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660km drive along the Gibb River Road |
Monday May 10 - Tuesday May 11 - Mount Hart Station
EDIT: We have a video we hope to have of a lot more content of the Gibb River Road. When we have it finished we'll update this post but for now the priority is getting the content updated!
We set off from our overnight stop on the side of the Gibb River Road. This section of the road is all bitumen so it wasn't anything unusual.
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| Our rest stop for the night |
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| Fixing the back of the toolbox |
About 20km along the dirt road appeared ahead of us, so we pulled over
just to check everything was nice and tight. The rear toolbox was slightly loose, but in the process of tightening it up I
managed to break one of the bracket bolts holding it on. This led to 30 minutes with drill and angle grinder to set things right!
The first part of the road was pretty good. Quite smooth and reasonably green countryside around us.
The first interesting bit of scenery we came to was a curious rock formation named 'Queen Victoria's Head'
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| All hail! The Queen Victoria's head rock formation! |
We stopped here for lunch.
The road varied in condition. There were patches of corrugations and rocks but on the whole it was fairly reasonable. This was surprising given the news reports and photos we'd seen of it only a few weeks earlier. However when we came to Mac Creek we saw definite evidence of the damage caused by the recent big wet! The road originally ran on an embankment which had been laid into the creek bed with large drainage pipes underneath for the water to run through. There was a temporary road to the left of this embankment which we went through slowly, and saw that the embankment had completely gone, and just a big ravine was left where once there'd been an embankment! It wasn't clear whether or not this was done by the road crews who were replacing the pipes or not, but it seems most likely they were repairing damage caused by the flooding. This is in the video.
After a few hours we reached the turn-off to Mount Hart Station, which is where we were aiming for tonight.
Mount Hart Station
You could say Mount Hart Station has one of the longest driveways in Australia - it's a 50km track from the main road out to the homestead! And when we say a track, that's what it is in places. Immediately the road condition deteriorated and we were on a track which varied in width and condition, but in the main was corrugated, had patches of rock and at least 25 water crossings which varied from ankle deep to knee deep (half a metre).
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| Sunset on the way out to Mount Hart Station |
We were treated to a magic sunset on the way in! Unfortunately as we had a car behind us we couldn't stop to take good photos but these give you some idea. I managed to shoot a few out the window of the car while driving but they were simply point and shoots with the exposure wound down to try to capture the colours, I couldn't frame them up at all. These photos are Mim's from her phone.
It took about an hour to get from the main road out to the homestead where we stayed for two nights.
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| Our camp at Mount Hart Station |
Mount Hart Station is a former working cattle station on the banks of the Barker River, but is now focused on tourism. The station has a bar and restaurant, diesel fuel available, and onsite accommodation I believe. For caravans, there's a big field with a toilet block and no power, but for the five of us it worked out to $66 per night which was a bit steep we felt.
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| A friendly praying mantis on our caravan awning at Mount Hart |
Swimming is available in the river by the homestead, but there are two other swimming locations which we checked out on Tuesday. Firstly we drove up to the carpark of Dolerite Gorge (also named Matthew Gorge!). It was about a 10 minute drive, followed by about a five minute walk up the dry creek bed to the pools.
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| Dolerite Gorge at Mount Hart Station |
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| Dolerite Gorge |
The water here was quite nice but it wasn't particularly deep. We stayed here for about half an hour before returning to the car.
We dropped back to the van to pick up supplies for lunch, and then drove onto Barker's Pool, which is a few kilometres south west of the homestead.
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| Lunch at Barker's Pool |
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| Barker's Pool at Mount Hart Station |
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| A family meeting at Mount Hart Station |
Barker's Pool was much better for swimming. The water was a decent depth and the kids were able to jump off a nearby tree into the river, which has become something of an activity to aim for since Fortescue River! We probably spent an hour or so here and really enjoyed it.
In the afternoon we had another family meeting. We'd had a family meeting about this time last year at Woodgate and the kids (and us) felt a few niggling irritations needed dealing with. We largely repeated the process we followed last time, where each person had the opportunity to write down things they liked and areas for improvement on everyone else.
As with last time, there were various funny moments but a lot of good feedback and we all felt we had things to work on to improve the way we worked together.
Later in the evening we drove up to 'Sunset Hill' to watch the sun
set. The sunset on the drive in Monday had been great but Tuesday
night's wasn't as colourful. Still it was a pretty enough experience.
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| We had tea at the restaurant for a change - we just got three meals between us but it was enough, they were generous portions! |
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| Barker River swimming spot by the camping area |
Wednesday May 12 - Mount Hart Station to Galvans Gorge
Wednesday we went for a quick dip in the river close to where we were camped. It was a nice refreshing start to the day.
We'd used a surprising amount of diesel getting out to Mount Hart Station, as we were averaging only about 40kph with some hills and stopping and starting, so we topped up the tanks before heading off.
Mount Hart Station was nice, but it was a long bumpy drive to get out to a station which didn't really have that many drawcards for us. I don't think we'd go back again.
It was about 11am by the time we rejoined the main road, so we stopped at Iminji Community for lunch and some more fuel. It seemed a bit silly in one sense getting so focused on keeping the fuel tank full considering we have an 88 litre tank with another 50 litres of diesel in jerry cans for exactly this type of drive. However there's limited fuel along the road, we weren't quite sure what was open, and with limited phone signal we couldn't check how expensive it was going to be. So we kept the jerry cans full and topped up the tanks when we could. At both Mount Hart and Iminji, fuel was $2 per litre.
Silent Grove and Bell Gorge were both closed, so we continued on. We'd intended to visit Adcock Gorge, which was the next milestone, and drove about 500m in; however the track got pretty rutted and muddy and we didn't feel confident taking the van along the road, not knowing what it was like further along so we turned back (note: we visited this without the van a few days later). After a few hours I was getting quite a headache from the road but we made it to Galvans Gorge which we'd heard was nice.
Galvans Gorge
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| Galvans Gorge |
Well, nice it was! We felt this was the nicest place we visited on the whole Gibb River Road! This was probably helped by the fact we got there late in the afternoon so had the place to ourselves. But it was simply gorgeous. It was a secluded, intimate little spot. It's a semi-circular rock wall with a waterfall at the centre, with trees all around the sides, and a lovely deep, clear pool in the middle which runs out the opposite side. It also has a rope swing attached to one of the trees which we put to good use!
We had a lovely swim here until it was getting dark and we needed to head back.
We weren't supposed to camp the night here but it was getting too dark for us to feel comfortable driving onto Mount Barnett, so we set up for the night.
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| Morning swim at Galvans Gorge |
Thursday May 13 - Saturday May 15 - Mount Barnett Station
We packed up and drove the 12km from Galvans Gorge to Mount Barnett station.The station is right on the main highway so there's no long driveway to go through to find what it's like. They have the best provisioned shop on the Gibb River Road, and also have wi-fi (expensive - $8 for 100Mb, but at least it's something). I bought some wifi and got some brief work done.
Mount Barnett Roadhouse is also the 'toll-gate' for Manning Gorge campground. You can't stay at the roadhouse itself, you pay there and then drive 7km inland to the campground which is on the banks of Manning Creek, which runs into the Barnett River. This accomplished and a nice campspot found, we quickly repaired to Manning Creek for a restorative swim.
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| Our site at Mount Barnett / Manning Gorge |
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| Manning Creek |
Wow! This was also great! Very different to Galvans Gorge but nice nonetheless. Picture the Onkaparinga River near its mouth at Port Noarlunga, swap the salt water for fresh water and you pretty well have this spot! The banks had lovely white sand, there were plenty of trees and palms around, and the river was clear and deep - a good 4m in the middle! There was also a tree probably 3.5-4m tall to jump or dive from, with a rope swing.
On the Friday we did a ~5km walk out to Manning Falls which was lovely too.
The sunsets in the evening were very pretty!
Adcock Gorge
On Saturday we drove back to Adcock Gorge which was about 45 minutes back along the Gibb River Road. A few people we'd spoken to at Manning Gorge had said it was worth the trip, and most said they thought it was better than Galvans Gorge! So we left the van at the campsite and drove back. The track didn't turn out to be too bad - the muddy patch wasn't too deep, and while the track further on was a mud soup there was a 'chicken track' (a bypass track) which was quite dry, although it was skinny for a caravan so I'm glad we didn't bring the van.
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| Adcock Gorge |
The walk to Adcock Gorge was only about 10 minutes from the carpark. It was also a nice spot, although we feel we preferred Galvans still. Adcock was bigger, had a bigger waterfall and a wider bay, but it wasn't as secluded or intimate feeling. It felt a bit more like a bay in a river than a secret little waterhole. We walked up the rock and across the front of the falls, to that flat section you can see about half way up.
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| Lunch at Adcock Gorge |
We drove back to the campground and climbed up some rocks to watch the sun set again.
Sunday May 16 - Wednesday May 18 - Mount Barnett to (and at) Gibb River Roadhouse
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| Getting a spot of work done on arrival at Gibb |
It's only about 70km from Mount Barnett to Gibb Roadhouse. The main attraction here was Telstra signal so I could get some work done. I'd bought a bit more wi-fi to check things just before I left and found a fairly significant problem with one of our products, so getting a reliable and affordable internet connection was even more important.
We somehow thought Gibb River Roadhouse would have been more than it was, given it's named after the road. It was simply a small shop which provided basic provisions for travellers and the local Aboriginal community. Gibb is about the half way mark of the Gibb River Road, so it's at least 300km to any town, either Derby in the west or Kununurra in the east. Because of this, they get their supplies flown in each week, although due to staff shortages at the Woolies in Derby they don't always get their order!
There was an old Hebron-style accommodation block with two very basic toilets (not a toilet block, just two toilets and a laundry sink) which others were using. We paid $30 a night for a patch of grass. The first night we were camped on a flat patch of long grass right by probably twenty or so empty 44 gallon drums of aviation fuel. They must have been sealed closed, because they had an annoying habit of contracting as the evening cooled with a sudden 'boom', and then repeating the performance next morning as they expanded with the morning sun!
The second day we were there we moved down by the creek which was a bit nicer.
I got plenty of work done given we had perfect signal (we were about 200m from the Telstra tower), the kids got school work done, and here and there we dipped in the creek. It was flowing nicely but very shallow, and only in one spot could you lie horizontally enough to get your body covered by water, which was lovely and cool.
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| The local creek |
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| Jude found a pregnant cane toad and gave it the 'biology class' treatment! |
While we were there some riders on the 'Gibb River Bike Challenge' came by. It seems some time ago, someone woke up one day with a mental condition and thought what a great idea it would be to travel a long, uncomfortable road on bicycle, and somehow others went along with them! It's a regular thing now and people ride with these off-road bikes with their big fat tyres. Several of them came into the roadhouse while we were there, although we'd organised things so we missed them as much as possible.
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| Just the sort of tyres you'd need to tackle this road! |
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| The extent of the Gibb Store! |
Thursday May 19 - Friday May 20 - Gibb to Ellenbrae Station to Kununurra
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| At the junction of Kalumburu Rd and Gibb River Road |
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| The Gibb River Road en route to Ellenbrae Station |
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| A restorative scone and coffee at Ellenbrae Station. Excuse the spaced out look on my face, it was a rough ride! |
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| As we came into the campground we saw this boat which had obviously blown a tyre without the driver knowing and shredded its rim! |
We camped up and went for a swim in the river.
They had a sign out at the restaurant saying they needed workers in exchange for free scones. We considered staying for a day or so to help them out especially if the kids could do some work, which they all really want to do. Unfortunately most people aren't too comfortable with kids working for insurance purposes, so we ended up giving it a miss.
Friday we went for a swim at another spot nearby. It was a short drive from the campground and then a 500m walk to the water.
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| Some lovely flowers along the way |
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| Walking down to the sandy beach on the banks of the one of the local rivers |
We packed up the van and headed east towards Kununurra.
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| Some burning off along the way near Home Valley Station |
The real challenge in our minds was crossing the Pentecost River which runs over the Gibb River Road. It's by far the longest crossing we've been over, but fortunately it turned out to only be about 450mm deep. So we chugged our way through water for about a minute and crossed without a hitch.
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| Crossing the Pentecost River |
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| Reaching the end of the dirt portion of the Gibb River Road! |
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| Civilisation! Tea at Subway in Kununurra! |
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