We started the day with a little bit of a 4x4 adventure on an El Questro track called Saddle Back Ridge. A long steep climb with lots of "steps" and a few off camber hairpins before arriving at a lookout that gave a good 360 degree view of the property. That seemed like a good note on which to take our leave from El Questro and start the "famous" Gibb River road.
The first highlight of the day was Pentecost Crossing which is pretty. It is where the Gibb River Road crosses the Pentecost River. I was a bit surprised to find it was without a bridge given how much traffic this road seems to get. Fortunately the river was low and the crossing a non-event. I guess in the wet season this crossing closes the road for months on end.
Stop number two was Home Valley Station, another cattle station that has become a high-end tourist resort. We stopped there for coffee and cake, which gave us an excuse to take a look at the place. Nina found the sign in photo 10 in the ladies rest room.
Our camp for the night was at Ellenbrae Station yet another cattle station that is diversifying into the tourist business. Not quite as up-market as the others I have mentioned it non-the-less perhaps is the prettiest and quaintest of all the stations we have stopped at on this trip.
Before setting up camp and bringing the day to an end we took a little side excursion to Sandy Gorge and its large water hole which is on the Ellenbrae property.
There were perhaps twenty groups/vehicles in the Ellenbrae campground by the time the sun set. As a side note I have not mentioned that now that we are back in Western Australia our clocks have gone forward 1.5 hours so that the day is a bit distorted. Sunset is about 5:00pm and sunrise 6:00am.