Everyone rose early and pulled down tents, packed gear and ate brekkie before topping up the fuel at Drysdale Station and travelling back along the Kalumburu road – destination Manning Gorge. Branch had to assist me finding my phone – located in the pouch under my seat in the Ranger…but no success finding Annette’s phone as it had also gone walkabout…

The Kalumburu road was now a bit worse for wear as so many vans, trailers and vehicles had been up and back the last couple of days since we had travelled to Kalumburu – the corrugations were a bit harsher but still not to be compared to the Oodnadatta track.

We turned onto the Gibb River Road heading towards Mt Barnett Roadhouse and Manning Gorge. The road improved somewhat and the scenery was serene with grassland and gums with the escarpment in the background shimmering in the heat. The road alternated from red dust – an unbelievably deep red – to grey and sandy as well as sharp rocks protruding looking ominous – able to puncture even the toughest tyre with a single stab!

River beds that usually still have some water in them were very dry….

 A quick stop for morning tea at the Hann River revealed some further small incidents….

Glen and Annette did not arrive at the riverside as planned and were not responding to radio calls – after about 15mins they arrived just as we were contemplating whether to drive back – turned out their aerial had snapped off with all the rattling – much to Branch’s delight Trev had a spare on our car as our CB was still not working and we were using our handheld CB so the transfer was made…

Gordie also had another screw loose on his mudflaps – Branch crossed over to assist and was astounded at the appearance of a PINK toolbox out of the back of Gordie’s ute – SERIOUSLY!!! What bloke uses a pink toolset????

After morning tea we arrived at Mt Barnett Station and bought our camping passes for Manning Gorge – a short 7km drive in from the GRR. At Mt Barnett Station they had the awesome roadhouse sausage rolls – huge with thin puff pastry so no one could resist and we bought them and some hot chips for early lunch – washed down with a Splice icecream – first we had seen for ages it seemed!!

On the way we saw a large blowup pool toy on the side of the road in pristine condition so stopped and shoved it in our car (a LOT of shoving!!) to hand in at the campground caretakers place – someone will surely come looking for it . Sure enough we saw a ute with an aboriginal boy in the back tray driving at pace past us – we could not flag them down but took the toy to the campground – about 30mins later they came in and retrieved it!

We arrived at the Manning Gorge Campsite and grabbed a great spot under some trees with a firepit and not too far from the amenities.

A quick setup in the 34 degree heat which revealed Annette’s phone in the pouch on her campchair – and then we all went down to the swimming hole for a well deserved dip in the cool clear water…the place was busy with lots of campers and a couple of tour groups but the water holes were large and we had a great time cooling off.

The campground had some massive boab trees in it as well as lots of other tree varieties – gums, melaleucas and acacias.

Back at camp the Bottomless Barista was at it again….

Dinner sorted and firewood obtained (more than needed as usual!!)..

After dinner we sat around the campfire while the damper cooked…

Glen had bought a new toy at the roadhouse – an upmarket headtorch with multiple functions including a sensor light – as he had been coveting McGyver’s ever since we have been on the Gibb. He was so attached to it he wore it to bed…don’t know how the sensor light will go over night – may be quite annoying…

the Bottomless Barista could not help himself and had to take a look – almost falling into Glen’s tent in the process..

Manning gorge walk tomorrow….everyone was keen for it!