Lennard River Gorge, The Kimberley's

Mick,
We were there in May of this year and were told there was still a 4 km walk after the small carpark at the base of that hill. Can't verify the fact because we were short on time and turned around at that point.

Jon W

It must be a recent change, as I was there in may last year and you could drive to the Gorge, but it was very rough so many chose not to, but parked at the base of the hill.

I was there in July. You can still drive to very close to the gorge, but the last 1 to 2 km has some very rough areas. A few people had driven in as a group and a couple of snatches were required for them all to do the trip.

The problem is that good wheel articulation is needed in a couple of spots to get over some rocky jump ups. This is lift and coil spring territory. Certainly not for IFS and probably not for leaf springs either.

We had the CT on and I didn't want to risk damage out here, so I didn't even consider it; we walked in. Not sure how far it was, but probably about 2 to 2.5 km to get right to the gorge from where we parked.

We found a nice free camp spot not far from here, but not suitable if you need to put in tent pegs as it is on a rock shelf. Don't think we were meant to camp there, but we left no sign and had a great stop over.

Was there three weeks ago and it was a short walk, about 1 km or so each way, like most walks in that country rocky underfoot most of the time, up hill and down dale but not too bad.

Just discussed it with the wife and we reminded each other of some of the details. About 1km each way; certainly not more than 1.5km. Not difficult, but rocky in parts some steep bits at the end to get close to the Gorge. The falls are great, but difficult to get a good view of a lot of the gorge. Certainly worth the effort.

Gidday Mick, Wife and I did gorge road in our Pathfinder towing the van for first 6km as its no worse than the GRR. Last 2km has some 50 to 60 cm boulders on a few sections, so we left van in a convenient parking area. All this info is in Places. Just type in Lennard River gorge and you'll get the pix. Then if you scroll down to Places within 5km you can enter the site for the carpark and the turnoff and see more pix of the road conditions and read a short explanatory caption.Cheers, Warrie

Thank you, to all of you who replied to my question. If i knew it was only about a kilometer i might have walked it.
Warrie, when were you there last. The reason i ask is, the photo of you walking up the hill looks nothing like the hill i stopped at the base of. I was there in the first week of june 2006, and nobody had driven up the hill at that stage. No wheel tracks at all. If i got there and saw the track in the same condition as in your photo i would have tried it with out a doubt.
I guess next year i'll go a bit later in the season. The pentecost was well over my wheels with a big bough wave infront and the King Edward river splashed up over the bonnet of my hilux. Lucky i had the tarp over the front.
If i figure out how to post a photo in the PLACES section i'll put a few pics in there.
Cheers to all and safe travelling.

Gidday mickjp. The pic you refer to was taken on 6th Sept 2005. You can see the Pathfinder in the top left still attached to the van. We were checking out how bad the track was. It was much steeper than the pic suggests, thats the trouble with photos in that you know how steep it was when you walked up and checked it out in the 35 degree heat, but it looks like a piece of cake on the screen. It was bone dry and we had only to crawl up it in low range for 300m or so then it levelled out. I wouldn't have wanted to walk it in the heat, it was bad enough doing 10min back up from the slime filled swimming hole to where we parked the car.
June river levels sound like fun and it would be certain that the Lennard would still be flowing and the pools and waterfalls a treat. Places will have our pix of the Pentecost crossing and about half the waypoints listed in the GRR trek. For all the thousands of viewers of Ex Oz only a few have put in pix so have a go. Once you have your pix saved with an image number on your computer or a CD the browse function in Places will find the one you tell it and bobs your uncle you're in business. Keep a window with the direct line to your pix folder and file numbers, and in another window you have Places pix upload open. That way you can make sure you don't put in the wrong number. Mail me if you have any problems, Cheers, Warrie