Day 23 - Manning Gorge/Mt Barnett Roadhouse

Rolled into Manning River campground at lunchtime and have now completed about half of the Gibb River Road. As the temperature is now in the 30s, we decided to have a swim in the river. This was by far the nicest swimming spot, with sandy edges and bottom and clear water. No crocs either. There is a walk out to the Gorge and the Falls and the first section involves swimming across the river. The rangers have kindly provided a number of polystyrene boxes for people to use to float their shoes, clothes, cameras etc. without them getting wet. It is possible to

do the walk without swimming but it is a much longer option (and not

nearly as much fun). We set off at 9am the following morning with our lunch and had a wonderful day. It was quite a hard walk, with lots of scrambling over rocks but the 2 swimming holes and the waterfall at the end made it all worthwhile. We had lunch there and swam in both pools, before the long climb back in the heat. At least we were able to cool off again at the end when we had to swim our gear back to the other side.

That night was the second State of Origin match and we wondered if we would be able to pick up the coverage on our radio. Fortunately two off-road caravans with satellite dishes pulled in and some fellow Queenslanders talked them into putting the TV up to the window of the van, and there ended up being three rows of chairs and about 20 interested supporters out under the stars to watch the game. It was good fun and of course a great result as Qld won again and so have won the series. Photos show me after the early morning swim across the river and getting ready for the walk and the second are the Falls and the top pool. The Mt Barnett Roadhouse is 7kms from the campground but when we went to fill the car with diesel, discovered that they had run dry (again!!) Apparently it happens often and they could not tell us when the tanker would be coming the following day. We had been talking to a few people who recommended we detour off the GRR to Mornington Wilderness Camp, an 88 km detour, so really needed to top up with fuel. We took a punt that the Imintji Store 55kms away would have diesel and sure enough they did. We ended up driving an extra 50kms out of our way to fuel up, but in this area it's a good idea to fill the tanks at every opportunity.