Gibb River Road conditions

Hi there, become friends with Pat Callinan on Facebook. He starts driving the Gibb tomorrow. I think his website page is www.mr4x4.com.au.

Greetings,

We are in Broome and spent a week travelling the GRR from Kununurra. It is not the best but let your tyres down (we had 25 psi in car and trailer) and take it easy. Some areas you can do 70kph and others down to 30. Road to Drysdale Station was very ordinary and the road to Mitchell Falls was apparently a shocker - we gave it a miss and flew over the falls.

The widest water crossing is the Pentecost but rocky bottom and not a problem.

Take it easy and it is worth the trouble.

Cheers.

SCOEY

We were on the GRR about 6 weeks back. It was just the Landcruiser not towing anything. East end from Kununurra to Home Valley was starting to get a bit rough, any wonder with the amount of traffic out there these days. Heaps of tour busses don't help the cause and more and more people towing vans and campers.
The river crossings are fine to cross. The road between GRR and Drysdale was a little rough in patches but very managable. The road up to Mitchell Falls was showing bad signs when we drove out and it had only been open for about 2 weeks. Again big mobs of travellers everywhere traffic, buses and yes some with off road vans. The road really wasn't ready for the masses when it opened the aviation fuel truck that was bogged and closed it for a day happened within the first week. I really think that visitor numbers should be regulated or roads should be graded more frequently these days because of the increased traffic volume.
Saying this, we did drive from Mitchell Falls camp ground back to Derby in a day. Took 10 hours to do the 670km. If you are not afraid of being bumped around a little, putting up with traffic and have time on your side then go for it. It is certainly not the big adventure it use to be. REMOTE... I don't think so. Just remember that the fuel/roadhouse at Imintji closes at 4pm each day.
Don't camp at Mt Barnett (Manning) it's a pig sty. All the rest, Windjana, Mt Hart, Silent grove, Mt Elizabeth, Drysdale , Mitchell Falls , Home Valley and El Questro all acceptable camp spots. We were out there for 3 weeks in all. Did the east end to Home Valley then went to Bungles then did Derby to Mitchell Falls the last two weeks. We left Mitchell Falls till last and did the quick trip back to Derby because of a knee injury.
You just have to go with what the roads give up to you. Otherwise stick to the bitumen and have a nice trip as well.

We were on the GRR about 6 weeks back. It was just the Landcruiser not towing anything. East end from Kununurra to Home Valley was starting to get a bit rough, any wonder with the amount of traffic out there these days. Heaps of tour busses don't help the cause and more and more people towing vans and campers.
The river crossings are fine to cross. The road between GRR and Drysdale was a little rough in patches but very managable. The road up to Mitchell Falls was showing bad signs when we drove out and it had only been open for about 2 weeks. Again big mobs of travellers everywhere traffic, buses and yes some with off road vans. The road really wasn't ready for the masses when it opened the aviation fuel truck that was bogged and closed it for a day happened within the first week. I really think that visitor numbers should be regulated or roads should be graded more frequently these days because of the increased traffic volume.
Saying this, we did drive from Mitchell Falls camp ground back to Derby in a day. Took 10 hours to do the 670km. If you are not afraid of being bumped around a little, putting up with traffic and have time on your side then go for it. It is certainly not the big adventure it use to be. REMOTE... I don't think so. Just remember that the fuel/roadhouse at Imintji closes at 4pm each day.
Don't camp at Mt Barnett (Manning) it's a pig sty. All the rest, Windjana, Mt Hart, Silent grove, Mt Elizabeth, Drysdale , Mitchell Falls , Home Valley and El Questro all acceptable camp spots. We were out there for 3 weeks in all. Did the east end to Home Valley then went to Bungles then did Derby to Mitchell Falls the last two weeks. We left Mitchell Falls till last and did the quick trip back to Derby because of a knee injury.
You just have to go with what the roads give up to you. Otherwise stick to the bitumen and have a nice trip as well.

Thanks for the info everyone
Cheers
Teha