Gibb River Road - here we come - AGAIN!

Wednesday, 12 October, 2011

Here we go again!!!

We left Derby with our fingers crossed.  At about 1pm we passed the spot where we blew the fuse on Big Blue on our first attempt; so far so good.

Our first campsite was Mornington Wilderness Reserve.  The track in was 88km long but easy going.  Eight kilometres from the end, just as we are coming out of a small river crossing Big Blue stopped.  The blown fuse was replaced so off we went for another kilometre then it blew again!  Thankfully that was the last of the car troubles for that day.

Mornington Wilderness Reserve had a beautiful reception/bar area.  The kids had a kick of the footy with some aboriginal kids.  The blokes had a beer or two and the ladies had a “G & T” (gin and tonic).  Then it was time to set up camp – in the dark!  The kids slept under the stars on both nights!

We checked out a few of the local gorges and Ruby got bitten 5 times by a wasp at the toilets.  There’s not much more to report from Mornington Wilderness Reserve so we headed back to the GRR.

Once back on the GRR we checked out Galvin’s Gorge.  Every gorge is different, yet every gorge is beautiful; and at every gorge the kids had to find the highest rock ledge from which to jump.

These large monitor lizards are everywhere:

Next stop was Manning Gorge.  Jack and Fraser slept outside again, but got eaten by mossies!  Again, the highlight was the gorge, but there is other good stuff about camping too.

Back on the GRR and to Mt Elizabeth Station for a couple of nights.  This was a really good stop for lots of reasons:

1.    Kids bottle fed calves

2.    Kids hand fed euros

3.    Checked out the local gorge

4.    Saw some aboriginal rock art

5.    Did some 4WD rock climbing

6.    Had our first tropical thunderstorm – and it was a beauty!  Ruby is still scared of thunder and lightning.  One bolt of lightning hit within 200m of our tent.  It was deafening and we could smell the ozone in the air.

These were taken at Mt Elizabeth Station:

Next stop along the GRR was Home Valley Station; an oasis in the bush.  A beautiful spot but nothing to do except sit in the pool.

So it was back on the GRR and across the Pentecost River to El Questro Station.  This is the country where the movie Australia was filmed.  We could recognise much of the landscape from the movie (we had a movie night at Home Valley).

El Questro had heaps to offer and was a highlight of the trip.  We did:

1.    Heaps of gorge walks.  Emma Gorge and El Questro Gorge were outstanding.

2.    Heaps of swimming in water holes

3.    Some 4WDing

4.    The kids went horse riding

5.    Happy hour from 5 to 6pm

6.    Fire on a ridge behind the station at dusk and into the evening from a lightning strike.  The clouds were glowing red not too far from the camp ground.  Then, at about 8pm, another storm hit putting out the fire but there was heaps of ash in the wind and rain storm that came with it!

Check out these snaps:

And so the Gibb River Road came to an end:

We headed for Wyndham for a quick look and the Eaton’s went to Kununurra.