Water the garden, feed the dog, take it back home, and take it back home again, the owners are away and Margie is de facto caretaker for this escape artist; pack the truck and it’s on our way we go.

The bitumen has extended to El Questro making it an easy run to the Penetecost River. The river is shallow and flow is slow, typical for the dry season. Although probably not as much water as is usual considering it’s so early in the dry. We see a lot more caravans now attempting the Gibb River Rd, not what I call a good idea. We have seen plenty vans wrecked over the years.

We stop on a Jump Up and take photos of the view over the Pentecost River with the iconic Cockburn Range in the background.

It was good to see the Durack River with water and the Barnett River was still flowing quite well, despite it being a dry wet season according to the locals.

We have a stop Ellenbrae Station for scones. We love their scones despite the cafe latte type tourists whining about cost and delivery. If only they realised how hard it is to get basic food items into this region. 

The road gets better the further we head down the Gibb. A quick refuel at Mt Barnett Roadhouse then it’s just 7kms to the campground near Manning Gorge where we park the car and go for a swim in the River.

Dinner is already cooked in Marg’s Thermo cooker. We eat dinner seated near our fire listening to the Bush Curlews, Corellas and Blue Winged Kookaburras calling. 

Track (26/05/2015 7:50:57am) Kununurra to Manning Gorge in Explorer. You can view a map of it on Hema Explorer Cloud.