We rolled down the bitumen off the hill to the Gibb River which was a nice start to the day. Once off the bitumen (which is only on the steep bits) we were back onto the gravel, moderate corrugations and just enough sand to drop me in the dirt once. Bruce let slip that he had also dismounted horizontally a bit earlier.

By morning tea we were at the turnoff to Kalumbaru, the only major road junction on the 600 km of the Gibb River Road. The Kalumbaru Road was closed due to Covid 19 and the aboriginal communities along it not wanting to risk an outbreak amongst their elders and sick. So saying, as we had a break there a couple of lads in a Toyota Landcruiser coming down from Drysdale River Station where they had been catching bulls. They were young, tall, fit, quick. Everything that Bruce and I weren’t, thanks for making us feel old.

There was a picnic table, toilets supplied from a water tank at the turnoff. Unfortunately there was no way to get water out of the tank which was sealed to stop birds getting in.

A few kilometres on from the turnoff Bruce flagged down Jerry, a young bloke in a Toyota troopy who agreed that both of us could use a lift to Mount Barnett. We had to take the right-hand pedals off our bikes to fit in between Jerry’s bed and the cupboard but we got them in. Then Bruce and I got to sit very close together and get to know each other better for the 100 km to Mount Barnett. God bless Jerry.

At Mount Barnett roadhouse by midday for an (expensive) hamburger and book in to the Manning Gorge campground five kilometres further in. The road in was exceptionally dusty and the bikes were already on the troopie so Jerry drove us in.