Gibb river road day 9 (22/8) & 10 (23/8)

We packed up and set off, after a shower, and were happy to leave such a disappointing site. Nick was in a bit of pain with his red raw chest.

Crispy fried Nick

We got back to the Barnets road house and utilised their air and grass area to "pop" the now flat spare off the rim and put on the last remaining tyre on it, so we were good to go if/when we got another flat.. Was a bitch of a job, as the air wasn't working so well and our pump was stuffing around and not pumping continuously. Anyways ran into Antonia one of the lovely girls from the APT travel lodge at Bell gorge, they had a week off and were heading to Mitchell Gorge. We had another 'lil chat, and wished each other well.

We set off and not 15 Km down the road we got another flat, AAGH.

Antonia and her boyfriend stopped but there wasn't much they could do, it was again on the drivers rear side. After the action plan had been actioned, and I suggest we rotate the tyres so the stronger looking one is on the drivers side rear. So we/ Nick end up changing 3 tyres by the dusty, dirty red rocky roadside, after just fiddling around back at the road house. Time frame we are 30km from Barnett Gorge when we leave the roadhouse. We left camp at 8:30am, and we arrive at Barnets gorge at 12:30pm. So lets clarify, this was flat number 5, we are running on all our tyres with no spares, and no option of picking up any either, for the rest of the trip. Kalumbaru and Mitchell plateau is off the cards for sure. Needless to say we were a little "stressed", well actually to be clear I was, nick was cool, as we still had the puncture kit. We are also just over 300km in, and Gibb river road goes for an unseeingly long distance of 650km, I remind Nick that we are closer to Derby than Kununurra, but he feels confident.


We aren't feeling the welcome vibe at all

We finally end up taking the turn off to Barnets Gorge, and both were very quite as we coasted down this rocky rough road, maybe listening for that tell all pish pish noise. We make it to the end and are both so exhausted, we decide get in the back, turn on the fan and have a lie down. There was a tour bus at the gorge and we thought we could wait them out. Well the lovely old sods had seen us on their drive past, and saved some of the lunches and donated it to our "sorry" cause. Nick was impressed with cake and a pasta salad, and gobbled them down. I asked about the gorge and it was a 20 minute walk, and had the possibility of freshwater croc's around, so we decided to keep on keeping on. Try to get as far as we could for the day and get off this wretched road.

We did just that and ended up making fairly good distance and parked near Ellenbrae Station, and watched a magical sunset in the Kimberleys. After a cool camp shower NIck made a bucket for little Deta's head, as her bum as it was looking rather nasty and we decided that we would try and make it into Kununurra by mid afternoon tomorrow (being Friday) for the vet.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Up early, as we spotted a sign (conveniently only in the morning hehe) sating we weren't to camp here. We kept on and were happy to see we had 180Km left. We came across this big log looking thing in the middle of the road so we slowed down to pass and noticed it was this massive land lizard.

 

 

He was so calm and didn't move when we approached it, we think it knew we weren't going to hurt it, we tried and tried to get it off the road, so it wouldn't get hit be a car.

 

 

Then as another car approached it quickly hurried off the road before the car had passed it.. weird.

 

 

 

We stopped and paid tribute to this Ford Ranger, and thought some people have had it much worse than us out here, pity we couldn't get a tyre off it, as it had all flats, with smashed windows too!

 

We kept plodding on and came across this stunning lookout where we decided to stop and have lunch. We even had minimal phone reception so we started making a few calls and touching base with the nearest and dearest. We even amazed at just how big the Pentacost river was, and wondered how it would be to cross. We caught up with a young group travelling around who we had tag teemed at numerous places, normally when we had broken down with the tyres, they had gone up to Mitchel plateau, and were shocked at how bad the road was.

 

We loved this fitting rock picnic table and chairs, the ranges so dramatic in the background.

 The Pentecost river crossing...

 

These ranges followed the way in stunningly. The pictures don't capture it at all.

 

 

 

 

Then we hit El Questro ,2 pm, and would have loved to stop in but we were on a mission,  to get off this road....so we kept on and were excited that one, we had started on the "home stretch" two, we were now on bitumen three, we were 50 km away from the highway, then another 60Km from Kununurra and finally we were near some cool beer for Nick.

 

Well we spoke to soon... yep the final tyre shredded, it was almost as if the thing had decided that now the road was smooth it would burst! I shit you not!

 

 There are worst spots to change tyres, the view was lovely.

 Hehehe this is why we have the tyre changing outfit (lives in the front of the car)

 

Well Nick did an amazing Job patching the tyre, and it got us all the way into Kununurra, at 5:30pm. We had to limp into the servo and pump it up as it was flat, then limp around and follow that same routine for a bit. We ended up getting a cold 6 pack and went to Kellys Knob lookout (yeah I k now funny name huh) where Nick drank 5 beers and promptly feel asleep.

 



Gibb river road Day 5 &6 (18-19/8) and 7&8(20-21/8)

 

We went and said hello to the girls at the APT wilderness lodge but they were hesitant to "interrupt" the community on a Sunday. We said we could pop back ion Tuesday, and have a few days exploring. We checked out Adcock gorge, which was a stunning pretty gorge, set off the high way, along 5km of really rough track. Good test for the new tyres (and they survived) We spent the afternoon here, Nick tried his luck catching a Sooty Grunter, to no avail, but Sahara loved jumping in and fetching the stick. We also noticed some rock art on the wall. We set up a picnic rug and were away from the heat of the day by this cool gorge.

Sahara loved "cooling" off on this Hot day..

 

Adcocks Gorge "wetland, filled with lovely lillypads, below

 

Stunning aqua water, and sheer cliffs lining it all the way around, we had it all to ourselves, and totally swim-able


 Later on we packed up and headed towards Manning Gorge, but it was mega expensive, at $20p/p p/n to camp, and $8 p/p just to get in for a day visit. We backtracked 10km and visited Galvans gorge. Its an easy Km walk in (one way) and loved it. There was a tour group there when we arrived and it was getting on in the afternoon so we decided to hang around and spend the day there tomorrow.

That night we met another young couple travelling around, they had been on the road for a couple of years. Was nice to spend some time with people in our own age bracket, although they were a bit "loose". We lit a big fire and spent most of the night with them. They had many stories to share and Nick and i were cracking up most of the night.

Wandjina rock art at Galvans Gorge


We had a great sleep, was quite hot to start with then the temp dropped off early morning. We had a lazy morning watching people come and go from the gorge. I had a massive headache so i took it real slow for a few hours. We packed a day bag and set off, intent of spending the whole arvo there. We got to the gorge around 10:45-11am when another group was arriving, we had already bumped into this group the other day at bell gorge and a few remembered us and said hi. We climbed around to this rock ledge we were on the other day and sun blocked up, the sun has a bite up here. We started nibbling on the yummy lunch Nick prepared, and noticed this little lizzard trying to et up on what seemed to be his rock to bake on. Then Nick looked up and noticed a snake in the rockwall above our heads.

So above my head, in the rocks is the snake


 Not so worried we continued on and ten we saw a massive water monitor/lizzard pop up from the water to bake on the rock in front of us.

We felt like we were on the "wildlife" side of the gorge. Once the groups had left we strolled over to the other side of Galvans gorge and set up, under this beautiful Wandjina. We even had a tour guide come along later on in the day and tell the story, and as we were so close we caught it too! We had the most amazing, relaxing afternoon. Great way to beat this Kimberly heat, by a gorge with this trickling waterfall, birds chirping and nature in all its glory!!

It was like someone had landscaped this gorge, it was just so perfect it even had a lovely old boab up the top too! We were reluctant to leave but decided we had spent long enough there and got back to the snail at 5pm ish! A few people stayed that night too, and after they all came over and introduced them selves we were ready for bed. An early one, but a good one. The girls woke us up around 3-4am we heard a baying/howling in the distance and thought it may have been a dingo.

We packed up and headed back to the art centre at Imintji, and to say hello to the friendly girls in the wilderness lodge.

The girls there are so lovely, we filled our water, had a cup of tea, and then Nikki, the Aussie bird who we met the other day when we were there gave us some apples, cheesecake and a 2L frozen water bottle (that was the best bit) i love COLD water so she literally made my day with just that lovely gesture. We have traded emails and hope to keep in contact. We visited the art store and saw some amazing pieces, canvas, didgeridoo's and fighting sticks but nothing that really caught our eye, that was in our budget. After filling up with fuel again we set off towards manning gorge.

Guess what.... We got just past Galvans and we got another flat!! Well, emergency action plan, actioned and we got it fixed. It was the drivers side rear, again, and it was the spare we got back in Adelaide that had the nail in it. So it held up pretty well maybe a 100km or so!


We decided to pay in full for a site as we didn't need any more bad Karma, or whatever was working against us. After arriving to the "campsite" our pockets feeling light, we were disappointed in what we found. Lots of people and a very poorly maintained site. No grass, prickles everywhere, like 3 corner jacks but on steroids, with points everywhere to stab you. The toilet block ran on a generator system, between the hours on 6-9am and 4-7:30 pm so if you wanted a shower you had to go between those times, which was OK, BUT, if you needed to visit the loo around those times they were backed up cess-pits, as they couldn't flush until those times (WTF) !!

We were both Hot and bothered and after setting up we walked down to the waterhole near the camp for a dip, We got both the girlies wet as they were very hot and bothered too! It was an awesome water hole to swim in too, crystal clear water and look at how picturesque it was.....

 

After a relaxing night we watched a couple of movies then slept fairly well. Its a full moon so its very bright out at night.

We packed a day bad and cleaned up inside, we had heard many amazing things about this waterfall and gorge here, and wanted to spend the day. With 10L water, lunch AND snacks, towels, sunblock and camera we set off, 9:30am. We all had fun crossing the water hole in the pulley system boat.
 
Its advised to give yourself and hour and a half to walk the 2.5km, and many people told us it was a bastard ( bet they didnt do the 16km trek we did in tassie) We smashed it in, in just under an hour. Was challenging in some points, very dry country (snake land) but a well trodden path.


There were some big jumps and distances between the rocks so the girlies needed a hand in a few spots.

The girlies loved exploring off leash, and were very well behaved when we encountered people.

We made it and look at this........

 

 

Best picnic spot... ever

This was the "water hole" before the actual Gorge.

 The waterfall, was a trickle but still added to the "ambience"

 

 We all chilled out for the arvo....





The girlies did too.....

We played fetch with Sahara




Stunning, who could believe that such natural large bodies of water are located inland, in such dry, arid, hostile environments. Well the sun was beating down on us, we decided to go opposite the (albeit small) waterfall, on the toasty warm rocks, in the shade of some lovely tall gum trees.

We set up and both dived in, Sahara too( Delta got her paws wet). it was refreshingly cool, and then a little warm in spots, the colour of the water was this amazing aqua and was the cleanest and clearest i've seen yet. Lots of sooty groper also, but no motivation on nicks behalf, Today was total relaxation. We watched people jump off the rocks, nearly 10 meters up. I wanted to give it a shot but decided its probably not a good idea with a baby in my belly!


 Everyone left by 11am, for the trek back and we had the whole gorge to ourselves until we decided to go just after 3:30! Amazing!! needless to stay after some refreshingly cool skinny dipping on my behalf and sunbaking we were in a state of tranquil bliss. We started the slog back and said a sad farewell to such an amazing spot. (We had also heard that trekking down stream there are many "beaches" with private little bays, but as we had the gorge to ourselves we didn't have to bother.)

I "Dora the explorer" it up according to nick, but at least Dora didn't get burnt like a beetroot!

 
 When we returned i had a cold shower and Nick assessed the sunburn on his chest, (I had told him to slip,slop,slap)

We had a yummy dinner and are preparing to have an early night. We want to get to Barnets Gorge tomorrow, free camping.

Update on Delta her bite is still a bit gross, but healing well, she is her normal self so we aren't worried, she is eating/drinking ok. Both girlies are exhausted after todays adventure.