We made a start before sunrise this morning and walked from the campground to Manning Gorge. The start of the walk is quite interesting as one has to cross a large waterhole, and a small aluminium boat with rope tow is provided for the purpose. By the time we returned from the walk the kids staying in the campground were up and playing in the waterhole and a couple of them offered to be our ferrymen. The walk to the Gorge was hot and a bit tedious but the gorge provided some nice photos of cliffs reflected in the clear water.

After our walk we set off on our next leg of the Gibb River Road, about 200km that would take us to Windjana Gorge National Park which is located about 20km south of the Gibb Road. Windjana is quite different to the other gorges we have visited as it is set in the Napier Range, an uplifted ribbon of limestone that 350million years ago was a coral reef at the bottom of an ocean. The limestone has weathered into a low but precipitous ribbon of rock that is quite striking to look at from a distance.

Windjana is also well known for the large number of fresh water crocodiles (freshies) that inhabit the dwindling waterholes in the gorge.

We stayed the night at Windjana NP campground, a basic bush camp but surprisingly with hot showers thanks to the solar heaters on the roof of the bath house.