Mt Barnett Station – Manning Gorge

The 88km drive out of Mornington is fantastic…gorgeous mountain views and boab tress – however with the long driveways and side trips to gorges we had used much more fuel than we initially expected luckily our next stop Mt Barnett sold food and fuel.

the road out of Mornington

The road out of Mornington

On the way to Mt Barnett we drove into Adocks Gorge for a lunch stop and found a beautiful lilly covered billabong and a short walk to a pretty gorge. We decided not to swim as Aaron spotted a small croc (we think just a freshie) and we were keen to get to Mt Barnett.

The road into Adock Gorge

Adock Gorge Lilly covered billabong

Adock Gorge

Lillie’s up close

The bent Boab

When we arrived at Mt Barnett Andrew filled the car with fuel at the cheaper $2.09 per litre whilst the kids and I restocked some essential food items. We had heard that a couple of weeks earlier the station had run out of fuel and the camp ground was overflowing with travellers needing to refuel and waiting for the tanker.

Mt Barnett station

The Mt Barnett station Roadhouse is owned by the Kupungarri Indigenous Community. (the traditional owners of the station land) and the shop is a huge benefit to all passing travellers. It’s a good general store with basic staples and quite a range of fresh produce – we were able to buy watermelon!. The store was constantly busy whilst we were there and they quickly sold out of fresh items despite it all being very pricey which is expected given the remote location.

Mt Barnett camp

Mt Barnett camp ground is 7km from the road house is nestled on the banks of the Manning River. A really beautiful spot regrettably in order to provide toilets and showers for the masses of tourists they run a generator in the camp from 630am to 9pm which can be heard across most the camping area. We found a spot as far away from the droning generator as possible.

Bianca doing the barrel washing!

We saw our friends again and I borrowed Emma’s’ camping washing machine – aka barrel with a lid– Bianca, Aaron and Holly were all able to help with the washing! A great idea for long camping trips off road where there aren’t any washing machines.

We said another farewell to the Young’s they walked to Manning Gorge the day prior- our kids were really sad to say goodbye they had enjoyed their company so much. After goodbyes we packed lunch and headed off on the walk to Manning Gorge at 930am trying to beat the heat of the day as it was forecast to be 33’C and we were warned it was hot and exposed to the sun so the children came prepared with wet face washers to keep cool. (these helped a little.)

Girls walking to Manning Gorge

The walk starts with a boat on a rope pulley crossing over Manning River, which the children thought was fabulous and then it was a 2.8km walk across the hills and down into the gorge.

Pull boat on the way to Manning gorge

Don’t rock the boat

It was really hot poor Holly had a blood nose on the way, Bianca fell over and we were all feeling pretty hot by the time we arrived at the gorge but it was well worth the effort another stunning gorge. Manning Gorge has a huge 55m waterfall with a large deep pool it was fairly busy but the pool was huge. Aaron again enjoyed jumping from some big rocks.

Our first glimpse of Manning Gorge

Girls about to plunge into the water

We all had a great time swimming and exploring. Whilst at the Gorge we met a family from Melbourne, with three sons, living in Broome but on holiday. Aaron had a great time exploring the rocks looking for lizards and swimming with their older boys and later that night they came over for marshmallows’ by our little fire.

Another day and another beautiful gorge – the Kimberley is full of treasures. We are so very lucky to be in this amazing part of Australia – together!

The next day after we packed and set off we decided to drive back to Galvins Gorge 14km west on the Gibb. We had driven past on our way to Mt Barnett but we were advised it was worth a quick visit. This gorge is a short walk off the Gibb RR and on the way in Aaron Holly and Bianca we excited to see a beautiful water monitor lazing in the sunshine.

Water Monitor lizard – Aaron’s photo

The gorge was yet another beautiful spot with a small trickle of a waterfall and on the right we found a black footed rock wallaby jumping around and there was a beautiful Wandjina painting. After a quick swim we headed back to the Patrol and onto the next stop.