Plans change ...

After leaving Broome we headed south (about 140kms of bitumen) and arrived at Barn Hill Station which is a working cattle station and sits within Thangoo Station.  It is one of the few remaining family owned and operated cattle stations in the Kimberley.  It fronts onto 50kms of ocean.

Barn Hill Station

We met a number of people who have stayed there before … some many times … they offer a range of meals with specialty nights (eg Corned Beef and Mash, Mussaman Beef Curry and Pizza nights). They also bake daily and have a selection of breads and cakes … their speciality being the humble Vanilla Slice.  They also have a coffee shop.

Barn Hill Station

We walked the beach between two headlands.  The Queensland tourist was able to bath her injury in the salt water … which was a first … the wound is healing well … but has one small spot that is being a little stubborn … the salt water also assisted with her other injuries … a stubbed toe with the nail bed torn off (and the tip of the toe missing) and a broken toe … courtesy of trying to play football with a large rock …

Barn Hill Station

Well … we said that the Gibb River Road was off the agenda for now … well it is firmly back on the agenda … in fact, here I sit on day 2 of our Gibb River Road quest.

We left Barn Hill Station and heading north again to Derby for a restock (food, water and fuel) then to Birdwood Downs Station (about 300kms) where we stayed before going to the James Price Point (pre-Broome).

While at Birdwood Downs Station I ran into one of the people who were queued waiting to get into Pender Bay Escape (you may recall that we elected not to hang around due to the uncertainty with the bushfires on the access track) … he waited over 4 hours for the track to be clear as the flames were 4-5m high along parts of the track.  He was staying at another camp area with access being the same track … they reportedly lost a tractor in the fire.

Next day our destination was Mt Hart Wilderness Lodge which is a 50km unsealed diversion from the Gibb River Road where we lucked a nice little campsite on a lagoon with water lillies.

Blue Winged Kookaburra

From Birdwood Downs Station to Mt Hart was 220km (nearly 4 hours drive time).  The road in (about 50kms), had 5 water crossings with depths ranging from 6 inches to the top of the wheels. 

It is starting to get toward the end of the dry season (winter) with there being less and less water in the various creeks and rivers.  I reckon that we drove through about 25-30 dry creek crossings getting to Mt Hart.  Then we crossed them all again the following morning as we headed to Silent Grove Campground (Dulundi) … it was a pretty easy 100kms but took about 2 hours of driving.

We arrived early into camp, setup and headed straight to Bell Gorge which is about 10kms from the campground. The walk into the Gorge is a Grade 4 walk and about 1km each way with a long steep hill on the return journey.  The Gorge is stunning.

Bell Gorge

Gibb River Road Day 1

 We plan to take about 10 days to "do the Gibb..."