Tuesday 1st June
Having left Derby this morning we are now on the Gibb River Road (GRR).
The end of the road is at Kununurra, approximately 650 ks away but we shall do many more ks because some of the places we wish to visit are a long way off the GRR. We expect to get to Kununurra in 4 – 6 weeks.
You are unlikely to get any updates because as far as we know there is no mobile internet service across the GRR, so we are effectively out of communication with the outside world, as of course, are the thousands of other travellers up here at this time.
There are many places of natural beauty and interest along the way and we will have to be selective but hopefully we can come again and pick up the ones we miss.
After a couple of hours pretty leisurely driving, our first stop is at an unofficial rest area next to the Lennard River bridge.
Our plan is to leave the vans here tomorrow and visit Winjana Gorge and Tunnel Creek.
Wednesday 2nd June
Winjana Gorge, Tunnel Creek and Geike Gorge are part of a Devonian period reef which rises about 80 metres above the surrounding savannah landscape.
Tunnel Creek is in fact a tunnel which has been eroded by the creek over the millennia. It comprises a series of pools under in a tunnel that is approximately 300 metres long with an average ceiling height of about six metres. At this time of the year there is quite a lot of water in the creek and you have to wade to get between the rock platforms that separate the pools. in fact at this time you have to swim to get to the other end of the tunnel. We did the wading bits but declined the swimming section. We didn’t see any but there are freshwater crocodiles in the tunnel. They tend to stay out of your way and are only aggressive if molested.
On the wayback to Winjana Gorge we saw these ruins of a police outpost that was used as lockup for aboriginal prisoners at the end of the 19th century.
On to Winjana, a very impressive ‘gap’ in the range, even this early in season much of the water has gone, leaving pools of still water. It is very scenic and the freshies sunbathing on the mudbanks adds to the scene. there is little or no noise so it is a very peaceful place.
Count the freshies in this picture.. 
Back to our camp and light a fire. Spotted a few satellites tonight, much to Marge’s chagrin!
Thursday 3rd June
Traveling to Mt Hart this morning, the GRR isn’t too bad but it’s slow going for the 50 ks up to Mt Hart with 21 creek crossings, none of them particularly challenging.
On arrival we were informed that we couldn’t order pizza or fish ‘n chips for tonight because there was a tour party coming in, so we booked for tomorrow.
A swim in the river is very refreshing.
Before a chat and satellite spotting but only two tonight!
Friday 4th June
A lazy start today, then off to Annie’s Creek and Dolorite Gorge. Annie’s Creek is just a creek crossing, quite deep at the moment where the point of interest is a boab that has been over grown by a Strangling Fig.
After lunch and a bit of a relaxation we visit Barker’s Pool, for a swim, a bit disappointing in terms of ‘a gorge’ but certainly very refreshing.
Tonight we have booked for tea at the Station House a grilled fish ‘n chips for Pat and, an absolute rarity, a pizza for me. I estimate that this is probably only the fourth pizza I have ever had! It was a vegetarian pizza with a very thin crust which was very enjoyable, I managed half of it and the rest is in a ‘doggie’ box!
I bought a bottle of local wine to be supportive but it was very sweet, so we had to buy another bottle of a better known variety!
Saturday 5th June
A short day today, a return trip down the track back to the GRR, the track is no better than it was two days ago but for some reason we do it quicker than we did on the way in! Back on the GRR the road is no better, in fact its worse in a few places.
Highlights from today’s trip, the scenery (hopefully you will get a video sometime) and a road train waiting for us to go round him, a very rare event indeed! To be fair he had a load of solar panels and he was travelling even more gingerly than us!
The scenery
Arrived at tonight’s destination, Silent Grove, which is far from it – packed by 16.30
Not a bad night for satellites but it’s an early night for us as we have an early start for the walk to Bells Gorge.
Sunday 6th June
We have commented that we might be ‘gorged’ out by the time we get to Kununurra but Bell’s Gorge is spectacular and will take a lot of beating. It is a relatively easy walk in, about 25 minutes. I leave you to decide if it was worth it!
The brave souls you can see swimming below the waterfall had a very difficult climb to get down to the entry point below the falls, it would have been nice but……………………!
A really beautiful natural feature which we absorbed for sometime before returning to the camp and setting out for a nightstop at a campsite called Frog.
Having got established we light the fire and discuss the trip so far.
Monday 7th June
The road is atrocious for much of the way, with unfriendly corrugations. The regularly spaced ones that are maybe 30-40mm deep and 150-200mm apart are reasonable, you can get up to round 50-60 ks and ride over the yop of them but the bad ones are often 100-150 deep and unevenly spaced between 250-300mm apart, with a 3.5 tonne caravan on the back you just have to get down to 10-15ks for any sort of comfort.
Another relatively short run today via another gorge, Galvin’s, a very different one from yesterday but equally spectacular in its own right with an easy short walk to get there. This is a day area so no camping is allowed and today we have to park alongside the road as the carpark is already full of vans and campertrailers.
By late morning we arrive at the Mt Barnet Roadhouse where we hope we can get some WiFi but no, its not working but you can have a free phone call! No blog upload then! We don’t need fuel yet but we do need to buy our passes for the campsite at the next gorge – Manning. Having arrived at the Campground and got settled in we decide to do the gorge tomorrow morning, it is a 2.5 k walk in, including a swim across the river to start the walk!
Tuesday 8th June
To start the walk we have to swim across the the river, at 0715, this is very refreshing! It is a beautiful morning though……
…..if you look in the picture you can see a blue object on the far bank, these are plastic 50 gallon drums cut in half and they are what we tow our clothes and walking shoes across the river in!
The walk to the falls takes us about an hour and a quarter, it is not a difficult walk although there are downhill parts with large boulders and then the ascent with similar rocks, until the last five hundred metres which involve some serious climbing /clambering that challenges shorter people! However, the effort is worth it. Another swim with only 2 other couples there.
Going back we meet the rest of the campers who have started out later than us so it was a bit stop- start as we waited for them when they were either coming down or going up the narrow rocky track.
So now it’s Wednesday 9th June and we are at Gibb River station, where we found a telstra tower, so we catch up with a host of e-mails and update the blog to publish it. Now we are contemplating our travels for the next week or so.
We will head for Drysdale Station which is on the Kalumbaru road and overnight there before tackling the not so good track up to the King Edward River campsite from where we hope to get to the Mitchell Plateau and Mitchell Falls.
Alloveroz 