More gorges on the Gibb

Back on the Gibb River Road, the driving was easier.  It’s not as bad (at the moment anyway) as some of the stories we hear.  It's more the tracks off to the sides, to the gorges, that are hard work.

There was a turnoff into Gibb River Station which we took and were surprised to find an aboriginal community in here – several houses, a school, a couple of public buildings, a playground.  

Barnett River Gorge was a great stop.  It’s 3km in from the road along a really rough, sandy track which cuts across the station.  The walk wasn’t hard, only about 1km and pretty flat.  We ended at the top of the gorge, looking down into the Barnett River which is lined with palms and trees.  It was beautiful.  We then walked down and across a sandy track to the river’s edge, where we sat with our feet in the water and enjoyed the quiet beauty.

Mt Barnett Roadhouse was a good lunch stop.  Being the only roadhouse on the Gibb, we thought we'd treat ourselves to takeaway food - barra & chips for Deb, pie for Phil.

About 14km up the road is Galvans Gorge,  an easy walk, just a small section over rocks but they were pretty flat.  The gorge itself is nothing spectacular but is a really nice spot.  There’s a large deep pool at the the bottom of a waterfall, surrounded by eucalypts and palms with a half-circle rock wall. 

Galvans Gorge

After bush camping off the road near the Adcock River, we visited Adcock's Gorge the next morning.  This was different again, a nice big pool set among rocks and 'strangler' fig trees.  It was fairly early and we were the only ones there.

  

Our next stop was the Imintji Store which is a little shop/cafe/fuel stop.  Everything's very expensive out here.  Fuel about $2.50 litre, bread $6 for a basic loaf, even Cadbury 220g block of chocolate was $9.25.  We're fairly self-sufficient and didn't need to buy anything.

Imintji store on the Gibb River Road

Phil (seagull man) had to be coaxed empty-handed from the tip

Our destination tonight was the King Leopold Range where there's a national park campground at a place called Silent Grove.  We arrived there early afternoon and found ourselves a nice spot among the trees - it's a really lovely area.  As it was pretty hot we decided we'd be better off doing the walk to Bell Gorge in the morning, so had a couple of hours relaxing in this great environment.  And then ... in they came, one by one (or sometimes in twos and threes) ... families with their off-road trailers, generators and kids with footballs.  NT school holidays run for 4 weeks and WA started this weekend for 2 weeks.  Even remote, off-road places like Bell Gorge are not immune!