Thursday, 21 May 2026
Woo hoo, this morning we woke to some sunshine. We have not seen the sun since Saturday so that was cause for excitement. On the plus side, we have been able to do some hiking on days when it has been cooler. There’s something about blue sky and sunshine that makes you feel better about being on holidays though.
Bernie purchased fuel yesterday afternoon from El Questro’s bowser. Very expensive diesel at $3.70/litre, but we do not want to be running short of fuel on this stretch driving on the Gibb River Road, where services are many hundreds of kilometres apart.
We were packed up and ready to leave at 8.00am along with a cohort of other drivers departing from The Station. We had to queue up at the Pentecost River to wait for our turn to drive through 57 centimetres of water. The river is navigable up to 80 centimetres (with a snorkel) but I am very glad that we didn’t have to make our way through it at that depth!
We drove back out to the Gibb River Road, where we turned right. Another day where we are going backwards before we go forwards. Bernie had set the SatNav for Emma Gorge but silly Syri had no idea. All we had to do was turn right, drive for ten kilometres and then turn left. Syri wanted us to stay on the Gibb River Road for 77 kilometres. No idea where she was trying to take us??
Although it is on the northern side of the Gibb River Road, Emma Gorge is still part of El Questro and, like The Station, managed by Discovery Parks. We parked the car, loaded water bottles in our packs and set out on the Grade 4, 3.2 kilometres hike into Emma Gorge. Further described as ‘mostly flat (I beg to differ) with some short steep sections’ and ‘a rough track with many obstacles, loose and slippery rocks and limited shade’. Part of the Cockburn Range, the scenic gorge trail took us through varied vegetation – grassland, rainforest and a fern pool – past crystal clear pools and culminated with the Emma Gorge Pool and Falls at the head of the gorge.
Once again, the walk was made more difficult by someone going off-piste! A blue diamond marker was missed and we ended up off the track and may have been responsible for leading three other hikers astray. Bernie persevered blazing his own trail. I chickened out on his alternate route and was very close to turning around to head back to the car park. One of the other three hikers and I blazed another alternate route which involved clambering over burnt tree branches. I had told the gentleman leading the way that I was very close to turning back and was not happy with Bernie. He told me you aren’t having a good holiday until you’ve argued with your partner, ha, ha. His companions back tracked to the point where they last knew they were on the right track and then … went the right way to re-join him.
I really think that I am close to having done enough gorge hikes? Yes, they are all different, but also a bit same, same, and I have lost my hiking mojo a bit after the couple of slips I took on Tuesday. Anyhow, I persevered to the end with this one and the Turquoise Pool and the Emma Gorge Pool and Falls were very pretty. We had decided not to carry our bathers to swim, knowing that we would get all hot and sweaty again on the return hike, even if we did cool off in Emma Gorge Pool. Those who were swimming told us that the water was very cold. Brr.
Back at the car park, we checked with the kiosk/restaurant to see if we could buy sandwiches. No basic sangas on offer, only burgers, chicken and chips, fish and chips and steak sandwiches. They also had a small selection of pies and cheese and spinach pastries. All sounding way to greasy and heavy. We decided to break out tuna pouches from the pantry box and put our tuna into a wrap to make it more substantial. Then, because the kiosk was selling our favourite ice-creams, we called an early Spice o’clock.
We were back on the road, heading west, just before 1.00pm heading for Ellenbrae Station tonight. Twenty-four kilometres beyond the El Questro turn off, we arrived at the Pentecost River Crossing. At this point the Pentecost River has joined with the Chamberlain and Salmond Rivers and is much wider than it is inside El Questro. We were worried we might be the only ones there in the middle of the day, imagining that most travellers would be crossing earlier or later.
However, there were lots of people about. There were several caravans that looked like they were set up to bush camp. Then there was the guy who parked his Landcruiser, put on water shoes and headed into the river with a weighted net to fish for bait. Whaaaaaat? Our Atlas & Guide to the Kimberley, stated quite emphatically ‘DO NOT walk this river crossing – the Pentecost is home to a healthy population of estuarine crocodiles’.
Bernie mucked around with the drone for a while. He thought he was going to be able to rig it to track the truck across the river. While he did that, I watched the vehicles over the other side of the river, where the owners were filling buckets from the river – the one with the crocs in it – and sluicing down their 4WDs to clean the worst of the mud off. One of these drivers then came charging across the river (west to east), turned his 4WD around and charged back across the river (east to west) at the same time as his mate crossed west to east. What a couple of lads. After this showing off, they took off west. Doubt we will see these two Go Faster Boys again.
In the meantime, Bernie couldn’t get the drone to ‘active track’ so he was going to pack it away. I asked if he could just send it up to hover on the other side of the river? Yeah, that could work, he agreed. Bernie put the drone up and into the Pentecost we drove. Slow and steady got us to the other side. Figuring there was plenty of croc bait in the river, I jumped out on the other side to take a photo of the truck with the river and the Cockburn Range behind it, unaware that Bernie was panicking because he didn’t know where the drone was. Couldn’t see it and it wasn’t responding to instructions to come home.
Bernie was super stressed about it and swearing up a storm. He thought that it must’ve decided that ‘home’ was where it took off from … on the other side of the river. He was preparing to drive back across the river to retrieve it, but finally managed to fly it back over the river towards us. He was very relieved once he could see it and then guided it in to land. Phew! There were now more drivers stopped in the middle of the river, washing their 4x4s down. Seriously, is it worth the risk??
We continued past the junction for the Home Valley Station, climbing into the Pentecost Range. Not far from the junction, we stopped at the Cockburn Range Lookout for the view over the Pentecost River valley and what would be our last look at the amazing Cockburn Range. With 95 kilometres still to travel, before reaching the Ellenbrae turn off, the bitumen stopped. Now this was more like what we had expected of the Gibb River Road experience.
Even with no bitumen, the road was in excellent shape. It is still early in the season though, so there hasn’t been much traffic to chop it up. The guide to the Gibb River Road in our atlas indicates that the road can be pretty corrugated after the July school holidays. The road alternated between long sections of good unsealed road and butumenised jump ups. We had a few muddy creek crossings and a couple still with water in them. One of them, Bamboo Creek, was very pretty. The mud and water still on/over the road was probably due to the unseasonal rain over the weekend.
Twenty-one kilometres from the Ellenbrae turn off, we reached the more major, Durack River, which still had a considerable amount of water in it. Not on the same scale as the Pentecost River, it was still a little bit daunting, especially as this time, we were well and truly on our own with no other vehicles about.
Our second big water crossing for the day out of the way, we continued towards Ellenbrae. At the turn off, we made a right turn to drive along the five kilometre approach to the station. Every kilometre (or so) they had a sign up encouraging you to keep driving for comfortable accommodation, hot showers and … their famous scones with jam and cream.
We parked and made our way to reception. We juggled our accommodation around a bit here, when we added a night at El Questro. Originally we were going to be in the Wren humpy last night and it wasn’t going to be available tonight, so we were in an alternate humpy. But, the person who booked Wren for tonight cancelled so, we are back in Wren. Our room tariff includes our scones with jam and cream, so we were asked it we wanted to have them now for afternoon tea, or in the morning for breakfast or to take with us tomorrow. It was 4.00pm, so we decided on scones for afternoon tea. Really good scones! Somehow, though, I managed to drop cream down the front of my shirt and on the leg of my shorts. What a piglet.
We were shown to the Wren humpy, with the amenities and the camp kitchen being pointed out on the way. This is going to be my biggest challenge so far. Our room is a bedroom only. NO ENSUITE BATHROOM! We are about 50 metres from the amenities. I am going to stop drinking now!! Can I get through the night without needing to pee??? Bernie is cooking us a curry for dinner though, so that is a plus.
Steps: 10,962 (6.07kms)
