Day 159

5 July 2013

This morning we left home valley bound for more adventure on the Gibb!

We had decided to make our next stop Ellenbrae which is another homestead, less known but plenty of signage off the road. It is 5km off the Gibb on a fairly well graded road and the road opens up to a beautifully manicured garden and homestead, you can just stop here for scones and some lunch but they also have camping on the property and a few waterholes and gorges to see.

We paid our camp fees and got directions to the campground which isn't far from the homestead. The manager kept saying things like "the donkey has been going all morning so it will be nice and hot, if not there's plenty of wood to chuck on the donkey" ... I said to Joel as we were setting up what the hell was that lady talking about a donkey? Us city slickers had no idea until we went to check out the amenities. The amenity block is a very rustic bush style stone building and as you walk in there is a big round metal barrel with steam coming out the top and a couple of signs around ...

We finally figured out that this is how you get hot water in the bush! You burn wood! And the toilet and shower and even bath were very rustic but it was very inventive I think!

We went for the quick walk to the waterhole and Joel had his boardies on so decided that after saying he wasn't sure if the water was warm on his feet or they were just numb from it being so cold, he would just jump in and see what happened! Luckily no fresh crocs were around while he was swimming but it was so cold he was only in there for a quick minute!

Spent the afternoon doing some dishes and talking to the father of the daughter who manages the homestead. Thought I would try out the donkey and shower even though I had just listened to about 10 oldish people complain about the dirty water and that the water was cold. Turned on the hot, was bloody hot so not sure what those people were taking about and yea it was a bit dirty but they pump the water out of the creek so it's not going to be crystal clear and it was clean water so I had a great shower! And when I got out I had about 5 people jump on me and say...was it cold, was it dirty? It was really funny listening to all these people whinge huh, they were just loving the sound of there own voices and once you get a few people on the bandwagon in a small place like that...well everyone just runs with it! Haha

Warm, clean, spent night in front of the fire after cooking our lamb chops in the camp oven and trying to stay warm....bloody freezing!

Carly & Joel

 

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