Wed 11 Sept 2013 – Mount Barnett Roadhouse, Manning Gorge and Fish for Dinner

It was so beautiful down at the river in the early morning when we went down for our pre journey dip, that it was hard to leave. We tore ourselves away about 9.00am as we knew we had a big drive ahead, nearly 200kms over some pretty rough road. I did the first stretch, as we'd come up the same way and knew what to expect, and I did my first creek crossing. Rodger took over after we stopped at Drysdale for diesel and when we got back onto the Gibb River Road, we found the next stretch the worst yet, with lots of big corrugations that shook us about badly and the noise was so bad we could only communicate by yelling at each other.

At 2.30pm we got to Mt Barnett Roadhouse. This was very exciting as our food supplies were running low and we were able to buy essentials like bread, cheese, cereal and, best of all, some tomatoes and fruit. This was also where we bought our permits to camp at the nearby Manning Gorge, which several people had recommended. Best of all they had a tap of drinking water so we could top up the van. Not many places on the Gibb can supply this, though there's plenty of river water for other purposes and to drink if you boil it first.

Again the camping ground was on a river so we were able to cool off with an afternoon swim. These swims are particularly welcome as none of these camping grounds have water for showers. The toilets are waterless too, though some have a tap of river water for hand washing.

Rodger went off with his rod to try his luck and, to my surprise, returned in about half an hour with 2 good sized Sooty Grunters for our dinner.