Manning Gorge

10th May 2013

Another early start today, thanks to the white cockatoos flying over head at 5.30am and squawking loudly enough to wake up the whole campsite, meant that we were up, packed, said our goodbyes to Matt, Maggie, Brynn & Meya and ready for the road by about 7.30am.

We were heading for Manning Gorge today, which was only about a 120km drive, with the plan being to stop off at 2 gorges along way.

After about 70kms we came across the turn off to our first gorge, Adcock Gorge, which was only 5kms off the Gibb, apparently. Well we followed the rough track down for about 4kms until it basically went into a dried up creek, with no more tyre tracks left to follow and no gorge in sight, we made the decision to turn around and head for the 2nd gorge, hoping to have more luck.

Shortly after, we found the car park to Galvans Gorge, which is only a short 1.5km walk from the roadside and it was a very beautiful spot. Galvans was a small gorge with a picturesque waterfall coming in at the rear and falling into a small waterhole, as I said very beautiful.

We then made our way to the Mt Barnett Roadhouse, which was also the entrance point for the overnight campsite for Manning Gorge. We had to refuel at the road house, paying our highest price yet for fuel at $2.40 per litre, but when you are literally in the middle of nowhere what would you expect?

Our plan was to hike to the main waterfalls in the afternoon, but the previous day had caught up with Maggie, so we decided to slow the afternoon down and just go to the closest swimming hole and take a refreshing dip and yet again, it was another beautiful spot.

We spent the best part of 2hrs here, with the novelty of a small boat you could pull yourself from bank to bank across the waterhole, which the girls took great delight in playing in and ferrying many hikers across from one side to the other while we were there.

We spent our time just relaxing, which was just what the doctor ordered and have decided to tackle the main gorge walk tomorrow morning before hitting the road again.

We have been told that Manning Gorge is stunning. So can't wait to get into again tomorrow, until then....