Bell Gorge to Mornington WIldlife Conservancy, Gibb River Rd, Kimberley WA

Thursday 31st May 2018
Can you believe we have been on the road for 55 days now. Wow, how time flies, we have travelled over 12,000km since we left home, spent $1,943 on accommodation and $2,496 on fuel. We are still having a great time although the Gibb River Road is not as big an adventure as we first thought. We expected a lot more remote wilderness but there are so many people here, travelling on the dirt highway. The road is better in some parts than others.

We left Silent Grove campground at Bell Gorge early this morning with an unknown destination for tonight as we had been told our preferred place may be booked out. DB had read on WIkiCamps that someone had wanted to go there on the 20th and had to wait to 24th as they were booked until then. We had no phone service and hadn’t pre-booked as we never know how long it will take to get where we are going and we don’t really like to plan anything too far ahead. So we decided to risk it and try when we got to Imintji Roadhouse which was 33km from Mornington Wildlife Sanctuary and they had Optus phone service. Can you believe it! Optus again. We stopped and I ducked in to the shop and managed to buy some broccoli, zucchini and capsicum. I did a little dance as I wasn’t looking forward to the latter part of our trip on the Gibb River Rd without fresh vegetables. We should be ok now. Yay! Then we called Mornington and we were in luck. They had availability for the 3 nights we were hoping to stay. Yippee!! So after communicating with everyone we could contact we headed on our way. We will be without phone service for the next few days again.

The drive to Mornington was on their private road and was 82km from the Gibb River Road. DB decided it was my turn to have another practise on the dirt road but was quite disappointed as the first 60km was really quite a pleasant and reasonably smooth trip. The last section got a bit windy, rough and there were a few creek crossings with water of varying depths. A good experience for me in case it is needed. DB is always preparing me just in case. The drive was very scenic and pleasant.

On arrival at Mornington Wildlife Sanctuary which is an Australian Wildlife Conservancy property we checked in and found a nice little spot to camp for the next 3 nights. We set up the gazebo for the 3rd time this entire holiday as it really has only been necessary for the bugs as we really haven’t had any rain. Oh, I think we used it for the wind one night. We have really only set it up here to mind our campsite during the day when we take the car out to explore. This place has restricted entry, only 25 campsites with a maximum of 50 campers which is why we were a little concerned about getting a spot on the day. It is nice to have only a few people about but I would think it is the 25 they allow.

Well we will enjoy the quieter and less crowded time over the next couple of days.

: This is definitely our motto as we are missing both the kids and the grandkids, and both our mums.

: We still love our new tent and we have fixed the mozzie problem so David is a little happier. It has saved us so much time on this holiday with its 30 second setup and 2 minute backup every day.

: Lining up at a creek crossing. As we headed out of Bell Gorge these two campers trailers rushed us out the gate. Painful as their dust led the way. DB stopped on the side of the road for 5 mins to let them get ahead of us rather than eating their dust the whole way, which was 19km to the main road. Not sure why they didn’t let us go ahead of them as we weren’t towing anything. But they didn’t let us past until we reached the Gibb River Road.

: The creek crossing wasn’t too deep

: This is the garbage disposal point. Makes you think about your waste a little as everything was flying around, in and outside the fence.

: At the turnoff to Mornington Wildlife Sanctuary you have to radio through to let them know you are on your way and to check they have availability.

: I was happy we could proceed and not have to make changes to our plans. We had a contingency plan but that may have required an extra petrol trip out of the way and some backtracking. So we were lucky.

: David sending a message on the satellite phone to make sure we are able to be contacted over the next few days if need be.

: The road in was reasonably smooth as it had only just been graded. Lucky us!

: A very big bull crossing the road near the gate..

: Lucky for me I was driving and it’s the passengers job to open and close the gates.

: The road was so straight and the plains so dry.

: The scenery was still very beautiful and the photos don’t quite capture the beauty

: The cattle keeping cool under the shade of a tree

: There were some beautiful bomb trees along the way, sometimes they are skinny, sometimes really thick, others are like siamese twins with 2 trucks but this one was a family with about 6 trunks.

: We had been trying to stop for lunch for about an hour when we finally came across this shady spot by the creek just before a crossing. We had only seen 2 cars right at the beginning of the track in, but whilst we were making lunch 3 cars went past.

: After driving for 2 hours we were finally there. I didn’t feel tired at all the whole time which is very unusual for me when driving because you had to concentrate so hard to make sure you didn’t run over any pointy rocks that could puncture your tyre, and there were lots of them. Not as many as DB has had to negotiate since we started the Gibb River Rd