The Kimberleys Week 1 (Derby to Manning Gorge)

To say we were excited to be setting off into the Kimberleys was an understatement. We had been very careful with our packing, food, water and drinks as we'd heard sourcing anything on the Gibb River Road was difficult at best. We decided to spend a night in Derby as we had ordered all of our meat from the local butcher there from Broome. Caitlin was feeling a bit off and we wanted to get into Windjana Gorge in the morning to make sure we found a good campsite as we heard it gets very busy later in the afternoons.

We stopped at the prison boab tree just outside of Derby on the way in. This enormous gnarled ancient old tree was quite scary looking. Apparently, men from local indigenous tribes were falsely accused of a petty crime, chained up and kept overnight in the tree before being shipped to Broome to work on a Pearl Lugger as slaves.

So after a night of take away lasagne, and a Harry Potter movie we headed off on the Gibb. It's 660km from Derby to Kununurra in the East of mainly dirt road. We'd heard some horror stories of how rough the track was in places. I guess the main thing we've learnt is to make your own decisions when it comes to the quality of a destination or the roughness of a track. It's so subjective and in many cases we found the opposite was in fact true. So we dropped the tyres to 26psi and off we went to Windjana Gorge NP campground. The drive in wasn't too bad so in less than 2 hours we were there and had chosen a nice shady campsite. The campsite itself had flush toilets, hot showers and drinking water! Another Myth busted. Not what we'd heard at all and was a delightful surprise. We were also thrilled we got there early as the place really filled up and was packed by late afternoon. The campground is right beside the gorge which rises straight out of the ground. It's part of an old Devonian reef system from hundreds of millions of years ago. You can actually see fossils of molluscs in the walls of the gorge. The entrance is through a narrow cave tunnel which is about 1.5m wide, 3m tall and 10m long which is pretty cool.

Maria, The Captain and Windjana Gorge

Gracie reading about the gorge

Windjana is also famous for it's population of freshwater crocodiles. You can get right up close to them as they are so used to us humans gawking at them and snapping photos. The ranger told us there was over 120 at last count.

Ne-ver smile at-a croc-o-dile...

Our second day at Windjana we got up early and drove the 30 or so km down the road to Tunnel Creek. As the name suggests you walk through a creek system right through a cave. The walk goes for about 750m in total darkness, through up to waist deep water that is (freshwater) crocodile infested! No problem. It was so much fun. We all had our headlamps and water shoes and tip toed into inky black water. Gracie was petrified of bumping into a croc and would squeak at the slightest disturbance, while the rest of us were looking out for them. I saw 3 all up. One right at the first dark section then 2 on the way back minding their own business. At the end of the walk it opens to a lovely creek where you can pull up a rock and have a snack and drink before walking back.

The entrance

Halfway it opens to the sky before plunging back into the eerie darkness...

Next day we travelled up to Mt Hart Station. It was about an hour back to the Gibb, then a few km's up the road and then a short drive down the 50km 'rough driveway' into the station. This would be our home for the next 2 nights. The staff at Mt Hart were fantastic, the campgrounds excellent with all facilities and a beautiful little swimming/fishing hole and really friendly camp hosts who loved a chat. We took a drive one day up a very rough track to Mt Matthew Gorge. We had it all to ourselves, it was very beautiful. We had a meal at the station Homestead one night where Caitlin drew caricatures of the four main staff members in their guest book which they were all amazed and thrilled about. She also painted a beautiful little water colour which the ladies wanted to buy. Her manager intervened at this stage and the ladies said they would be happy to wait until Caitlin became famous!

Mt Matthew Gorge

Not a bad spot for a fish

Reflections

Gracie at the swimming hole

We really enjoyed our stay at Mt Hart and would recommend it to anyone as a nice place for 2 or 3 nights to take a breather from the rigours of the Gibb. Next day we were off to Silent Grove campground which is the gateway to Bell Gorge - one of the more famous in the Kimberley. Again, the campground was fantastic with full amenities in a really picturesque setting. We arrived just after 10.30am so pretty much had the pick of the sites as many people had cleared out that day, then drove up the 8km track to the Bell Gorge carpark in the afternoon. It was a warm day and the walk in while not long, was hot so we were looking forward to a swim. The walking track arrives at the top of the falls where you can swim or take the steep walk down to the swimming holes at the bottom of the falls which we decided to do. It is just beautiful. We swam and explored for over an hour and reluctantly left to head back to camp as the sun began to set.

Hamming it up at Bell Gorge

Imagine arriving at this after a hot walk!

NB: Another myth busted regarding no food on the Gibb. After Mt Hart we stopped at Imintji Store about 230km from Derby and is the first roadhouse stop with fuel, food and fresh produce as well as frozen bread, milk and a fantastic general store as well. We refuelled and picked up some tomatoes, potatoes and some apples!

We moved on the next day with the intention of staying a couple of nights at Mornington Wilderness Camp which only allows 50 people per night.  We had phoned ahead and were advised to be at the UHF radio box at 9.45am to see if there were any sites available, as it is then another 90km down to the station. Unfortunately there weren't and were advised we should have been there at 7.30! hmmm Anyhow we didn't want to muck around so we decided to go straight onto Manning Gorge instead. We stopped at Galvans Gorge on the way which is a pretty little waterfall and swimming hole. Unfortunately there were several tour buses there so it was pretty busy and we only stayed for a short swim.

Manning Gorge campground can be accessed through the Mt Barnett Roadhouse where you pay your camping fees. The shop there is also extensive. We drove into the campground and picked up a nice site out of the afternoon sun. We decided to stay 2 nights so we could spend the whole day at the gorge as we'd heard the walk in was about an hour. At the campground you have the start of the walk where you can either punt a flat bottom tinnie across the Manning River or swim across. (No salties here) There was a beach and beautiful swimming just at the start of the track which is where we decided to spend the afternoon with kindles, deck chairs and a couple of beers.

This was going to be fun

Amazing Boabs are everywhere.

We were up early the next day to start our walk into Manning Gorge. The walk was again hot and a bit up and down through ridges and gullies and it took us over an hour. As we came to the gorge itself everyone instantly forgot how hot they were as we entered the biggest and most spectacular gorge we'd ever seen.

That's quite a way down

The kids had a ball jumping off the high cliffs into cool but not cold water. Even mum and I had a go. We'd packed snacks and lunch and had plenty of water in the bladders of our backpacks so we stayed for most of the day. It was very special. Certainly the highlight so far. The only downside was I killed the underwater camera - bugger. As I was getting out of a waterhole the camera was around my wrist and somehow the waterproof catch bumped a rock and unlocked letting in water. It ruined the camera however we were able to save the memory card and photos we'd taken so far. Lesson learned.

Views from the top of the falls

One week down and 2 to go. We are off to Mt Elizabeth Station next before heading up to Drysdale Station and then tackling the famous or infamous Mitchell Plateau track.