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| Tookie Visits Bell Gorge on the Gibb River Road |
The Gibb
River Road is 665k’s long and mostly unsealed, however that will no doubt
change as they are working on sealing more of it as I write this. If you want to go to Windjana Gorge which is
the first major attraction, then it is sealed until the turn off and then about
20k’s of dirt road to the gorge.
We had
heard good and bad reports about the state of the Gibb known for many a tyre
blow outs and suspension damage over the years.
If the grader has just been through then you will have a relatively
smooth ride, but if not, it is heavily rutted.
So, after much disscussion, we agreed unanimously to leave
the van in Derby and do day trips. That way the van wouldn’t be damaged and the fuel bill would be a small price to pay to avoid the possibility of outlaying hundreds if not thousands of dollars to fix any damage that may occur.
A little way on the Gibb there was a
detour around some of the road works.
This detour was most horrendous and I am sure we would have done major
damage to the caravan should we have taken the Gibb. See Video below.
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Having said
the above, this page is divided into two parts being either side of the Gibb
River road as we did not do the middle bit which is renowned to have very bad
road conditions. We went in as far as
Imitiji Roadhouse on the western side and El Questro on the eastern side. Then we drove from Derby to Kununurra on the
Great Northern Highway.
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BELL GORGE
First day,
we headed off to Bell Gorge – 250k’s up the Gibb. Goodness!
What a long day! We took a picnic
and Tookie joined us for the ride. See opening pic.
Bell Gorge
wasn’t too far off the Gibb so we didn’t have to endure too much rutty
road. There was one bit that had a
washaway. I GoPro’d hubby going through
it. See video below. We found the Gibb Road
itself not too bad. Some parts were even
tarred. However, there were parts that
were not so good but on the whole it was ok.
It’s just that the roads leading off are a bit dicey.
The walking track into Bell Gorge started with a
steep grade downhill and then a long stretch of nothing but rocks and
boulders. Walking back out and up that
steep grade nearly did me in. By the
time I got to the top I had to rest for 10 minutes to regain my breath and
wabbly legs.
But it was
worth it. The gorge is very pretty. I can see why it is classed as one of the
more picturesque gorges on the Gibb. I
went for a swim and chilled whilst hubby continued on the path up and around
and down to the bottom of the waterfall.
That did him in. I had to go and
grab his camera whilst he traversed the last little bit back, where he half fell in
and Tookie in the backpack ended upside down.
They were both ok thank goodness.
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WINDJANA
GORGE
Next day we
did Windjana Gorge which was not as long.
Side
story. The day before we came across
this dude who had lost a huge bolt that was holding his left-hand front tyre to
the suspension. We did not have anything
that could assist. We had flagged down a
number of travellers who could not assist either. Finally one guy came along who had a couple
of bolts that were a little bit smaller and longer. So the guy did a bit of a dodgy fix job
including a couple of cable ties and we left him to limp slowly towards Derby. We thought that there was no way he was going
to get 10k’s up the road.
Anyway, we
arrived at Windjana Gorge next day early at about 7.30 and low and behold, Mr
Toyota was there! We couldn’t believe
it! However, when the Ranger turned up,
the dodgy fixit guy left in a hurry.
Seems that he doesn’t like paying to stay in National Parks….
Windjana
Gorge was a magical place. Full of
birdlife and fresh water crocs, who by the way are quite placid and not like
their salt water brothers. The light
this early in the morning was just right for photography so we were able to
take some specky shots. The walk in is
really easy. My kind of easy. 😊
I would
have loved to have sat for a while to take it all in however the march flies
were having nothing of that. They are
really bad. Tip – take plenty of insect
repellent when visiting Windjana Gorge.
We loved
this place still the same.
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DRIVIING GIBB RIVER ROAD
Below are
random shots in no particular order of interesting landscape and wildlife that
you can expect to see on the Gibb River Road.
The video shows landscape but bear in mind that I took most of the
footage on the bitumen because that was obviously a lot smoother – whereas the
Gibb River Road is mostly corrugated dirt. If doing the same as us, you will need to
fill up with fuel at Imitiji Roadhouse.
We expected more at this place.
Don’t bother spending any money other than fuel.
We were glad that we took our picnic with us. We ended up stopping mid afternoon at a place called Lennard River which is almost opposite the turn off to Windjana Gorge.
This is also a good free overnight spot if you choose not to travel in and out of Derby, as is Dog Chain Creek and March Fly Glen. They all looked nice for free camping. Plenty of shade and water holes.
VIDEO - DRIVING GIBB RIVER ROAD
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