Day 18: Ellenbrae to Gibb River

August 5, 2022

I toyed with the idea of leaving before they started cooking the scones at 8am but then decided to stop kidding myself.

Instead I went to look at the waterhole just behind the camp site

Then lined up at 8am for two scones and an iced coffee frappe

It is tough on these isolated WA roads. Actually I felt a little ill after eating all of that but it kept me going for a good 40ks.

As I was making my way back out the driveway, an APT tour bus stopped and a woman got out and said “are you Clare?”. They had been talking to Davin at Doon Doon a few days ago and he’d told them to look out for me.

They took that to mean, give me food. Thanks Davin!

I passed the grader working about 10k west of Ellenbrae so the road was significantly rougher than yesterday. The road passed through a low range of red stony hills which made good views when I wasn’t watching the corrugations.

After the range, it was soon time for lunch at Russ creek. I say these names like they’re land marks, actually this was a fairly unremarkable creek but I had it marked on the map as a potential campsite cause Vince camped here.

Not as nice as yesterday’s lunch spot where I did not take a photo

I saw a black snake go slithering into a bush not far from where I was sitting. I find it hard not to stop for at least an hour but I was trying to push on. The road was alright leading along a spur for a good while until about 15k to the Kalumburu turn off when the road dropped down.

I took a photo cause I thought it was a scenic descent, turned out to be a roughly 40k floodplain of corrugations down there

It was a slog along a sandy, corrugated floodplain down the bottom but was at least quite shady and greener than before. I’m not sure if the country is changing or it has burnt more recently.

I let some air out of my tyres after I got stuck in a sandy side and that helped a bit. I was still very glad to see the Kalumburu turnoff. It’s a big rest area and no one was there except a stockman in a ute waiting for a truck from Derby. Some people in the wyndham caravan park told me they camped at the Gibb River. I thought it was 5k down the Kalumburu Road and wasn’t sure I could be bothered but i checked on my GPS and it was only 3. That is a primary school cross country so I decided I could make it. The road was actually alright as well and there was a caravan convention/swimming carnival happening at the river when I arrived. I was very glad I’d made the effort to ride in as I had a cooling swim in the deep water. I camped next to a family who had turned into Ellenbrae as I was leaving this morning and were very impressed. They offered me dinner but, for starters they were cooking chicken, and I had some capsicum and carrot to use up as my last fresh food from Kununurra. Someone was streaming an AFL game on the other side of the river but I did not investigate. Two big days on the Gibb had done me in.

Today's ride: 75 km (47 miles)
Total: 1,177 km (731 miles)

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