Day 7 The Gibb River Road

A great Indian bustard, the heaviest flying bird in Australia.

Part of the 700 kms of the Gibb River Road. This part is regularly flooded in the wet season.

The Durack River in the dry season.

A flat tire, driving up on a rock and lowering the spare.

Indigenous rock art.

The boat for our river crossing on the other side.

Manning Gorge.

Friday, September 16^th.

Same drill in the morning and we struck camp and were on the road by 6:30. It was a long morning of driving on the Gibb River Road. This route is famous as the cattle drive route from the outback to Broome on the coast. The road is unpaved and corrugated but, our truck travels over it fairly well, although it is bumpy. Damien can do 80 kilometres and we pass the occasional four wheel SUV. We saw a couple of kangaroos hop across the road and an great Indian bustard bird.

We stopped at the Durack River for a bush pit stop as there is nowhere else to go. It was actually a very pretty place and I took several photos.

Eventually we stopped at the mount Barnett Roadhouse for our picnic lunch. I bought a couple of yogurt and a chocolate milk as I seemed to be having a dairy craving. There was a sign on the door that said “NO school NO shopping” which was telling the students they could not be in the store if they were skipping school. After that we stopped at a sacred aboriginal rock painting spot. Then we drove on to the Manning Gorge campground, which had three large stately boab trees in the camp! After we set up our camp in the heat we went on a good hike to the Manning Gorge. We were joined by Brendan who was the son of the camp caretaker. He was a 14 year old, grade 9 student. He was quite cocky and funny. We were all covered and lathered with hats and shoes and he was wearing only shorts, no hat, no sunscreen, and carrying no water. He said he never wears sunscreen and he drinks water from the gorge. I asked about his school and he said there were between 0 and 30 students depending on how many wanted to go that day. He is one of three white kids, the rest are aboriginal. From the campsite we had to put our day packs in a pull boat and swim across the river to get to the other side to begin the hike. The hike was over rocky terrain and a couple of hills before we got to another beautiful gorge and swimming pool. We had a really good swim there in two large pools before hiking back to the camp. I walked with Damien who is still struggling along with one crutch to protect his heel.

Damien made another excellent meal for dinner. He cut up kangaroo and some onions and partially cooked it before we went for our walk. He put the covered cast iron ot in a 'Turkish bedroll', which is a round insulated bag that looks like a turban. Then when we got back he added potato and sweet potato to finish his kangaroo stew.

After dinner I went for a walk through the camp. There is a road that goes about 7km. It was a full moon and very bright night. I could hardly see any stars. It was quiet and peaceful with nothing but insect noises. I walked along thinking about friends and people in my life, my sister's eye and poor John. When I got back I crawled into my tent and went to sleep under a giant boab tree!