Exploring the Gibb River Road (well a bit of it)

This week Dave celebrated his 35th birthday and coincidentally the girls had a day off school on Friday due to the school athletics carnival being run on Thursday evening (which we skipped). We decided to take advantage of this opportunity and have a look down some of the Gibb River Road.

We weren't really sure what to expect, mixed reports had been coming in from fellow travellers about the conditions on the road and we had no real gauge about how far we might get in the time we had. We hit the road Thursday evening so we could get a bit of a headstart, crossing the King and Pentecost rivers (nothing and a puddle), past the closed for covid El Questro and camped for the night just outside of Home Valley Station. Here we experienced a couple of Bluey moments - one reminiscent of the episode The Pool where Charli was looking for something that she didn't pack and had to deal with that. Then as we settled, staring up at the stars, we turned of the light in the canopy and had our second moment from Camping (coincidentally while Charli was on the loo too).

Friday morning we were up at dawn, packed up, bacon and eggs cooked and consumed and back on the road. Based on the conditions we found on the road and the pace we were moving, we made the decision to head for Mt Elizabeth Station, the first station open from this end of the Gibb this season, arriving at lunchtime.

We got the rundown on the 2 drives on offer at the station to their 2 gorges and decided to tackle the shorter drive that afternoon. So after our lunch we unloaded our excess gear and began the drive out to Warla Gorge. After so much time at croc infested Kununurra it was awesome to go somewhere we could actually swim. We enjoyed a leisurely afternoon floating about in the water and exploring the rock pools before heading back to camp.

That night we had Dave's birthday dinner as it was all a bit tricky on Tuesday especially around scouts. Surf and Turf was his request and it was delicious, enjoyed around a beautiful campfire followed up with some toasted marshmallows.

Saturday morning we got ourselves ready for the longer drive into Wunnumurra Gorge. Based on the descriptions on our map we were all geared up for some super challenging 4x4 driving but actually found it to be relatively tame. After a warm walk in, we finally found ourselves in a beautiful gorge, with waterfall and Aboriginal rock art to boot. After an explore around the gorge we hit the water and just enjoyed hanging out in the cool rocky area. Charli was having a blast jumping, bombing and flipping into the water off the rocks as the water was quite deep.

After several hours we finally dragged ourselves out of the gorge and while we were nicely refreshed, by the time we got back to car we were hot and sticky again. Both the girls were so tired that they fell asleep on the way back even with all the bouncing around.

Another evening by the campfire rounded out our stay before packing up in the morning for the return journey. We tried to find some other interesting places on our way back and did manage to find Bindoola Falls or what would be if there was enough water there. If nothing else, this drive has inspired us to come back up this way at the end of the wet season next year to get a different experience.

As we neared the end of the Gibb again we had to go back across the Pentecost which suddenly had more water to drive through thanks to the tide coming in. Dave being precious about his car decided we had to finish our trip home by crossing Ivanhoe Crossing again so it would wash the salt water off saving him the effort of doing it when we got back.

Cant't wait to explore more of the Gibb River Road in the future!!

Again for some fun, we had a play with the slow-motion function on our phones in the gorge so here are some shots of Charli (and Dave) jumping in (little adrenaline junkie she is)...