Gibb River Road

We've driven the Gibb River Road and made it!

As we left Fitzroy Crossing we engaged 4WD and said goodbye to the bitumen for a while! Our first stop was the underground cave system at Tunnel Creek. We had to wade through sections of cold water about waist deep. (Thanks Mum and Bruce - the LED Lenser torches were great to explore the cave with, we ended up with hangers-on as their torches weren’t up to the job!). The cave was really beautiful, including one section with hundreds of bats hanging from the ceiling!

WINDJANA GORGE

We ended up staying at Windjana Gorge for two nights, the first night just kicking back with a cold beer watching the brilliant sunset colours change on the rock face. The next day we did the 7km gorge walk. Inside the gorge the vegetation is really lush in comparison to the surrounding savannah. We saw lots of freshwater crocodiles on the river banks and just floating in the water, as well as trees full of fruit bats, beautiful Jabiru Storks, Angler fish, fossils and some Aboriginal rock paintings of hands and figures.

Our camp cooking skills are improving and we have been experimenting with our new kitchen. But you’ll have to wait as we are going to include this in another blog at a later date!

Stuart spent a busy afternoon installing an air vent in the roof of the ute cab to pressurise the canopy and reduce the red dust being sucked in around the tailgate. It was a nerve-wrecking job as it involved cutting a hole in the relatively expensive canopy with a drill and hack saw! After days of thinking about it, then measuring up multiple times, Stuart plunged in and fitted the air vent, and did a really neat job! Well done Stuart!

...however...

We packed up the next morning and headed off to Silent Grove, chatting in the car about how much difference we hoped the new air vent might make. It wasn’t until we had driven about 100km of dusty, dirt road that we stopped to take a scenic picture and to Stuart’s horror, discovered he had left the back window of the canopy open after dumping the rubbish!!! No - an air vent will not matter squat if you leave the BLOODY BACK WINDOW OPEN! Needless to say, the entire cab and everything in it was covered in red dust! We spent the first hour at Silent Grove taking every piece of food and equipment out of the cab and cleaning it!! This was much to the amusement of our neighbour - a ‘Mick Dundee’ look-alike, who suggested that we “...give it a miss and get on the piss!”

SILENT GROVE

Three nights at Silent Grove saw us explore Lennard Gorge, swimming at Bell Gorge and climb to the top of Mt Chalmers (behind the campsite). This was a hard climb up with a beautiful view of the entire surrounding King Leopold Range. The walk started in a gully creek line with remnant rainforest and led up rock faces to a sparse landscape at the top. Stuart’s enthusiasm didn’t wane at the top, and was still suggesting we explore a few more gully’s on the way down! This didn’t happen however, as I was tired, had sore feet, blisters, and slipped and bruised both buttocks on some pointy rocks, however Stuart also ended up suffering his share of discomfort, as he had been severely attacked by something, possible pepper ticks and was absolutely covered in bites! More than I can count – poor bugger... especially since I didn’t have any!

Kicking back in camp after our trek, we were very surprised to see the ‘Desert Rat’ turn up at the campsite. The ‘Desert Rat’ is a modified Jeep Wrangler owned by one of Stuart’s mates (and staff) Scott Hunter. He purchased it last year and has spent a large sum building his ultimate dream machine. We had a good night with Scott and Kristy and were grateful for Scott’s cold beers (as we had run out the night before! Our buy next time Scott!).

MORNINGTON WILDERNESS SANCTUARY

Following Silent Grove we headed to Mornington Wilderness Sanctuary for two nights. This is about 90km off the Gibb River Road. It is a very beautiful place with an abundance of wildlife and some great information handouts that we enjoyed reading out at different points as we drove along the tracks to the gorges. We watched the sunset from St John Gorge and paddled our kayaks down the impressive Dimond Gorge (this was the proposed site for a dam on the Fitzroy River!). As most people hire canoes that are permanently stationed at Dimond Gorge, we had to carry our kayaks 200m to a point upstream of the hire canoes. This also meant that we encountered a small rapid which I thought was great fun! In the evenings we enjoyed drinks at the bush bar and dinner at the outdoor restaurant.

GALVINS GORGE AND MANNING GORGE

Back onto the Gibb River Road we found two of the most beautiful gorges yet - Galvins Gorge and Manning Gorge. Neither of them were originally on our list to see, but were stunning places! An interesting little quirk at Manning Gorge (despite being top of our feral campsite list), was that they provided styrofoam boxes to put all your belongings in to swim across the river. The river crossing is part of the trail to the gorge! It was great fun!

Once again back on the Gibb River Road, we had some decisions to make.... We were running out of supplies, Michelle’s feet were giving in from all the walking, and by all reports - the eastern section of the Gibb River Road was really rough from the late rains and the road to Mitchell River was quite a bit worse! To top it off the Mt Barnett Roadhouse had run out of diesel (awaiting the fuel delivery)! So we parked up, broke out the maps and calculator and begrudgingly decided to skip the Mitchell Plateau and Drysdale Station, and headed straight to El Questro, where we could refuel and soak in the warm Zebedee Springs! (Michelle’s feet liked the sound of that!)

Just over the Hann River crossing, we came across a Britz camper parked on an awkward angle just past the crossing. We stopped to see if they were alright, to find that the old guy driving had broken down the night before. He was actually a ‘relocation driver’ for Britz and was on his way to Drysdale Station to swap the vehicle for another one that had a busted alternator. We were astounded to find that no one had stopped to help him, just driving by with a wave!!! He had no water left, no food and no communication. So we gave him some food and water, and let him use the sat phone to make some arrangements, for which he was very grateful.

EL QUESTRO WILDERNESS PARK (the Disneyland of the Kimberley... he he)

We arrived at El Questro after a long drive, including crossing the Pentacost River. Very wide, very beautiful, saltwater croc territory, but it was only a foot or so deep and nothing to worry about in the end!

We rocked into El Questro through some very stunning Kimberley country, and arrived at the ‘Township’, an expanse of green lawn, manicured gardens, white painted fences, stone buildings, horses, pigs, helicopters and cattle wandering everywhere. We set up on the grass amongst the wandering cows and had to have a giggle at how the place resembled a ranch theme park – featuring a ute driving around painting like a cow, and a guy mustering the cows through the campsites with a stockwhip!

We spent the first day just doing nothing (apart from the mountain of washing we had!) Kicking back in the evenings with some cold Little Creatures beer was pretty relaxing too! We spent the next day soaking up Zebedee Springs and exploring up El Questro Gorge. We bumped into the ‘Desert Rat’ again, finishing off the day with a bit of fishing with Scott on the Pentecost River (no barramundi, only a couple of catfish) and some more drinks at the bar in the evening. Whilst packing up to leave the next morning, and much to our amusement, we found out that a grazing cow had trod on Scott sleeping in his swag during the night!

(On a side note – Scott and Kristy tried to get up to the Mitchell River and confirmed the roads were really, really rough, so we’re happy with our decision to skip it! They didn’t actually make in the end, as the road was closed due to a truck rollover!)

We’re now in Kununurra for a couple of days of relaxation, before heading on down to the Bungles. Stuart needs to clean out and modify the water tank on the camper, as during one of the deeper river crossings a whole heap of dirt washed into the tank via the overflow – we now have muddy water! I’m heading into town to check out pink diamonds and art galleries!

Mish & Stu