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A day of mainly travelling further on the Gibb River Road back towards Derby & Broome. The donkey heating system worked perfectly this morning at the campsite at Ellenbrae, even though Grant & I lit it only about 20 mins before having a shower. The water was beautifully warm - just right - with no need to any cold water to it.
The road today was mainly in good condition, slightly rutted in places with some corrugations and a few sections with quite a bit of sand and bull dust. We did a detour up to Mt Elizabeth Homestead (approx 30 kms off the road) to check it out but were there by noon, and with not a lot going on up there to fill the afternoon, we decided to carry on further down the road.
Stopped at the Barnett River Gorge for lunch. This involved a 4km slow but entertaining detour on a narrow, rutty 4WD track. The gorge proved very elusive to find and after stopping at one carpark for lunch - to find only a small creek - we were soon joined by a group of 4 others and also a couple of other 4WD’s trying
Driver
Grant did all the off-road driving to find where it was. One guy reckoned it was further up along the 4WD road (which continued on past the first car park we had stopped at for lunch) from what he could remember from being here 10 years ago. The group of 4 were being to get quite frustrated as apparently they had driven 100kms from the aboriginal store further down the road to visit it. After donning hiking boots and having a short wander up & down the creek to no avail, we decided to drive further on along the track and see where we got to. The track got progressively worse as we headed further on but after 1km we got to a “carpark” type area where another 4WD was. The other clue that we were in the right spot was an arrow marked on a boab tree (no other signposts !) I headed off to go and see what I could find. After heading off in the direction of the arrow for about 15 mins, I couldn’t find any river gorge and back tracked. Eventually found some footprints & headed down a track in their direction. Finally found the gorge - I was the only
one there - fairly small with some shallow pools, small waterfall and creek bed but very peaceful & pretty nonetheless. All in all about 1.5 hours to find it ! No idea if the other groups found it in the end but clearly they could do with a few more signs there, although in some ways I liked the fact you had to go looking quite hard for the gorge if you wanted to get there.
Rejoined the GRR and continued further on to Mt Barnett roadhouse (also a small Aboriginal community there) to refuel with diesel and buy a camping permit to stay at Manning Gorge (7 kms away). The campsite has a port-a-cabin building with 3 lots of toilets & shower cubicles. No hot water or power (just cold showers but, hey, flushing toilets). The campground itself is in a good spot next to a big waterhole on the river, safe for swimming. Fantastic sunset with great cloud formations & purple / orange hues. A flying bright green beetle also visited us whilst we were having dinner, which was quite cute. Still loads of mossies & flies here - they are very attracted to our outdoor camp
The only intersection along the road
The road up to Mitchell Falls & Kalumbra had only just opened a day or so before we got here light - which means that most of our guidebooks are now complete with squashed insects.
Tomorrow we intend doing the walk from the campsite to the Manning Falls (1.5 hours away) and having a dip in the waterhole on the way back.
Distance travelled : 255 kms (4 hours 30 mins)
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Paul
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Tracker!
Nice tracking work Anne to find Barnett River Gorge and great sunset photo's.