Dates : 28th July - 4th August
Weather : 8℃ to 33℃ - Clear blue Skies
Total Nights - 8 nights Staying - Various places
Thursday morning and we farewelled Broome, heading north towards Derby. The drive was about 2 hours, nothing too remarkable. Derby itself is a struggling town, but is the gateway to the Gibb River, so we headed in to the information centre for the must-have $5 booklet on the Gibb River Road.
First stop was the Prison Tree on the Derby to Broome Hwy - a Boab tree believe to be 1,500 years old.
We had booked in to Birdwood Downs Station, about 15km down the Gibb River road, where we pulled up for the night. Lots of unpowered sites, friendly travellers - we met around the campfire at 5pm, whilst Michelle rushed off at 5:30pm for sunset photos (cows and boab trees).
I felt like I was lucky when I took these photos - the Boab which I have fallen in love with was a perfect backdrop for a sunset photo - whilst I was taking these photos the station cows decided it was time to come home; this caused all the dust the fly in the area. I loved the colour, the cow looking back at me and how the light of sunset was falling on the Boab photo below - I just might have to see it fully blown-up for a print.
Friday marked 8 weeks since we started our trip. We have covered a lot of territory - 14,650 km all together, stopped at 25 places along the way, sneak peak into outback NSW and VIC, parts of SA and WA coast lines. We many great memories of all the places we have been/seen and can't wait to the next half of our trip.
We were ready for a proper start to the Gibb River Road on Friday morning. From Birdwood Station, the first 80km was bitumen road, so an easy drive. We then hit the gravel/red dirt road. It was relatively smooth, even for us towing, and we reached the Bandilngan Windjana Gorge NP Campsite around 10:30am and picked a site.
We dropped the camper, and headed off down the road to Tunnel Creek, about an hour south. It was a fairly bad road, lots of corrugations and rocks sticking up from the surface, but nothing that the Prado couldn’t handle. It was fairly busy with tourist buses and other 4WD's.
After a short walk, we entered the tunnel via a tight rock scramble. We had our reef shoes, which came in very handy, as we entered the water which came in up to our knees at first.
The tunnel is about 750 metres long, one of the oldest cave systems in WA. It is up to 12m high & 15m wide. About 5 bat species inhabit the cave (we didn’t see any). We did, however, see the red-eye reflections of the freshwater crocs, hiding on the far side of the cave.
A head torch helped us get through the caves, which had stalactites hanging from the roof. At the far end of the tunnel system, we climbed a small hill to view some aboriginal art. Most of it had been weathered away, but the top of it remained.
On the way back Michelle fell in love with the Kapok Flower - a beautiful yellow flower (this became a frequent stop along the Gibb for us, for Michelle to take photos of them).
We drove back to Windjana, where we went down to the gorge for sunset. Great reflections in the water. Walked back up to cold showers (solar) and dinner.
Next day (Saturday), we went down to Windjana gorge again early morning, where we saw about 20 freshwater crocs in various places. Some were very docile, lying on the bank absorbing the sun’s energy, and you could walk right up to them. Definitely worth the repeat visit, as Michelle’s photos will attest.
Then we were off again, destination Mt Hart Station. It was only 60km (of good road) on the Gibb, but then 50km of dirt road to the station, which included 20 creek crossings. It took about 2 hours, as a good towing speed on the Gibb was between 60-80 kmh. The station was mainly set up for accommodation, we didn’t see much evidence of farming. We picked a nice spot, and set up for 2 nights. As it was late afternoon by the time we had set up, we did not do too much exploring.
However, we did venture up the hill to “Sunset Rise” to view the sunset over the distant hills. Chatted to a few travellers about the state of the Gibb River Road - seems it will be bumpy, very corrugated, but if we drive to the conditions, it should be fine, even towing the camper.
The station includes a few waterholes, and we visited three of them the next day (Monday). First up was Barker’s Pool, a lovely swimming spot where the Barker River widens. Straight out of the car and into the refreshing water.
We had a long swim, before heading off to the next spot - Dolerite (Matthew) Gorge, in the other direction from the homestead. We had to walk about 800m from the car, along a narrow rocky path along the river, crossing a few times as we went upstream. We didn’t get to the main swimming hole, turning back too soon as the track was tough.
The last spot we visited was Annie creek, a picnic spot where you can see a large boab tree with a strangler fig growing through its centre.
On the station they had some amazing flowers and bird life.
Next morning (Monday 1st August), we continued up (north-east) along the GRR. This time our destination was a place called Silent Grove campsite, only 30km along the GRR, but a total of 110km including the side-roads out/in. This was the campsite in close proximity (10km) to Bell gorge, definitely one you must visit if travelling up this way. After setting up, having lunch, we got to the gorge walk about 1:30pm. It was a tough walk in, about 45 minutes to get to the water, which made the swimming there much more enjoyable. We stayed a couple of hours, getting back to the camper in time for dinner.
Next morning, and a fellow camper came up to us and informed us one of our expensive spotlights was loose (it was almost falling off). He was a fitter/turner from south WA, and we got chatting as he helped us with some running repairs, supplying a few nuts & bolts (something we were not carrying). Michelle had brought a box of sticky Velcro tape, and we had cable ties - we used both in addition to the nuts/bolts to hold the spotties in place. The corrugations on the GRR are certainly testing for most vehicles, and we were not immune.
After the running repairs, we headed down to Bell gorge again Tuesday morning, spending a few hours there before returning to Silent Grove. There wasn’t much to do there, but at least we had some internet thanks to Michelle buying the Optus portable modem - Telstra phones don’t work out here. So we caught up on some news/ the blog / photo editing.
Wednesday morning, and we were on the move again. Day 7 without power, and with very limited internet. We are coping ok - we have plenty of food & water, gas for cooking.
The red dust is incredible, it gets into everything (clothes, car, lungs, camera lenses!!!) except the camper trailer which seems pretty airtight inside. The cupboard areas facing outside are another story. Our white car is more orange at the moment. Looking forward to getting to Kununurra for a good cleanup - car, camper and ourselves!
About 90 km further along the GRR was Mount Barnett Roadhouse, a welcome respite for most travellers, as it supplies fuel, food, and other essentials. We fuelled up, bought a few things, and checked into the campground for 2 nights (Manning Gorge). The road in was about 7km, mostly good, but a bit corrugated. We got minimal internet coverage there, but were unable to make/receive phone calls as phone system is satellite based out here.
This time the site we picked was close to the gorge entry, and the amenities, with plenty of room. We were all set up by 11am, and decided that given the heat, we would tackle the main gorge here (Manning) tomorrow.
We headed back out, driving south again to “Over the Range Tyre & Mechanical Repairs”, where a lovely man named Dave helped us to remove the spotlights before they fell off or did further damage. Fantastic! Great service, from a real knockabout bloke. His boss on the phone had us in stitches as he tried to explain to a customer where he could get his car towed to out here.
Next stop was Galvan’s gorge, a short drive back towards Manning Gorge. Galvan’s was a very pretty gorge, only a short walk from the car park. We took a dip, Michelle using the go-pro for some photos, as didn’t want to risk the camera much here. Only about 10 people there whilst we were, so it wasn't too crowded. The station owners don’t seem to like the use of drones, so we left that behind also.
We spotted a few interesting birds on the way out - a blue heron resting in a tree, and loads of finches. As Michelle said, we need a bird book and flower book now to name all of these.
Later that night, we went down to the water at the Manning campground, then climbed a hill to take some sunset photos.
Day 2 in Manning gorge (Thursday), and we were up early to tackle the difficult (1 hr or so) walk in to the gorge. The first part of the walk to the gorge consists of wading up to neck-deep across the top pool, about 40 metres across. There are plastic drums cut in half to float your possessions, and a small boat for the younger kids (and those that can’t swim). We helped a guy with the boat, draining the hull of water before we continued.
The track was quite rocky, a bit hard to follow in places, and there was minimal shade - so it was hot! Lucky we started before 8am. The end of the track was a bit of a rock-scramble, but we made it, to be rewarded with a swim in the impressively large gorge. There were plenty of people there already. We stayed for a few hours, getting in a bit of sun, before heading back before lunch, as we didn’t want to get sun-fried.
We went back up to Mt Barnett roadhouse in the afternoon, for a bit of phone coverage - still have to keep in touch with the home front & bills etc (too be honest we didn't get much - the phones wouldn't totally upload all our info). Then we went back to the campsite to find a bull visiting us behind the camper, for sunset and dinner.
The Gibb River Road is totally amazing. So many beautiful gorges to visit and wonderful campsites. The road itself can be a bit corrugated, dusty, loads of dips and floodways to pass, some crazy drivers that want to rush this beautiful outback road - but really it should be done at a slow pace to admire the beauty that's all around us.
This blog post only covers halfway for us along the Gibb so far - see you on the Gibb for part 2.
Cheers,
Mike & Michelle
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