Manning Gorge - Bell Gorge Continued

On the Gibb River Road there are many signs warning of unfenced stock grazing by the roadside. It was not unusual to pass quite large herds beside the road and we had to take care when passing. They didn't seem concerned by us and we took some photos of one that was right alongside us.

After a quick visit to Iminitji Roadhouse, we arrived at Silent Grove campsite around 3.00pm and quickly set up the tent and beds. As we had a view hours up our sleeves we decided to drive the 20k's to Bell Gorge and do the 5km walk before dark. We were the only ones attempting the walk this late and passed many people on their way out. We pushed through the pain barrier and with plenty of time to climb down into the gorge for a swim (still quite cool) and to take plenty of photos. It was well worth it with a beautiful waterfall and stunning upper and lower pools. We drove back to the campground at dusk and cooked tea under lights again. Into bed early exhausted from our 4 gorge day and approximately 15km walking, to recharge the batteries for another big day tomorrow.

Bec's Blog For 5/6 AT

Hi Guys,

Right now we are in Broome. We have been swimming at Cable Beach daily (the beach behind me). We hire boogie boards and catch waves. Cable beach is a beautiful beach and if you are there at the right time you will see a beautiful sunset. The water is clear and because it is the dry season there are no stingers ( jellyfish).It has been in the 30's each day except for one when it was 15 degrees, COLD! Today we are planning on going on a camel ride!There are alot of tourists around.

Did you know none of the locals swim because it is to cold so only tourists are down at the beach!

I hear the weather hasn't been to good at home, hailing, stormy and raining. I hope you guys are having fun. From Bec.

Manning Gorge - Bell Gorge continued

After the early walk at Manning Gorge we packed up the tent and refuelled heading for Silent Grove by the end of the day. On this leg of the trip we passed and visited Adcocks Gorge & Galvans Gorge. These were smaller gorges than the others but we saw more wildlife such as trees full of cockatoos and a water monitor sunning itself on a rock. He was quite happy to have his photograph taken and unlike other monitors we had seen previously, didn't make any attempt to move when we got closer.

Manning Gorge - Bell Gorge

Up early today to walk a total of four gorges. First up Manning Gorge where we stayed the night before. Up at 6.00am and 7.15am depart the campground after having had breakfast and packed up everything but the tent. The walk started with a boat punt ride across the river and then on with another difficult walk across rocks and up and down hills. The kids enjoyed an early morning swim here. Lachie and Bec were jumping from the gorge rocks that were 5-6 metres above the waterlevel (check out photo). They were very brave and questioned a couple of time whether or not they should do it, back and forth peeking their heads over the edge of the rock to have a look at the jump they would have to make. We headed back to camp packed up the tent, refuelled at Mt Barnett Station ($2.15 /lt) and headed on to Galvans and Adcock Gorges.

King Edward River - Mt Barnett Station

We experienced our coldest day today for 2 weeks. The tempreature was 15 degrees and boy did we all feel the cold. Today we headed back along the very ordinary road to Drysdale Station. We had a brief stop for to re-fuel and again paid a hefty $1.95 per litre. We were thinking of by-passing here and refueling at Mt Barnett Station as we thought that perhaps the fuel may be a little cheaper there, but so glad we didn't as their pumps were broken and the car parks was chockas with cars waiting for the fuel pump to be repaired sometime today.There were signs on the bowsers asking people to refrain from abusing the lovely staff in the shop as they couldn't do anything about it. Before reaching Mt Barnett roadhouse we stopped at Barnett Gorge. We heard and saw hundreds of bats resting in the trees alongside the river. Not much else to look at so onto Mt Barnett roadhouse and set up camp at nearby Manning Gorge.

Mitchell Falls

Today was another day day mostly shake rattle and roll. We left camp at around 7.50am and headed toward Mitchell Falls. We knew that we were in for a bumpy ride for the 80km drive up to the falls carpark which takes around 2 hours each way. The road was quite narrow, rocky in spots and corrugated. It would quickly change from lush and tropical to dry and bushy. We then had an 4.3km walk in the dry heat to view the falls themselves. Once again it was a very pretty spot. Chris captured some great images whilst I watched the kids having a swim. We then completed the return walk back to the carpark and enjoyed a well earned cold drink and picnic lunch. None of us were looking forward to the bumpy 80km ride back to the campground, although the sighting of a couple of dingos along the roadside made it a little more interesting. Strangely the day became overcast and we even experienced some spits of rain. We thought this would be a problem as we had become used to leaving things out and not putting the fly on the tent. We expected to come back to a sodden camp but luckily the rain held off until after we returned. Around 9.00pm we decided we would put the fly on the tent just in case which turned out to be a good decision as we experencied some light rain for most of the night.

El Questro to King Edward River

Today was a very big day on the road. The Gibb River Road is a very rough and rugged area. There is such a stark contrast between the red, red road and the green trees alongside. We are experiencing the real outback and enjoying it. We left El Questro at 7.00am and arrived at King Edward River campground at around 4.00pm. Not far out of El Questro we crossed the Pentecost River which is a long (but quite shallow) river crossing with a mountain range in the background, photographed for many Kimberley brochures. We also made a couple of stops, the first being Home Valley Station which we were very impressed with. It's run by the local aboriginal community and used for job & skills training and is very clean and well presented. We only had the opportunity to enjoy a coffee but we would like to stay there sometime in the future. Next we pulled in to Ellenbrae Station as we had heard from Jodie & Tim about their lovely scones. We then continued on to Drydale station for fuel and a puncture repair (suffered only about 50k's from El Questro). Fuel $1.95 litre & puncture repair $75. The Kalumburu Road was pretty rough with corrugations which has shaken most of our filling loose. It was a big day in the car to get to our destination in one piece. We are hoping the Mitchell Falls are worth all the effort.