The Gibb River Road (GRR) Grrrrrr!(2nd-5th July)

We left Wyndham and headed up to the Five Rivers Lookout, this is where the Ord, King, Pentecost, Durack and Forrest River meet before heading out to sea. An awesome view!

A blast down the tarmac and we hit the Gibb River Road. We quickly discovered that despite being talked about as some sort of last frontier, it really is a well maintained piece of road.

Not far in we hit the first of a a few river crossings in the area, the Pentecost River. It was fairly deep and a very long crossing but we all made it through without any problems due to the fairly compacted rock bottom. I definitely didn't think it would go so well and I knew Scott would be puckering at the thought as he came over the rise and saw the water, but all went well.

More of the GRR and we headed up Kalumbaru Road to Drysdale River Station to camp for the night. The road was very rough and corrugated but luckily we could still travel faster than most of the other vehicles as we tend to ride above the corrugations.
The next day (3rd July) and an easier ride up the road to the Mitchell Falls turnoff. The King Edward River crossing was short, but pretty deep and had a wild bottom. Sam whilst wading to check it out had what looked like a brown snake swim past him! Poor Scott, we've decided to fit a periscope to the DR as he took another one of his customary swims. This time only a little water in the carby, we sorted it out and were on our way again.
A few more deep bog holes and we had a great trail ride to the start of the Mitchell Falls walk. The falls were amazing and I vow next time to take one of the helicopter flights as I'm sure it would be the best way to see them, but for now we're all on a bit of a budget.

After a night camping at the falls we headed back to Drysdale River Station for a refuel. The ride back was uneventful and great fun, even the river crossings went well. The only moment I really had was in the deep gravel at high-speed trying to overtake an old 60 series Landcruiser where I developed a high-speed tank slapper, and I seriously prepared myself for a big crash. Thankfully I just kept the throttle open and the bike stabilised. The driver of the 'Cruiser and I had a chat at the station and he mentioned that he thought I was going down under his wheels. The big KTMs with a load can be a bit unwieldy! We then headed to Mt Barnett roadhouse, had dinner and camped out the back near the river. We had a good chat to a couple of Tasmanian guys who had just competed in the Finke Desert Race and were now touring around the Kimberly before heading back. One of them, who was 58 years old I think he said, was the swinger on an outfit(sidecar) who won in their class. He also regaled me with stories of his 4 month bike ride around Africa which has done nothing but fuel my desires to ride over there.

From Mt. Barnett (5th July) we finished off the last of the Gibb River Road.

We did a bit of freshwater crocodile spotting with a guy at the Leonard River Snackstop. The poor bloke must have had throat cancer or something as he had to cover a hole in his throat to talk, but gee he loved his crocs.

We had lunch at Derby and ran into another British guy who was riding around on his own on a DR650. He had no idea what he was in for, but his attitude was excellent and he was playing it pretty safe as far as avoiding the remote areas until he was better prepared, a top bloke! From Derby we headed on to see the sunset on Cable Beach in Broome, dirty faces and all, I think we must have been a bit of a sight!