Honeymoon Bay to Derby

We made it back to Drysdale Station comfortably and treated ourselves to an overpriced meal for the evening there. Next morning we moved on to the rather crowded Manning Gorge camp ground and settled in for the night. We saved the walk to Manning Gorge for the next morning.

Swimming our gear across the Manning River at the start of the walk to Manning Falls 

This was an interesting walk as it started with a swim across the Manning river which was pretty icy.  There are a few polystyrene boxes on the bank that we used the float our backpacks and camera and shoes safely to the other side. After we got saddled up on the other side there was a 2 km walk to the beautiful waterfall and pool (the pool was freezing but very refreshing after the walk). On the other side of the pool the kids found a nice bit of smooth rock which, once wet, made a great slippery slide into the pool while Daz and I soaked up some rays. Eventually we had to leave and it was back to the car and onto Charley River Station, stopping at the Mt Barnett Shop where we were able to buy a couple of tomatoes! (Sadly none of the shops on the Gibb sell beer and we were getting frightfully low by this point necessitating the decision for beer rationing!)

Nat rock hopping into Manning Falls

Beautiful Manning Falls

Jess and Matilda at Manning Falls

We stayed 3 nights at Charnley with the first day being a rest day and the second day an adventure day to Gravillia Falls,  Dillie Gorge and the Donkey Pools. With good facilities, friendly caretakers and some great scenery the  other endearing thing about Charnley was that it wasn't as busy as the rest of the Gibb (maybe because it's  about 45 km off the Gibb).

Dilly Gorge and Charnley Station

Ladder leading into Gravillia Falls

Gravillia Falls

The Donkey Pools

In general as the tourist season picks up we've noticed the road and the camp sites getting more crowded (annoyingly so). On the main part of the Gibb its becoming prudent to get to camp by about midday if you want a spot with shade! So it was nice again to get off the main drag. As it seems like the key to getting away from the masses is to get off the main part of the Gibb (like we did at Honeymoon Bay and Charnley), we started checking it the map a bit harder for some more 'off the beaten road' tracks. One that took out interest was the road to Bachsten Camp and Walcott  Inlet. One track began at Charnley  but upon asking the caretakers they told us that it was shut. So if we want to do it we'd have to backtrack about 50 km along the Gibb to Elizabeth Station....initially we decide 'nah....forget it ...not enough supplies'.

Next stop was Silent Grove so we could visit Bell Gorge. Well I don't know what moron named the place "Silent Grove" but as it is packed to rafters with campers it is not even close to being silent, and as there is very little shade there I don't think it would qualify as a grove either. As you can probably pick up we were both getting a bit ticked off with the Gibb River Superhighway (or maybe it's just that we'd run out of beer!) and we decided that if we were going get some adventure we'd have to go out of our way to make it happen.

Sooooo.....new plan! Tomorrow we'd do the Bell Gorge walk with the rest of the tourists, then the next day we'd leave the camper and run in to Derby to grab supplies (especially beer) and the day after we'd head back to Elizabeth Station and then head for Bachsten Camp and maybe Walcott  Inlet to do some fishing. A few phone calls on the sat phone and Elizabeth Station had confirmed that the road was open. They said it would take us all day to do the 150 odd km to Bachsten Camp and a further full day to get to Walcott Inlet (that's a further 70 km) and that fishing off the bank is very good (must watch out for Salties of course).... OK now that sounds like an adventure!

 So we did the Bell Gorge walk - this is another set of spectacular falls and we stayed for a few hours at the bottom and had a swim and a sun bake.

Rock hole below Bell Falls

Bell Falls

Above Bell Gorge

Once we got back to camp and did the washing. Next day we headed into Derby and topped up on supplies and then we doubled back to not-so-Silent grove - ready (hopefully) for an adventure!!

"Queen Victoria's Head" on the Gibb River Road between Silent Grove and Derby