15/8/20 Doing the Gibb Day 7 & 8

     Another big day ahead , we were ready to go at 7:45am , the walk started with a swim ? yes a swim . In the photo you can see the pool we had to cross - this is looking back to the camping ground , and the 2 half drums are used by everyone to transport their gear across without getting it wet . I had to swim across to get the drums , take them back across , load up and come back across again - luckily the water wasn't too cold .

     This is another view of the pool .

      The walk starts out easily enough , the 1st 1.5klms were easy enough and reasonably flat . The last kilometre however , was the interesting part - down into a gully , then up the other side , a flat section then down and up another deeper gully , along a short flat section to a steep rocky downhill to the gorge . There was a lot of walking over sandstone rock shelves like these .

     There were many of these variety of Mulla Mulla , which would have been very pretty a couple of weeks ago , we were seeing the end of them .

     No shortage of Boabs as well . 

     This was our first views of the gorge , still had to get down there !

 

     Getting down to the floor of the gorge , this was looking back toward the campground - the water flows from here back to the campground .

     Here's a scary one of me at the main pool below the falls - a bit of water coming down - more like a shower than a flow .

  

      Here's an uninterrupted view of it haha .

 

       I climbed up and had a look around on top of the falls , while Lyn cooled off in the lower pool . We swam and chatted to Helen , someone we met and chatted to along all of our trip so far . We then had some lunch , swam again and headed back the 2.5klms to the campsite .

 

      Getting back to the pool we had crossed early this morning was a pleasure , some children brought the drums over to us , and I took the gear across while Lyn cooled down in the middle - I then joined her and we sat and chatted to another 4 people travelling in our little bubble . Tea , showers & bed was the order for the rest of the evening , and we did sleep well !!

      Our original plan was to go further to Mount Elizabeth Station and see what was there before turning around and heading back to Derby , this morning we decided we'd stay here a 3rd night and head back tomorrow . And with that decision we jumped into the ute and drove down to Barnett Gorge . The track in was interesting , not difficult but a little rough , there were no signs , so we took a couple of side tracks to an old camp ground , beside the river and some Boabs .

 

     This is the river beside the old campsite .

     We came around and found a parking area , and got ready for the walk . Helen & Pam arrived and we chatted briefly before we headed off . There was a kilometre walk then some more , not long after we'd arrived at the main sign , Helen came down telling us we'd left our lights on , so away I went to turn them off ! I drove the ute back to the sign at the START of the walk and parked under a Boab . Walk directions weren't really clear , so while Helen & Pam went one way , the drone went up for a look to find the track which was in the other direction . We all headed off the right way then , finding this great spot by the river. We took a photo for Helen & Pam and they took this for us .

     Such a beautiful spot , this is looking toward the gorge .

     We wandered around the river banks & rocks and I got the drone out for some photos .

 

     Take note of the cliffs on the bottom of the photo , the drone decided to perch itself in between some rocks after clipping a tree branch about 8m above the river - fortunately it didn't decide to go for a swim - I just had to find it .

 

    Climbing up & over the rocks wasn't too bad and it was only 400m away from me - how hard could it be ? As it turns out , it was hot & sweaty , finding a way to climb up , across , down , then back up again - oh and also finding the drone . I took the remote and after checking the map on it showing where the drone was I managed to reconnect with the drone and determined it was below me - just had to get down that 10-15m cliff . I made it down & walked to the edge , checking to see if I could see it - I walked to the edge of another huge rock and looked down in-between 2 rocks to see the drone 3m below me . I climbed down and recovered it , then the fun began again , getting back up to the top of the cliffs again and back to the river . It didn't take too long to find my way back to Lyn - I was hot sweaty and had a few scratches that were leaking a bit . Getting back to the river was great , boots & socks came off and I just walked into the river , not caring that my swimmers were still in the backpack , I needed to cool off quickly !! which I did  then we dried off and headed back to the ute drying off as we walked . We jumped in the ute and drove back around to where there was a campground sign and had some late lunch . I changed a couple of propellers and test flew the drone - it flew just fine and did everything it needed to do - happy about that !! This is looking back toward the gorge .

 

     Just to remind us how deadly the Spiral Pandanus are , here's a close up of it's thorns .

     This is a ridge that ran all the way back toward Barnett Roadhouse .

       Another view looking back to the roadhouse .

 

     And that's another day done - a little more excitement involved today than we necessarily wanted , but all part of the fun ??? 

      Here's a map link :- https://www.google.com/maps/d/edit?mid=1RyKeydm7wP6_lETkg8Hx7ceMii3fsgDP&usp=sharing

14/8/20 Doing the Gibb Day 5 & 6

     Today started same as the last few days , awake with the birds before the sun had risen , so we got up and had breakfast & got sorted for what was to come . Our destination , Bell Gorge , about 9klms from the campsite . Not surprisingly , we were the first car in the carpark , packed our drinks & lunch and headed down the  track . We got down to a small creek , which was nice enough , but the water was only trickling in - our thoughts then were oh well it is late in the season , the water may have dried up a bit???

     We kept going down the creek bed , and a few other younger people overtook us , that's all right , we have all day !

     Pandanus & palm trees dotted the little valley and the sun was hitting the western side , lighting it up .

     Another 200m and we came out to a huge pool of water , perfectly still and reflecting everything above it . We could also hear water falling , much more than the trickle we first saw .

     And here it was , not lots of water , but enough to make it a beautiful place to be . It cascaded over steps in the rocks and fell into a huge pool below 

     The pool stretched it's way through a narrow section in the rocks to another large pool , before going down further steps into the gorge below.

     You can get a feeling for the size from the people standing on the left hand side of the gorge .

     We stopped for a while and cooled our feet in one of the pools , before going for a walk over the rocks to the upper pools . A steep rocky hillside on the right and a sloping rock shelf on the left , with many trees & palms .

     A tiny ball flower got my attention , growing beside the water in small patches of earth & moss .

     We continued to explore our surroundings .

      This hole was interesting - an almost round rock was sitting in the bottom of the hole and another rock not quite as round was in a small pool of water . Tide marks where the water has dried out , left interesting patterns . The rocks down the bottom have probably been there for a long time , getting rolled round and round by floodwaters , enlarging the hole gradually .

     The rocks beside the creek were stained an interesting colour , baked on by the sun .

     I left Lyn at the top pools and clambered up the hill & down to the lower pool - just as well I don't mind some rock hopping ! Down at the bottom pool I took some photo's before getting into the water for a swim - talk about breathtaking - yes the views , but also the water temperature - it was very refreshing !!

     After some lunch and another swim in the upper pools , we headed back to camp - what an excellent 6 hours we had spent here .

        Another great night's sleep had us awake early again we ignored the birds for a while before springing back into action , breakfast & packup and onto a new destination .  It didn't take long to get back to Gibb River Rd and before long we'd arrived at Imintji Store - and I had some Optus service , so we stopped & checked emails etc , fueled up @ $2 a litre , and had a chat with the store owner - he owns Ivanhoe Caravan Park in Kununurra , leases Mt Hart Wilderness Lodge and the store here , he told us his trade was down 70% due to Covid !! After about 30mins chatting , we wandered off down the road , next stop Adcock Gorge . Driving in off the road was interesting as the track was a bit washed out , but we found a parking area and stopped . Finding the gorge was the next thing - out came the drone to check things out for us . This next photo is the creek that flows into the gorge .

  

      This is the gorge and plunge pool , not a lot of water going in .

  

      We found a track and a way to the pool , lot's of rock hopping , climbing up & down , then we were there .

      The next 2 photo's are of a couple of fig trees clinging to the cliff faces .

     The smaller one on the right appears to be growing from under a rock shelf .

      There was one small freshie in the pool , that didn't stop this guy from having a dip though .

  

     After an hour or so , we wandered back to the ute & found some shade under a tree to have some lunch.

      Back onto the Gibb for another short drive to the top of the Phillips Range , where there is a lookout unfortunately it is a lot overgrown and views aren't good . Down the hill we found Galvans Gorge - probably the easiest walk of all the gorges so far , at least till the end where you have to do some rock hopping again . It was also the hottest , being in the afternoon sun and ridges either side stopping any breeze . There were some wildflowers on the way in .

     This was the pool at the end of the gorge , again very little water running in and out . 

     Back out to the road and down to Barnett Roadhouse and Manning Gorge Campground to set up camp again . That's it for today , here's your map link :- https://www.google.com/maps/d/edit?mid=1taROlvnp65uItPEF6R03oTtb90rBzRq4&usp=sharing

 

13/8/20 Doing the Gibb Day 4

      Another early night and even earlier morning - seems to be a trend happening here - pack up time and further down the road to our next stop . Mt Hart was okay , but didn't meet my expectations , in fact it was better scenery going back the 50klms to the Gibb River Rd again . 

 

 

      We stopped a couple of times for photos and some aerial shots . The almost black rocks sparked our interest again .

 

      Don't know what these trees are living on or in .

 

      This is where we are headed to , back into the King Leopold Ranges .

 

      Back onto the Gibb again and we found Dog Chain Creek , it is a camping area , but would be very dusty spot with no facilities , just the creek .

 

 

      The road started to get interesting as we wound our way into the ranges . The ridge looked interesting so we found somewhere to get off the road to take a look from above .

 

      The view from above was even better , ridges ran parallel to the road , bare rock faces and small creeks as well as quite a few cars & caravans - and it is supposed to be quiet this year !

  

  

      Small gorges split the ridge lines in several places , inside the gorges were tall palm trees sheltered from the worst of the conditions .

  

      The ridges closed in on the road and it was hard to keep an eye on the road with all this stunning scenery surrounding us .

  

  

     There are some short sections of bitumen which give you a bit of respite from the gravel , dust & corrugations . They are usually on hilly sections of the road & the occasional floodway . This is the view from a lookout toward March Fly Glen camp .

 

     March Fly Glen is to the left of the gorge .

 

     The road came out onto another lookout over a vast plain with these mountains of to the right .

 

      Not far from the bottom of the hill was our turnoff to Silent Grove Campground , where we will be for the next couple of nights . We paid for our site and set up , there was a creek beside the campground , but not for swimming , as that is where they get the water for the campground - not that you'd want to swim in this one anyway . 

      We went for a walk along the creek a bit later as the sun went down behind a rocky ridge beside us .

 

     Stopping to look around , I leant up against tree trunk , before quickly removing my hand from it - there were green tree ants swarming up & down the trunk , one was carrying dinner with it . Green tree ants can be nasty little buggers if you disturb them .

     There you have it , here's a map link :-https://www.google.com/maps/d/edit?mid=18MN5ozvrij_jfWT7Z4dL09W9EeUsGZtz&usp=sharing