21-22 June Home Valley Station

Tim and I decided to move on down the Gibb River Road towards Kununurra and Home Valley station whereas the rest of our group is going to stay on at King Edward River and then head further up Kalumbaru road to the coast and the Aboriginal community of Kalumbaru for a few days.
Weird to be travelling solo again. The kids will miss their friends. Especially the Webbs as we may not see them again until they come through Sydney sometime in the future. We will catch up again with the others in Kununurra in a few days time.
The scenery as we got close to Home Valley is very reminiscent of scenes from Australia – the movie. Home Valley is apparently where many of the Kimberley scenes were shot. They even have an Australia – the movie tour. Yikes!
Home Valley station certainly gives a sense that we are now back to civilisation. Very glitzy, green oasis with a swimming pool and playground. We opted to stay at the homestead camp (next to the swimming pool) rather than the bush camp by the Pentecost River so that the kids can swim. The Pentecost River is a haunt of the saltwater crocodile so no swimming there!
As a bit of a treat and to supplement the dwindling food supplies, we had dinner at the homestead which was lovely with a didgeridoo show for entertainment. Did you know that it is Aboriginal custom that only men are allowed to play the didgeridoo? Tim and Nick both got up on stage and gave it a go, with mixed success.This place really is a few notches above anything we have stayed at since we left Derby. For example, I am writing this blog while sitting in the shade by the pool sipping a skim flat white! Wouldn’t have been able to that anywhere else in the Kimberley. Although Home Valley is very nice, the bush camp we stayed at by the King Edward River near Mitchell Plateau is our preferred style of camping –basic, remote, waterfalls to play in, river to swim in and a campfire to spend the evening by.

Lara enjoyed spending time perfecting her mud pikelets recipe whilst Sammy cooked up some edible pikelets for afternoon tea.