Graham and Chris on tour 2014 – Update #10 – Barnett River Gorge to Derby

After spending the night at Drysdale River Station we headed back to the Gibb River Road and onto Mount Barnett Station.

On the way to Mt Barnett we came across a sign to Barnett River Gorge and so checked it out. A 2km walk into a picturesque gorge. Had lunch at the gorge and then proceeded to Mt Barnett Station.

Mt Barnett is an aboriginal community that has a reasonably well stocked store including fresh fruit and vegetables, all of which we were running short of. But no booze unfortunately. We were starting to get desperate and so a rationing regime had been implemented.

Manning Gorge is on Mount Barnett Station, so after paying our camping fees and getting a few supplies we headed out the track to the Manning Gorge camp ground, a short distance of around 7km. While Chris and I grabbed a reasonable camp spot for safety, Harold and Di went off to scout for something a little further away from the many campers. To our delight they found a great spot near the Manning River that was indeed a fair distance from any neighbours. The down side once again was that ablutions were a good distance away from our camp in the main camp ground. Better that than being packed in cheek to jowl.

Chris gets a hair cut at Manning Gorge Camp

Manning gorge is an absolute delight. The start of the walk is a little out of the ordinary however, having to pull yourself across a large water hole in an aluminium dinghy via a pulley rope to get to the start of the walking track. On our previous visit in 2008 there was no dinghy but they supplied foam boxes to put your gear in while you swam and pushed the box to the other sided of the water hole. The freshwater crocks don’t seem to mind so it is a rather pleasant start and end to a walk especially on hot days. The water hole is close to the camp ground and so provides a great swimming hole for cooling off while at camp.

We were so pleased with our camp spot, we decided to stay for 2 nights before setting off for Charnley River Station on Friday the 18^th of July.

On the way to Charnley we dropped off at a wonderful little oasis in Galvin Gorge which is also on Mount Barnett. This is a fabulous swimming hole despite its easy access from the Gibb River Road and the constant stream of visitors. There is also some rock art to be found here.

Yours truly taking a dive

Rock art – Galvin Gorge

After a refreshing swim, well me and Harold at least, on we continued for Charnley. While heading over the ranges there was an official sign “Over The Hills Puncture Repairs” pointing up a track.

“What the!!”, we thought, “way out here?”

Well we soon found out why he was there. “We have a blow out” was the message we received over the radio from Harold and Di. We used the Satellite phone to ring Charnley to find out if they had puncture repair facilities with a negative result, so the decision was made for Chris and I to push on to Charnely while Harold and Di back tracked the 20 or so km to “Over The Hills Puncture Repairs”. So we left the Sat Phone with them just in case they ran into trouble, us having plenty of spare tyres for our vehicle.

When we arrived at Charnley we were able to ring Neville the puncture repair guy to find out if Harold and Di made it OK. “They left 15 min ago with a brand new tyre” was the friendly reply.

Some time later Harold and Di wandered in to our camp on foot. “Hey where is the Britz?”. “At the Homestead, It won’t start again!” was the reply.

Trusty jumper leads in hand we headed up to the Homestead.

Eventually we got the vehicle started and then completed our camp set up. Still suspecting the battery connections (my inkling remained that the battery was the problem), we set to, to give them a good clean with round files etc.

Charnley has recently been bought by the AWC (Australian Wildlife Conservancy) and so was a little different from when we visited the Station in 2008. Despite the roads/tracks on the station being excellent they insist that you sign out and sign in when heading off for a drive to any of the attractions. Bureaucracy gone mad as usual. Plus no fires are allowed despite there being fireplaces provided by the previous owners. “Controlled burning of the bush are the only fires allowed” was the reason given and they cannot chance a spark from a camp fire, despite the camping area being surrounded by mowed green grass. Hmmm!

We visited Dillie Gorge and went for a swim in the Donkey pools which was fabulous.

After some discussions with other campers, we were keen to head to Mornington Station, another property owned by AWC that has some “up market” facilities including a restaurant (licensed) and some apparently stunning gorges but it was an 80 km drive off the Gibb River Road so we eventually decided on balance to head for Derby as we were desperately short of supplies (read booze) and we were not sure how reliably we would be able to continue to start the Britz camper with its dodgy battery and/or terminals. We also had a problem with the auxilliary battery (stuffed) in our car, not the end of the world but a further incentive to get to Derby. We would plan to revisit the area starting from the western sided of the Gibb River Road another year and visit Mornington and Mount Elizabeth stations.

So we headed for Derby, had morning tea at Imintji, a pleasant oasis in the ranges (another aboriginal community) with a well stocked shop. Diesel is available but no petrol. The drive from Charnley across the King Leopold Ranges is stunning.

About 124km from Derby the road takes a turn for the better with long stretches of bitumen. A latish lunch in Derby

That night a wonderful meal of Barramundi at the Wharf Restaurant to celebrate our completion of the GRR, the following day, Monday, we set about getting a new battery for our car and the Britz battery problems fixed. We had the Britz battery load tested which indicated it was fine, so had the terminals replaced. Next morning once again it failed to start. After various calls to Britz it was booked in to an auto electrician the following morning. That night we headed to “The Boab Inn” for a fabulous meal of Thread-fin Salmon. We trickle charge the Britz battery all night, to try and ensure that it would start fine in the morning. The Auto Electrician load tested the battery and again it indicated as being fine. But then a second load test immediately after the first one caused the battery to completely fail.

With a new battery installed the car would start but not easily. It was decided that the air filter was not sealing properly. That fixed Harold and Di were on their way, headed for Winjana Gorge that evening then Tunnel Creek, Geikie Gorge, and further on; The Bungle Bungles, on their way back to Darwin to drop off the camper on the 31^st July.

We were now once again on our own, having had a wonderful 3 weeks with Harold and Di, sharing the experience of the Gibb River Road.