Moving on from Manning Gorge…..
We packed up the trailer after our second night at Manning and sloshed and slid the 7 kays back up the track to Mt Barnett Roadhouse. As we arrived we were flagged down by some others who had just come out, having been told inside that the GRR was closed because of the rain. Bloody hell, we thought, if we go back and stay longer at Manning we'll probably be trapped there as the track will only get worse with more rain. We chatted to another couple, David and Gillian, who we'd met briefly at the Gorge, and collectively decided that as we hadn't actually gone into the roadhouse we hadn't "officially" been told the GRR was closed, so it was okay to continue.
Off we went, and found that the road, though wet, was in good nick and very drivable. Called into Galvans Gorge, a 1 km walk in, just off the Gibb. Very nice. Then continued west along the GRR, hoping the road to Mornington Wildlife Sanctuary would be open. Arriving at the turn off, I had just pulled out the satphone and was dialling their number when a car and trailer came up the road from the Sanctuary. We flagged them down and had a chat. The 90 kays from the Sanctuary, normally a one and a half to two hour drive, had taken them 4 hours, and looking at his trailer I believed him. He was pulling a Complete Campsite, same as ours, but you couldn't tell, it was covered in so much mud! He said there were times when he thought the trailer was going to overtake him! They had been advised to leave because the place was shutting down until things dried out, so we thought, "What now?" "Let's get to Imintji (a roadhouse), fuel up, and think about it there." The grumpy guy who filled us up said, "You know the Gibb's closed don't you?" "Uh, no, really?" "Sign's posted on the door, mate, be reviewed by the roads guys in a few hours." "Uh, right, you got any camping here?" "Nah." We thought about it over a surprisingly good coffee, quickly decided we weren't going to hang around waiting (there were still no official signs on the road!), but before leaving went next door to the local mechanic/tyre dealer's place to look at his photos of the local area and ask if he had a rim to fit one of my spare tyres on the roof. I loved this place - a mostly outdoor workshop, with a car and tyre graveyard all around, full of old cannibalised 4WDs. We first chatted with Leonnie, his originally from Melbourne girlfriend and looked at his pics until Nev the man himself turned up in his battered old Land Cruiser. Sure enough, he rooted around in the tyre graveyard and came up with a steel rim which matched my stud pattern, whacked the tyre on it, checked it on the car and then helped me put it up on the roof. Another spare. Beauty. "How much?" "Ah, give us $140, that'll cover it." Worth it just to talk to the guy!
So then, we continued on to the turn off to Bell Gorge. Road Closed signs up. Rolling on, we were beginning to think we might end up back in civilisation in Derby for the night, but came to the turn off to Windjana Gorge and Tunnel Creek. OPEN, the sign said. Yay! We peeled off the Gibb and at around 4:30 pulled into the campsite at Windjana Gorge. Looking around, it seemed this area had been bypassed completely by the rain.
Windjana Gorge is a geologically amazing place. The black rock plateau which the gorge cuts through rises abruptly out of the surrounding plains in 80 metre sheer cliffs, and was at one time a coral reef in the huge sea which covered inland Australia. Since the sea retreated, billions of years of erosion have left the reef standing tall on it's own. We wandered along the gorge, sometimes along sand flats, sometimes through quite lush vegetation, alternately peering up at the cliffs, or checking out the numerous "freshies" (Johnstone River, or Freshwater, crocodiles) sunning themselves on the water's edge. There were quite a few, and the water was somewhat murky, so despite the fact that freshies are generally considered not dangerous, we didn't feel like swimming!
Next morning, back at Windjana, the ranger came around to tell us that the GRR, Bell Gorge, and Mornington were all open, so we packed up quick and headed back east again. The camping area for Bell Gorge is called Silent Grove, and is 20 kays off the Gibb. We found ourselves a nice spot, set up the camper, left it there and took off for the gorge, 10 kays further on. Bell turned out to be another of our favourites - an hours walk to the gorge, then a beautiful waterfall into a deep pool surrounded by red cliffs, followed by small drops into a succession of further pools. We swam and scrambled down through a few of them before sitting and relaxing for a while, staring at the falling water.
One night at Silent Grove, then we headed for Mornington.
Wildlife Sanctuary that is, a large ex cattle station now owned by the Australian Wildlife Conservancy, now completely destocked, and devoted to conserving and improving the habitats of many of top end Australia's endangered animals and birds. We stayed 3 nights here and enjoyed ourselves thoroughly. There's a restaurant and bar with a great Margaret Rvr winelist, a couple of beautiful gorges, a couple of equally good swimming holes, and some wonderful walking tracks with info boards along the way telling us about tropical savannah woodlands, riparian habitats along permanent water courses, the animals and birds which inhabit them, and also, would you believe, how termites live and their importance to the tropical savannah woodland. On our walks we saw heaps of birds, such as Gouldian Finches, Scarlet Finches, a Spotted Harrier, Black cockatoos, Great Bower Birds, Rainbow Honeyeaters, Bustards, and Jabiroos to name a few. There were also Roos, Spotted Monitors, and a few dingoes. We went everywhere and enjoyed it all, but most enjoyed was Dimond Gorge. Our mates from Busselton, David and Gillian, kindly loaned us their double kayak after they had finished their paddle and we had a fantastic paddle a couple of kays down the gorge and back, seeing and photographing a baby freshie hiding in some tree roots. We also had a most enjoyable meal with D and G at the restaurant on our first night, a succulent lamb roast, and were yakking away after our meal when we noticed we were the last customers in the place, and it was only 9 o'clock. We voiced our surprise to the young wait staff, and they smiled and said, "Yeah, 9 o'clock, Mornington Midnight!" We suddenly realised we were tired too, and ambled through the dark to our beds.
We said goodbye to David and Gillian on the morning of our second full day there and then wandered around the Savannah Walk, surprising a couple of large 'roos along the way, then back along the creek on Annie's Walk for more bird spotting, and came face to face with a healthy looking dingo coming the other way on the track. We stopped, he stopped, we eyed each other for a sec, then he trotted off into the bush. After brekkie, and a coffee at the restaurant, we drove out to Cadjeput Waterhole, a beautiful, tree lined, sandy section of the Fitzroy River perfect for a swim. We knew there were freshies in there, but word is, leave them alone and they'll leave you alone, so we went with the local wisdom and swam as if they weren't there. And we're still here!
It was just about time to say goodbye to the GRR, but on our last morning we had to visit one last gorge - one we had missed in the closures of a couple of days earlier. This was Adcock Gorge - about 5 kays off the Gibb. The track in soon becomes a couple of wheel ruts infested with large rocks and water holes, but we made it in and out without incident, still with the trailer in tow, and found a beautiful waterfall surrounded by red cliffs, a deep waterhole running into a stunning shallower pool full of flowering water lilies. We were the only ones there and didn't have swimmers, so off came the clothes and in we went. We splashed around for a bit, and I thought I heard a car. No, that was that family we saw leaving, says Susie. We splashed around a bit more, and were just climbing out when there appeared a guy standing on a rock taking a pic of the falls. Turned out to be a guy we had met at Mornington, and clothes back on we had a chat before leaving he and his Dad to enjoy the place.
And that was about it for us and the GRR. We stopped at Imintji for coffee again - our third stop there, we were becoming good friends with the coffee lady - and then hit the bitumen for Derby. We both felt a bit sad. We had had a wonderful, adventurous time on the Gibb, and didn't really want it to end, but all good things come to an end, and we rolled into Derby, took a look, and rolled out again. We had asked a young lady ranger at Windjana, "Where would you recommend staying in Derby?" "Broome!" she said. She was right - nothing in Derby except a pier, and we stopped for the night at a little place called Willare Bridge Roadhouse.
Next morning we arrived in Broome, home of Cable Beach, sunset camel rides, and the stairway to the moon. And that's another chapter.
