everywhere on the Gibb, the number of tourists far outweighs workers but Logan and Larissa were doing a great job and still warm and friendly to all and everyone was happy and patient so it was all good.  The poor things had a few people helping them serve etc but they had a sign up offering free scones and accommodation for anyone who was willing to help them out for a day, a week or whatever they could manage.

We ate up quickly and headed down to Ringer’s campground but even by noon it was filling up and all the best spots next to the creek bed were taken.  We found a little island on the ring road with some shade and set up so we don’t have anyone right on top of us at least.  We noticed an MDC Forbes 13 near us so later on we went and chatted to the owners and talked MDC’s and Larry took the opportunity to check out their door seals to see what the newer vans have compared to ours which does let in quite a lot of dust in the door area.

About 3ish we put on our togs and headed down to the creek for a swim.  As per usual we paddled and chatted to various other groups about our trip and their trips and what the rumours and facts are about what’s happening along the GRR.  Interesting because someone had told us that hardly anything was open at Drysdale Station and you couldn’t get meals there this year but a bloke at the stream told us he’d been there a few days ago and they had just got a chef and were doing meals and so on and so on.

We had the place to ourselves for about 5 seconds before a family with four kids under the age of about 8 turned up and 3 of the kids stripped off to nothing and leapt in the water whilst Mum sat on the bank breastfeeding the youngest and talking on the phone whilst Dad stood in the shallows making sure the 2 year old didn’t drown (none of them had any floaties or anything) so Jenny stayed out in the river with the older two and made sure they didn’t drown whilst they pretended to be crocodiles and swam out and around her.  Actually they were all very good swimmers and when they got tired they knew how to turn on their backs and float and Dad was teaching the little one the same technique and explaining to him to keep his lungs full of air to help keep him afloat.

Eventually their exuberance tired Jenny out so we headed back to the van for hot showers and a change of clothes and then it was time to put the Sunday roast.  We figured if the Mum had been able to sit on the riverbank on the phone we should check our phones.  I was able to ring and check on Kate (happily holidaying in Busselton at the end of exams) and Ben (still plodding through assignments and eating frozen dinners) and then Larry found the next unexpected thing for the day on Facebook – Jacob and Danni have got engaged!   So we then rang them to send our love and congratulations – what exciting news!

Had a couple of Broome gin and tonics to celebrate and to eat with yet another delicious roast dinner.  A waft of cool area through the campground had us digging jumpers out of the bottom of cupboards.  The campground went dead quiet at about 9pm so another day on the Gibb ends with just a few surprises for us today.