Leaking Tinny to Manning Gorge

Pancakes for breakfast again. Yippee!!

Today we rejoin the Gibb River Road 59km from Drysdale Station and head towards Mt Barnett to visit Manning Gorge.

DRIVE: Drysdale Station to Manning Gorge Campground, Mt Barnett (165km).

The further towards Mt Barnett, the smoother the dirt road becomes which is a pleasure to drive compared to the Kulumburu road and the Mitchell Falls road.

We stop at the Mt Barnett Roadhouse to buy our camping permit and top up on a few supplies. Chicken fillets, that’s good because we have lots of pasta sauce and curry sauce but no chicken to add to them. It’s Wednesday and fresh fruit and veggies are not due in until tomorrow so alas, we grab an onion, 3 carrots and the remaining two potatoes that are on the shelf.

Still no mobile coverage but the Roadhouse has limited internet if you pay a fee, $8 for 100mb, daylight robbery. I cough up the dough but the username and password is useless so I get my money back. Jen still doesn’t know the Collingwood footy score vs the Dockers so now she will have to wait a little longer for Internet. It’s tragic I know...

Mt Barnett Roadhouse seems the centre of civilisation out here, a transit point when you have been remote on the Gibb and you fancy a good burger and chips. Not that we indulge, I still have tuna pasta left over from last night for lunch.

CAMP: Manning Gorge Campground / 1 Night

We had spoken to a couple of travellers in Mitchell Falls, and they said that Manning Gorge Campground is not that good. Everyone has an opinion and each to their own. They must have been 50% empty as we are pleasantly surprised by the camping area. As we have arrived before midday, we have the pick of the best shady sites. In fact tonight, myself and Jen will be sleeping in the canopy of a couple of trees with our roof top tent. There are flush toilets and even showers, much more than we have been used to.

Manning Gorge is about 3km away from camp and a highlight swimming hole in The Kimberleys. To get there, we have to first cross a river 60m wide. There’s a tinny (little metal boat) with a pulley rope system attached to pull ourselves across to the river bank on the other side. It’s so much fun and we feel like real adventurers.

Jen carefully gets in the tinny first, avoiding putting her feet in the water at the bottom of the boat. I follow and grab the pulley rope and off we go. It’s a bit like punting on the river Avon... well not really, my feet are soaked, the flies are in my eyes and the queen sat on the bow of the boat is hard to please as she get out the whip and gives me a lashing.

We reach the bank on the other side and ungracefully get out of the slowly sinking aluminium object shaped like a boat. Obviously, there’s a leak so it’s like a race against time to get to the other side. It would be even more fun if there were crocs in the river!

Its an easy hike for us to Manning Gorge and we follow the rocks to a 2nd pool partly in shade. The water is deep and ok to jump or even dive in. I attempt my safety jump, a technique to jump in the water but keep my head from submerging. Jen taught me the safety jump at summer camp in America in 1989 and she gave me the same fail score today as she did back then. That’s not how you do it she says as she jumps majestically into Manning Gorge. Lesson learnt... again!!

Not to bore you but the water is... is there another word for refreshing as I have used it a lot of late? Ok, it’s like jumping into a big pool of Corona with a slice of lemon. Get the idea?

The lizard finds sun and rock whilst I climb up to a vantage point overlooking Manning Gorge where a black granite base signifies a dry waterfall. The view down the gorge is quite a picture and with the sun behind me, I capture some good shots.

The lizard is still warming her blood by the time I get down and we decide to have one more dip before heading back. I do my best dive from a rock and then invite Jen to do the same as I can’t recall seeing her dive before. As expected, It’s a good dive from Jen, a 9.45, but I nearly drown with laughter anyway as I had already imagined a belly flop. No chance, not from Jen.

On the way back, we pass a cairn (pile of stones) that have been stacked by fellow adventurers. I happen to find a heart shaped rock close by as if it magically appeared and I add it to the stack on behalf of my mum as she was an avid hiker and also for Anne’s mum and The Lloydes. Hopefully the little heart shape rock will be there for many a year to come. XXX

We storm home across rocks and boulders like “ain’t no mountain high enough” and make it back to the boat crossing in 30 minutes. Jen does the hard yards to retrieve the boat from the other side of the river but nearly falls in trying to get into the tinny once it arrived.

Back at camp, I go searching for firewood and soon have a cozy fire going. It’s only 5.30pm but feels like 8.00pm already. The gourmet meal tonight is peppered steak hot pot for me, a soup from a can of course and chicken and sweet corn for Jen.

We miss the Lloyde’s and trust they are back in Melbourne but we won’t be able to make contact until tomorrow when we head to Mornington Wildlife Sanctuary. If they were with us today, we would have sunk the tinny for sure, bailed overboard and drowned with laughter.もっと詳しく