Emma Gorge

Saturday 3 June 2023 – El Questro to Home Valley

Only a fairly short distance to travel today so there was time for a cooked breakfast and a leisurely pack up.  Cooked breakfast consisted of French Toast to use up the last of the Turkish bread and Kununurra loaf and that was energy enough for a new plan to be hatched of driving the two vans straight to Emma Gorge and doing the walk straight up before it got too hot.  Amanda and Aida were booked to go horse riding at El Questro this morning so we left them behind and we will meet up at Home Valley.

We drove slowly to Emma Gorge on the bitumen as the tyre pressures were still down but we were early enough that there was plenty of room in the caravan parking area to park our two vans.  The boys headed off to do the walk just after 9am and Jenny decided, in order not to slow them down too much as there were plenty more creek and rock crossings to be done, just to stay at the Emma Gorge resort with a coffee, a book and a comfy chair and to enjoy a couple of hours of downtime.

The boys were back within a couple of hours so they had made good time.  L had had a dip in the freezing cold Gorge water but Swampy had conveniently forgotten to wear any boardies and had to sit on the edge. 

We left Emma Gorge around 11am and headed east eventually leaving the bitumen behind when we got to the Pentecost river crossing.  Trundled across easily and before we knew it we were at the turn off to Home Valley Station.  We haven’t been able to come here since 2016 as it was closed after changing management and then with Covid so was interesting to see how it’s changed.

An interesting system of booking for the riverside area where we camped previously with Ben and now there are apparently allocated riverside campsites and then a free for all behind those whereas previously the whole area had been a free for all.  We had booked the allocated riverside bays last night and the first suspicion should have come when we checked in and were told we could just take any riverside sites we wanted in order to be together.

Of course when we got down to the river it was obvious that the whole campground was still a free for all with a whole lot of cars and tents parked up in our allocated bays so we just found space where we could and parked up next to each other.  When the Adamsons arrived a bit later on they parked behind us to make a U Shape so all good.

We fired up the air fryer and a tasty lunch of party pies and chicken karaage bites was enjoyed.  The Adamsons set off to the pool area but we were content to sit and watch the river and read our books.  We were only a little dismayed to watch car after car arrive and cram into the space to the left of us and around the gazebo area.  Probably a mistake to have parked so close to it but we had booked riverside spots and so had been determined to take the ones available.

We got a campfire going and sat watching the sun slowly set and the changing colours across the Cockburn Ranges.  Quite a still night so lovely reflections across the Pentecost River and not long after the tide came rushing in and quite a strong flow.

Shaun’s yummy chicken curry for dinner with rice went down a treat and we then used up the last of the marshmallows on the fire for dessert.  We then wandered down to the river’s edge with our torches to see if we could see any croc eyes reflecting in their light but didn’t see anything other than the popeyed mullet leaping around in the shallows of the rapidly rising river.  Amazing how tidal the Pentecost river is.

A warm night but enough of a breeze to blow smoke from our fire straight into our caravan so a fairly unpleasant time trying to get to sleep with a closed up, warm van and lots of people talking and laughing nearby to deal with.  Gave up trying to sleep and played on my tablet until about 11.30pm so a very late night by caravanning standards.