The Dusty Bar at Home Valley Station

DRIVE: El Questro to Home Valley Station (50km).

Leaving El Questro, we spot the resident donkey on the side of the road standing perfectly still and looking forlorn. Jen tells me to pull over as she wants to pat the donkey and say goodbye. Jen hates seeing animals distressed so she just wants to comfort the donkey. As she walks up to the donkey, it catches her eye and suddenly bolts, dashing down the dirt road, it’s little legs spinning at 100 mile an hour, as if it had seen a ghost or something. It’s so funny. It wasn’t the reaction Jen was expecting and last time we heard, the donkey had been sighted on the Gibb River Road scared shitless on its way to Broome...

From El Questro it’s just 50km to Home Valley Station and our first real taste of the dirt, dust and corrugation of the Gibb River Road.

The highlight for the day was supposed to be the Pentecost River Crossing as we had seen video footage of the crossing in full flow. With the driest of wet seasons since the 70’s, the river is barely a couple of puddles across the rocky river bed so its no challenge to navigate in the 4WD.

CAMP: Home Valley Station / 1 Night.

We choose our unpowered shady sites for the night and unwind. Jen explores the area and takes some interesting shots. The rock sculptures with a rock the shape of Australia in between them is of note. There are lots of young families here and the kids are having a ball, bare feet and running wild having their own fun adventures and chasing bulls away.

Home Valley Station has an excellent restaurant called Dusty Bar and travellers drive for miles just to enjoy a meal. We will have to choose between tuna pasta from our supplies or a Chicken Parma at Dusty Bar. This may well be the last opportunity for a dine out experience for a while so we choose the Parma at Dusty Bar. Now that was a meal and a half. Jen chooses the Pork Ribs and they are massive.Read more