Hi Oldsquizzy

Just read the blog, totally agree with oldsquizzy there. Love the older type stations. I am only a young tacker at 24, but was born and bred in this part of the country and really love visiting the untouched places also, have pretty much done every inch of the Kimberley with my old man, and Marella Gorge was amongst the favourites. Really like to hear that people do still visit these areas and other areas that are out of the way. Now i have grown up and have my own 4by i love getting out in the bush and rarely spend a weekend at home. Will never let the Kimberley leave my blood, will probably never leave the Kimberley thats why.

Really enjoy this site and its good to see that alot of the nice places are still accessed and used yet, most are still in an untouched state. Glad to know that other people get as much satisfaction out of these things as me. Hopefully will get to experience these things with my children and hopefully grand children. My son who is 6 knows alot about the bush already and im sure he gets more excited then me when its time to head out somewhere, which is absolutely amazing and really makes me proud. Hopefully he will grow up with the same love and relationship with the land as myself and my father.

Tyres. mmmmh personal preference here. Have been running BF Goodrich MT's for years 33*10.5*15's and always leave them at 28 cold bitumen or dirt, they have the triple side wall so still stand up well but flex. A friend of mine up here has a F250 with the 7.3 V8 turbo and was running coopers till two new front fibreglass flares and I had to repair his water tank and a tool box on the left rear and he is now running them as well. He ran the first set of them till they were bald and is on his second set now.
As to which way i would go. Probally would come up the gibb and down the Duncan leaving van in Hells Crack oops Halls Creek to duck up and do the bungles. That way wouldnt miss any of them.
Will send member message...

G'day Motherhen

Just returned home from two weeks on the GRR, got home the night it poured down so cant comment on the road conditions now.

It was getting pretty corrugated the week prior. Timed it right getting into Mitchell River, two days after the road opened and we passed the grader 16 ks out of MR. King Edward River is up to the top of the wheels and dropped about 10cms while we were there.

Have to agree with Old Squizzy about the old stations being the better ones (probably passed him somewhere along the track). One he missed out though is Charnley River Station ( Used to be Beverley Springs), between Mt Barnett and Imintji, about 43kms north. Has Grevillea Gorge, which I reckon is one of the best gorges, not a lot of people go there, great campground, hot showers, can get firewood there, cows, chooks and peacocks running through the campground which was great for the kids.

Must do gorges are Galvans, Adcock (You might have to walk an extra bit if you take the van in, but the walk is only about 400m anyway), Bells, Grevillea, Manning. If you have the money, a chopper flight back from Mitchell Falls to the campground is worth it (we did the mud crab). The MF campground is good, no showers but saves a 2 hr drive back to King Edward River when you are stuffed after a great day at the Falls.

All the above gorges are fairly easy to get into(except Manning), some clambering over the rocks involved. We took our daughter into all except Manning and only had to carry her through for part of the way. ( She is 2 in a couple of months.)

The bushtracker wont be a problem, saw them everywhere and everyone raved about them.

I run tyre pressures at 40psi. I have found that pressure works for me and I have been doing some pretty rough goat tracks for the past 12 years. Some people might disagree though, but I havent blown many tyres over the years. Yes I did blow one this trip, but it was the original Grandtrek that came with the 100 series, was over 50% gone and was on the rear of the car, so I was expecting it to go. Good excuse to have good off road tyres all round now.

When in Wyndham, make sure you do the Bastion or Five Rivers Lookout, see if you can do it at Sunset when it is at its best. Take up some champagne, nibbles and a beer and enjoy.

Enjoy the trip, I am already planning on when to head back there again.

Anything else you need to know, please ask.

Lastly, take your only toilet paper with you. Most places only have the typical government issue sandpaper.

Cheers

Chook