The Gibb River Road is one of Australia’s most iconic 4wd adventures. It was absolutely a bucket list trip for us. Knowing where to camp on the Gibb River Road can be a big ask. Follow along our journey, as we hit up some epic free camps on the Gibb River Road and see more waterfalls and gorges than you can poke a stick at.
Kununurra
Kununurra serves as our starting point, as the last major town to stock up on supplies. Unknown to us at the time of departing, but we’d be seeing a little bit more of Kununurra than we expected!
We stayed at the Kununurra Town Caravan Park, which has a large grassed, unpowered area out the back. That’s all we need! For dinner, we went to the pub which is literally next door and had a decent schnitzel and watched the footy.
The next morning, we stocked up on food supplies at Coles, and beer from the pub. There is a 2 carton limit per person per day. We bought 2 the day we arrived and 2 the day we left to add to our stocks. With a few weeks off grid ahead of us, we wouldn’t be caught out!
Lake Argyle
Before we hit the Gibb River Road proper, we detoured south to see Lake Argyle. This is a really nice drive, and at Lake Argyle itself you can drive along the dam wall, and then descend down to the bottom where there is a nice picnic area. Unfortunately, no camping allowed in this area.
The size of the lake is difficult to comprehend, it is enormous. There is a caravan park at Lake Argyle, which is the only allowable camping area. It looked absolutely chockablock when we went past, and we weren’t too keen on camping on top of others. I dare say the instagrammable picture from the infinity pool would have had more than a few random heads in frame! Instead, we headed back out to Kununurra and to commence our eastward journey.
Ivanhoe Crossing and Ord River Camp
It was getting on in the day a bit, so we used Wikicamps to find a campsite north of Kununurra on the Ord River. It looked quite nice, and we read that Ivanhoe crossing had only recently re-opened after being closed for a while. So, we headed up there to check it out.
Ivanhoe crossing itself is solid concrete with little raised blocks sticking above the water, so you can keep your 4wd pointing in the right direction. Even with this, it was slightly unnerving driving across, seeing the water flow into the croc infested river below. I definitely didn’t want to slip a wheel off the edge!
We set up camp on the river bank of the Ord River – up nice and high away from crocodiles! It was here we actually saw our first crocodile in the wild, coasting down the river casually. We were super excited to spot one ourselves. We had seen many on a boat cruise outside Darwin, but stumbling across one in the wild ourselves felt different!
The sunset over camp was beautiful, but the weather was stinking hot. Temperatures in the high 30’s with high humidity did not make things comfortable. The girls didn’t particularly like this camp as it was dusty from cattle trampling along, with a huge centipede take up residence too. I think it was mainly the oppressive heat that soured their taste though. Despite the heat, we still had to have a campfire, and cooked a delicious lamb roast in the camp oven!
El Questro
If there is one absolute must do “where to camp on the Gibb River Road” then it is El Questro. You’ll have barely commenced the Gibb River Road from the Eastern end, when you hit the El Questro turn off. We booked ahead to get a private river camp, which for us was well worth the slightly extra cost. Each river camp has a huge amount of distance to the next site, so you have complete privacy. There are long drop toilets scattered about, usually between two campsites, so a little walk to get to.
El Questro is a treasure trove of gorges, rivers, look outs and general awesomeness! We stayed for 4 nights which I felt was a good amount of time to see most of the big attractions. We could have easily stayed another and just enjoyed camp life on the river edge.
Hiking in El Questro
Amalia Gorge is a short and relatively easy hike to a huge water hole with flowing waterfall. We had this entire place to ourselves and it was amazing.
Amalia Gorge
El Questro Gorge is a tight and difficult trail, with lots of large rocks to scramble over. There is a water hole half way a long that you need to wade through waist deep to keep going until the end. It’s a very popular hike, but many will stop at the half way point. The trek to the end is worth while though, as you’re greeted by a small water hole in the last gap of the gorge. Crystal clear, deep water and the challenge of getting there made this one of our favourite dips.
We also enjoyed the drive out to Branco’s Lookout, which let us do a bit of 4wding up to an awesome vantage point. There’s a very bumpy, river crossing to start the track, and you can see the Homestead where I guess the rich and famous stay?? It’s something in the realm of a few thousand per night! Not for us then!
From there we followed a track down to the Chamberlain River, and tried our luck at a bit of fishing. A couple of small fish landed, but they went straight back in. It was a great place to laze around on the rocks and soak in the surroundings.
Back at camp, Kym was rewarded after persistently casting lures into the river. He hooked and landed a little barramundi – too small to keep, but his first barra ever so he was happy. He would remind me for the rest of the trip how he was the sole catcher of Barramundi.
Emma Gorge
Whilst still part of the El Questro expansive property, Emma Gorge sits outside the main area, and its actually on the other side of Gibb River Road. We stopped in to do this hike after we’d packed up camp at El Questro.
Emma Gorge is a very popular hike, but the swimming hole at the end is huge and there is plenty of room to have your own space. This wasn’t my favourite El Questro hike, but that is just a testament to how good the others were, it’s still beautiful.
Pentecost River Camp
Keen on finding a free camp, we delayed the iconic river crossing for another day. Heading north along the river’s eastern bank, we struggled to find any suitable locations. We were almost ready to give up, when he came across a nice clearing with views over the river, perfect!
There was an abundance of wildlife around this camp. Little fishes jumping out of the water, crocodiles swimming, and eagles flying overhead. The real special treat was seeing the river turn from a calm pond to a raging torrent in the matter of an hour as the huge northern tides rolled up stream. I assume this has some effect back at the crossing further south, but it was always low on the occasions we crossed.
Whilst the camp turned out to be a great little detour off the main road, disaster struck when Kym and Sally’s Patrol aircon decided to spring a leak. Being under warranty still, we looked up the nearest Nissan dealership – back at Kununurra. At least we were still nearby. Since it was a weekend, we headed to the nearby Home Valley Station for a few nights.
Home Valley Station
Home Valley Station has two main camping options. One is at the homestead, where there is a swimming pool, and a caravan park like setup. And our preferred choice, down by the river where things are much more spread out. They have toilets (complete with green tree frogs) and showers at the river camp.
Home Valley offers a few paid activities, but not much in the way of free things to do. We tried our hand at fishing on the banks of the Pentecoste river, and succeeded only in getting very muddy!
At this point, I was having trouble with my deep cycle battery, so we went for some drives to get a bit more charge in to it. Despite the constant sunny conditions, the overnight heat had the fridge running day and night and it was too much for the battery. I’ve since upgraded to a Lithium setup. I would have loved it on this trip. We drove out to a nearby lookout which was the only spot we could get phone reception. After a bit of googling about aircon issues, we confirmed we had no idea how to fix it.
With a day to pass, we took advantage of the swimming pool at Home Valley to escape the heat a bit. On Monday, we headed back to Kununurra. Kym and Sally shot ahead of us to get to Nissan early, and by the time we met up, we got the news: Nissan Kunurrua no longer exists! The nearest Nissan was now Broome, so Kym and Sally were set for some long, hot, dusty drives.
Gibb River Free Camp
We pointed the 4wd’s toward Mitchell Falls, and stopped for camp near the intersection of Kalumburu road. This was a fantastic spot, with a fresh creek running right by camp, and plenty of firewood about to make a fire.
We camped here for a couple of nights, and spent the day soaking in the creek, and fishing off the ledge on the southern side of the road. At night time, cane toads could be heard hopping around all over the place.
King Edward River Campsite
Heading towards Mitchell Falls is the King Edward River crossing campsite. This is in a conservation area, so no wood gathering – but we had enough on board from the previous camp. Got to have a campfire, even if it is 35 degrees!
This was another ripper spot – campsites well spread out and it didn’t cost much at all per night. Each campsite had a concrete fire pit, and nearby a nice swimming hole adjacent some small waterfalls. Nearby, there is some fascinating rocky outcrops, which have a bundle of aboriginal art on them
Mitchell Falls
It’s about an hours drive from King Edward River Campsite to Mitchell Falls, along a fairly bumpy road. Kym and Sally jumped in our car to enjoy some air conditioning.
Mitchell Falls is a decent hike, which takes you past some fairly epic drop offs. The plateau at the top is a great relaxation spot – although very busy. Helicopters come in and out dropping off loads of people, so its not exactly a “how’s the serenity?” place. Still – a nice spot for a quick dip and a view of the Mitchell Falls. Mitchell Falls seems to get a lot of the marketing for the area – but it’s a long detour of the main track, and other gorges are just as spectacular in my opinion. Worth the visit if you have plenty of time, but otherwise I could easily skip it.
Kalumburu / Honeymoon Bay
We were keen to see some coastline and maybe do a bit of saltwater fishing, so we carried on north. The community of Kalumburu is the gateway to a couple of coastal camping oasis’. There is a permit required to travel through the community though, on top of the fee’s at the camping grounds. We chose to stay at Honeymoon Bay.
It was strikingly busy at Honeymoon Bay. The road in was nothing short of rough as guts – but we entered this private property and were greeted by a ton of huge caravans! They must have had a very slow ride up to the coast to avoid bouncing those vans into pieces. Given our preference for having a bit of space between us and the next campsite, we spent considerable time trying to find a spot. We eventually settled on a spot a bit back from the beach, but still with a nice view. A very rustic toilet/shower was just a 100 metre stroll up the track behind us.
The beach here was beautiful and calm, and given the relentless heat, extremely tempting to have a dip. The prospect of a big saltwater crocodile lingers though!
We tried to book in a fishing charter here, but the owner was out of town, and due back soon. He didn’t return after 3 nights, so we pulled up stumps and decided to move on.
We popped in to Drysdale Station on the way south, which looked like a decent setup – but we just topped up on diesel and carried on.
Manning Gorge Campground
This is another of those super busy spots – but with good reason. I put this one on the must see locations on the Gibb River Road. With fees payable at the Mount Barnett Roadhouse, a track is followed out to the Manning Gorge Campground. Following our theme of trying to find some room, we followed a track out from the main camping area. It led to some more sparsely populated areas, although with foot high grass. Some areas had been flattened out into camping areas though. A ranger came by later and said usually campers just flatten them out themselves, but the rangers had made a few this season. We would have never though to start flattening out grass, so we were grateful they did it!
The main attraction here is the hike to Manning Gorge. It starts with either a swim across the creek, or a ride in a little tinny, which you can pull across thanks to a suspended rope. The hike itself is about 2.5km and reasonably easy, until the last part where you need to scramble down some rocks into the main swimming area.
The swimming hole is huge, and deep. When we were there, the waterfall was flowing freely in multiple directions. There were a number of different height ledges to jump off into the deep water, which we did many times! It was an amazing rush – I probably have this as the best swimming location on the Gibb River Road.
Galvans Gorge
Leaving Manning Gorge – we’d had our fill of Gorges and swimming for the day. However, stopping at the road house, a traveler coming in the opposite direction says “You have to stop at Galvans Gorge!”
We check the maps – it’s not far away, and also not much of a hike. So we decide to suss it out.
Well. If Manning Gorge is the best big swimming hole, this could very well be the best small swimming hole. Only a short hike from the car park, Galvan Gorge is something of a hidden gem. We rocked up and had the whole place to ourselves. There is a rope swing from a tree and the whole place is just beautiful. We had to swim again!
Secret Gibb River Road Camp!
With two hikes and two swims under our belt, we needed to find a camp. Consulting Wikicamps once more, we found what sounded like a pretty cool camp area. The reviews said “room for one camp only” so we weren’t too optimistic, but we pulled in to an empty site!
I wish I could tell you where this site was, but I couldnt locate it even if I tried. There was a small loop track not far off the road, which ran right by a creek, which we camped right next to. It was an amazing free camp (of which there aren’t too many along the Gibb River Road). I can say though, that it was nearby Bell Gorge – as we trekked out to see this one the next day.
We really wanted to have a dip next to camp here – but were still unsure of the crocodiles. Throwing our lives to the hands of god – we jumped in, and straight back out. It was freezing! Later a ranger came by and said we were too far south to encounter crocodiles, so that was reassuring.
Bell Gorge
Another day, another hike to a Gorge and a swim!
This place had plenty of people swimming at the first entry point to the water, but it’s also possible to climb down to the bottom of the water fall and swim in there. Less people, and maybe a bit nicer in my opinion! We even floated along as far as we could – hitting another waterfall. It was massive though and we weren’t about to try climb down.
The Gorges start to blend in to one another at this point – but this was a great spot to swim. The hike, not as memorable as it doesn’t follow the gorge very much.
Lennard River Crossing
Where to camp on the Gibb River Road? Right here! Just after crossing Lennard River, there is a free camping area which was sparsely populated with all sorts of camping setups. We instead pulled onto the river bed and set up camp near the water on the other side. An amazing sunset followed, and we had it all to ourselves. There were plenty of freshwater crocodiles in the river to see as well.
I made a half hearted attempt at casting a few lures – but nothing was interested. Just a few a kangaroos laughing at my complete lack of fishing success.
Tunnel Creek
On the final stretch of the Gibb River Road, we had one last thing we really wanted to check out, and that was Tunnel Creek. A bit of detour off the main road, Tunnel Creek is, as the name suggests, a creek that runs through a tunnel! We grabbed our head lights and clambered through the rocky opening and walked the whole length out to the other side. There is some knee deep water to wade through, and a few eyes reflecting back from the freshwater crocodiles, but it was all fine!
There is some interesting stories on information boards about an aboriginal man by the name of Jundamurra and the Bunuba Resistance here. Essentially, Jundamurra used the tunnel as a hideaway from the authorities way back when. The whole story is more interesting than that though!
End of the Road
Kym and Sally had raced ahead at this point to check in with Nissan at Broome, so we decided to catch up with them. In total, we probably spent about three weeks on the Gibb River Road. We were flying blind – relying on Wikicamps and trying not to pre-book things and lock in to anything. I think we faired quite well and ended up with a nice Gibb River Road Adventure to look back on. Hopefully this can serve as something of an itinerary and a where to camp on the Gibb River Road for first time visitors.
The next part of our trip was checking out Broome and the Dampier Peninsula.
