Suzanne & Nic Outback Caravan Trip 2025

 30th May: Jill woke me up to show me some gorgeous tawny frogmouths huddled together in a tree near their tent? Fluffy fat babies? Photos taken with big camera not iPhone so not available for blog until I work out the technology! Word went around the camp that the Gibb River Road was now open, so we got away by 12 after filling our 2x 100 litre water tanks. The road out from Mt Elizabeth wasn’t too bad - just some muddy ruts to avoid and shallow water. It had been graded since the rain. It still took an hour to reach the Gibb, also not in too bad condition. We crossed the Barnett river without difficulty albeit in low gear. We arrived at Mt Barnett roadhouse to wait for Jill and Craig and had their famous hamburgers- Nic the Barnett Burger and me the chick pea and vege  option! We proceeded to the campground at Manning gorge and found a nice place to camp a way away from the amenities. We had a lovely vegetable and olive meal cooked by Craig and Jill with coleslaw. We then al...

May 29th: Awoke to presence of a heavy dew with evidence of light rain overnight. However it was sunny by 11am. Took the opportunity earlier in the day to do some washing in the one and only working washing machine supplying 50 groups of campers. Managed to grab some space on the clothes line too. The Gibb River Road remains closed. I made us all pikelets with butter and maple syrup for lunch to cheer us up! We went for a walk in the afternoon around the muddy area. I saw several northern rosellas and a yellow tinted honeyeater and some small wallabies with young. For dinner I made us a sort of mixed up omelette with onions garlic zucchini red capsicum and mushrooms. We were all still hungry so we had biscuits and cheese followed by fresh pineapple and yogurt which Jill has brought. We then played scrabble!                                                     ...

May28th:  Awoke to no rain and dozens of peaceful doves picking away at goodies in the ground around our caravan. The news however is that the Gibb River Road is closed between Pentecost River and Barnett River with Hann River which we crossed only 2 days ago is 2 metres high.  Even if the road is open tomorrow we will give it another day here to dry out. We went for a walk on the property. Jill & Craig de-trousered and crossed it but Nic and I decided not to! Instead we made coffee and had Anzac biscuits! We spent a quiet day and had a meal at the homestead- Cottage pie, vegetables and trifle. We then watched Gruen with Craig and Jill.

 May 27th: it rained all night and we awoke to sea of mud around our van- another skill for us to learn! Choose higher ground next time! Fortunately I brought our Bogs (gumboots) with us and they proved invaluable!  Most of the occupants of the 50 or so other caravans, camper trailers or tents were in bare feet or thongs! We managed to perch our Starlink on top on the cover for our skylight so we were able to turn it on intermittently during the day. We are totally off grid and will be until we reach Broome, and  so dependent on our solar panels to power our inverter to power our Skylink! We read for a while- I am enjoying “True North” by Brenda Niall -the biography of the Durack sisters Mary and Elizabeth. We had haloumi fried on our induction hot plate for lunch. When there was a break in the rain we went for a walk around the camp ground to see how others were faring, which was mainly worse than we were! Those in tents had been inundated with water. Jill & Craig ar...

 26th May: Jill and I went for a 6am birdwatching expedition at “sandy lagoon” which was remarkably devoid of birds. We did see a darter drying its wings and what we thought was a Pacific Basa - a large bird with crest and thick hooked beak..Reflections on lagoon were good!  We then packed up and set off to Mount Elizabeth Station- a 173 km trip. The road was rougher with more stones and more corrugations than up to now, although there were some sealed sections on crests of hills. The river crossings were shallow and easy to cross.  When we arrived the inverter would not work! Nic found this very frustrating and hit the inverter and it instantly sprung into action! He referred to this as the “Lindsay Brown method!” ( Nic's father) My father would have been horrified at this approach! The station is a working cattle station and we are about to have a local roast beef meal here tonight! Heavy rain is forecast for tomorrow so we’ll see what effect this has on the road! We ha...

 25th May: went for an early morning birdwatching walk with Nic and Jill and Craig, but the trail was actually 15km from where reception said it was! We did see restless flycatcher and. Gouldian finch- variation with black head, amongst many other birds. We set off about 10am along Gibb river road- in much better order than we expected with some bitumen sections, but the recent grading has made the track much easier than we expected! We had one river crossing with some mud to drive through in low gear. We arrived at Ellenbrae station to be greeted with scones and ham and cream followed by a home grown mango frappé. We set up camp in the camping ground and Jill and Craig arrived a few hours later. Rosella flowers

 24th May: set off from El Questro to start the Gibb River Road with first stop Home Valley. We went to Emma Gorge to do the Emma Gorge Walk involving only a small amount of back tracking. The walk was 3.8km return grade 4 over a lot of rocks so I didn’t bother with my poles. The swim at the gorge in the end was wonderful! Cold and deep and yet with warm patches from thermal activity including one very warm rock pall! The gorge had a waterfall, water dripping over 3 sides plus a magnificent vertical garden of ferns. We returned more quickly than we went. We joined Gibb River road, crossing the Pentecostal river and we waited for Jill & Craig whilst they crossed it. It wasn’t more than 0.4 meters deep- just wide- only reached to our running boards, but not the caravan steps. We arrived at Home Valley and took an unpowered site under the trees. We had barramundi and roast potatoes and salad for dinner at their restaurant. I went for a walk with my binoculars but birds were hard t...

 23th May: Drove to Amalia Gorge turnoff  then walked in via a grade 5 4 km return track with lots of rocks and boulders to negotiate, including a section of chain to hold onto round a large boulder, plus some high step-ups onto rock ledges! I took my walking poles and was grateful for them! We followed a trail marked with blue squares. At the end was a wonderful swimming hole - very deep and icy cold fed by a waterfall but so refreshing! The walk back actually seemed a lot easier! We had a relaxing afternoon after filling up on diesel at $2.80 per litre! We talked to our lovely neighbours Dave and Tammy who had just finished cycling the Gibb River Road from Derby along with many others and were returning to Darwin. Dave helped me by discussing what to do about various repairs to our van. They have a Cub Drifter camper trailer.  I cooked mushroom risotto for dinner which we had with salad!