Day 23 - 33 Gibb River Road
Where to even begin. Gibb River Road is such a fantastic route that takes you to the heart of The Kimberly, through an ever changing landscape with gorges, waterfalls, peaks, valleys and heaps of wildlife. The Gibb River Road itself wasn’t as challenging as we first thought it would be, however, we managed to get 2 flat tyres and that says something about the condition of the road. Also, the road from Gibb up to Mitchell Falls was VERY rough and driving above 40 km/hour wasn’t an option. Let’s put it like this, it took us 10 hours to travel 340 km… We also got to try some river crossings, both in El Questro Wilderness Park and in Mornington. A 4x4 was a must at many places. At first, we thought it would take us a couple of days to complete the Gibb River Road (at very first I even thought it would take us just one day to do the Gibb) but as it turned out we stayed 10 nights in the area, and we could easily have done another 10 or 20! Our Gibb itinerary: Derby – Windjana Gorge, 1 overnight stop Windjana Gorge – Bell Gorge with detour to Tunnet Creek, 1 overnight stop Bell Gorge – Mornington Wilderness Camp, 2 overnight stops Mornington – Manning Gorge, 1 overnight stop Manning Gorge – Mitchell Falls, 2 overnight stops Mitchell Falls – Home Valley Station, 2 overnight stops Home Valley Station – El Questro, 1 overnight stop Main highlights in order of appearance (however they were ALL AWESOME): 1. Windjana Gorge, where we sat next to the freshwater crocodile’s waterhole, watching thousands and thousands of fruit bats flying over our heads just after sunset. We could feel the wind from their wings as they were passing by. 2. Manning Gorge Waterfall walk, such an amazing spot for a swim. 3. Mitchell Falls, stunning 4 fall waterfalls, far away from civilisation. Can only imagine how impressive the falls would be during the wet season, considering how breathtaking they were during the dry. 4. El Questro Gorge, a challenging 7km walk over rocks and in water, through the narrow gorge with tall rough walls covered in reinforest. The walk took us to the top of the gorge and a beautiful waterfall with a nice and cool swimming hole. We only have two words for you – do it!
