18th August – Manning Gorge 14kms today, 6,302 kms to date

Colin rose bright and early to blag a lift to the “Over the Range” tyre man some 30kms west of Mt Barnett roadhouse. He chatted to a bloke in a nearby house who was going his way so he was on his way about 6.30am. He got to the tyre place about 7am but the tyre man didn’t open until 8am so Colin waited at end of his driveway. The guy saw him and opened a little early. It didn’t take long to fix the tyre, it was a fine piece of wire that caused the problem putting a tiny hole in the inner tube. He got a ride back to Mt Barnett roadhouse with a Dutch family heading for El Questro so he gave them the drum on the resort. He was starving so he had a “Big Brekky” at the roadhouse and then after fitting the wheel on the bike we headed for Manning Gorge some 7 kms away. We decided to spend the night at the roadhouse rather than camping at Manning Gorge as it was so close.

This is a huge Boab tree in the camping ground at Manning Gorge.  It was actually three Boab trees growing together.

There was a tinny with a never ending rope that took us across a water hole at the camp ground. This is Colin pulling us across. We had to compete with three kids who were playing with the punt  and swimming across the water hole.The track to Manning Gorge started on the other side. The walk to the gorge took about 50 minutes and was over some pretty rough ground. Luckily it was well marked with white paint otherwise we could have easily got lost.

This is the waterfall at Manning Gorge. It was really peaceful and the colours of the cliffs all round were outstanding. There was a touring group of young people there enjoying the scene. They all disappeared when Colin got his gear off to go for a swim so we had the place to ourselves. Alan of course forgot his swimmers. We lunched on grapes, apples, oranges and nut bars to stave of the scurvy.

This is a picture of another waterhole beside the waterfall. The scenery was quite spectacular all round.

 Manning Gorge was really beautiful

Colin got this great photo of the reflection in the waterhole.

Colin has a fetish for photographing tiny bugs and lizards or anything that moves along the ground for that matter.

The Bateman Brothers have made it!

Here we are taking a “selfie” on the way back from the gorge.

We arrived back at the roadhouse at 3pm, had a strawberry milkshake and refueled ready for tomorrows ride to Windjana Gorge. We are having Roast Lamb and Vegetables and mashed potatoes followed by our favourite, Apricot Crumble for dinner tonight (all freeze dried). Eat your hearts out.