Manning Gorge to Derby
VIA Tunnel Creek GIBB RIVER ROAD - Part 3️⃣
After leaving Barnett River gorge we headed to Mt Barnett Roadhouse to top up with fuel⛽️ and head into Manning Gorge. We chose to camp in the campground at Manning for the night. It cost us $45 for the night which included entrance into the gorge.
Dogs🐕 are very welcome into the campground but not allowed on the gorge walk. Don’t fear - If you ask the friendly onsite caretaker they’ll show you where dogs can swim in the river🏊🏻♂️. We got up early the next day to do the walk into Manning. You have to pull yourself across in a small tinnie to begin the walk. It took us around an hour each way into the gorge.👟
We happened to be the first ones there, so we had the gorge to ourselves for a good 15 minutes before other people starting arriving. The waterfall was still running and the waterhole was very refreshing😁. Headed back to camp, we packed up and drove down the road to our next gorge.
Galvans Gorge turned out to be one of our favourite gorges on the gibb! Only a short 1km stroll in from the carpark. A noticeable smaller gorge than all the others but still very pretty. The waterfall was still trickling down the rocks and what made this gorge awesome was the rope swing🤪! Amz took the first swing, then it was on! We both felt like kids swinging off it numerous times, trying to do some tricks. 🤟🏼
We eventually left Galvans, with a big grin on our faces and drove up the road to Bell Creek free camp for the night. A great spot for an overnight rest, right next to a turquoise creek💦. There is only a few spots, so get in early! The next morning, up nice and early we drove up to Bell Gorge. A relatively easy stroll in to the top pool, then a bit of rock hopping to get down to the base pool.
After a nice refreshing morning swim, we beetled down to the Lennard River rest area (another free camp). We un hitched the van, left Rusty🐶 with the grandparents (at camp) and headed down to tunnel creek! So when we arrived, Amz realized she had focused so much on bringing our water shoes & towels that she forgot our head torches🤦🏻♀️🤦🏻♂️. But! Luckily we both realized we had another larger torch in the canopy. Our under bonnet work light - which turned out to be so much better! 💁🏻♀️💡
People thought we had a light-bar off our car it was so bright😂. Everyone commented on it throughout the trek in. Kurt was telling all the kids it was his star wars lightsaber and making the noises as we walked in. On the drive back, we stopped at the old police station ruins for a look. Then into Windjana Gorge for some croc spotting🐊. We only strolled in about 1km and we spotted 12 freshwater crocs! We then decided to walk in a further kilometre to see the gorge better. It was very spectacular scenery and well worth a look!
The next day, we chilled around camp while Kurts parents day tripped it to Tunnel Creek & Windjana. The following day, we officially finished the Gibb🎉! We headed into Derby for some fuel and look around before camping out of town.
#gibbriverroad #windjanagorge #tunnelcreek #manninggorge