holiday valley: Gibb River Road overview

You will have read that we made it a across the Gibb River Road to Derby well over over a week ago now (we are now in Broome) so I thought I would write some general info of the Gibb Rd from Kununurra to Derby. We covered 1765km in 18 days which included a trip to Mitchell Fall and Kalumburu plus couple of days through Windjana to Fitzroy Crossing. I should say also that we stopped in at El Questro for 4 day’s in a loop we did earlier around the Bungles and Wyndham so if you include this we spent 23 day on the Gibb. The road was surprisingly good with a small section from El Questro to Home Valley that was rocky and corrugated, the rest was easily managed by the Ssangyong at 60-80kmh. However like we mentioned earlier in the blog, once we turned north towards Mitchell Fall the road was very corrugated and this is where I though the car might struggle as we tried to sit around 60kmph. However while car was fine but the trailer axle didn’t enjoy it much and I had to undertake a small repair when we got into Mt Barnett Roadhouse. The friendly camp host – also a mechanic – helped out and go the job done. He would not take any money so Susan baked a cake for him which went down well. Susan has done this a few times now that I finally mastered the camp oven and not overdoing the hot coals.The closer we got to Derby the more the road improved with some sections we could easily sit on 80kmph

There are not a lot of free camp options along the Gibb itself with stations opening up and then the National Parks at the western end. The gorges on the western end were pretty popular with the boy’s as you can swim at them and even jump of the high ledge if your mother turns her back. Bell George in the King Leopold NP was a favorite.

Below is a list of the major items we had packed for the Gibb……we were loaded to the hilt. We could pick up frozen bread at some spots, if not Susan made it and baked in the camp oven. Only the apples lasted well and once all the veg was gone that was it!! Samuel was in heaven. Every third day or so Susan would bake a cake which we ate for “recess” . Water was available at nearly all campsites and on the road so no problem washing etc, and we always stopped in the afternoon to collect enough firewood for 2-3 days and did the majority of our cooking on the fire.

90 apples, 2 tins tomatoes, 7 small tins tuna, 4 packs corn thins, 3 cruskits, 5 x 1k oats, 3 . 1.3kg weetbix, 5 box muesli, 2 x box cheerios, 2 box fruity bix, 5 x easyo, 18 x 1L uht, 2 x 2l fresh milk, 2 x cans milk powder, 2 x doz eggs, 7 small bacon, 2kg cheese, rice noodles, 5kg bread flour, 3 x SR flour, 1 x kg sugar, 2 x 1kg frozen veg, 2 x packet ham, 2 x butter, 5 x bag pasta, 1 x cuscus, 1 x rice, 16 x 1kg fruit, 3 x pasta sauce, 5 x fruit cake, 2kg potatoes, 1.5kg onions, 3kg carrots, 3kg oranges, 2.5 kj mandarins, 1 kg tomatoes, 4 cucumbers, 2kg bananas, 2 x lettuce, 2 x roasts, 2 x silverside, 2 x snags, 2.5kg chicken, 2kg steak, plus 1 x can of spam for me in case we get short of food. Susan refuses to eat it, so I’m might have to struggle through the whole can. Maybe there is a chance I could use it as fish bait.