It's a small world - 3rd July 2016

Had a really good sleep but awake early with the birds and the first slam of a car door as people started exiting the campsite early.  Had breakfast, packed up and drove slowly to the nearest tap to fill the water tanks as there is lovely fresh spring water here.  As Ben was walking along next to the caravan he noticed one of the batteries joggling a bit more than the other one and reported it to Larry.  It was revealed that the battery boxes were very lightweight and attached to the caravan with tek screws and the constant bouncing on rough roads meant it was coming loose.  Ben and Larry spent an hour or so under the caravan trying to strengthen the casings and luckily, as were still in the Silent Grove campsite, we were able to borrow a proper drill from the caretakers to help drill the holes into the chassis.  Finally took off and bumped our way along the Gibb River Road but decided we would make use of the Over the Range tyre and mechanical repair place along the way and see if they could do some welding to strengthen the boxes.

Carl decided it would be a much better and more secure job to attach the boxes using proper bolts through the end of the chassis, as it would take a good two or three hours to do, we should take a picnic and go to nearby Adcock Gorge.  Sounded much more appealing than sitting around a repair yard so quickly made some sandwiches.  Larry reversed the van into the workshop first go and both Neville and Carl were quick to compliment him and tell him he was the first person to be able to do so all year.  Unhitched and headed into Adcock Gorge.  Carl had told Larry to stop at the Adcock Gorge sign and walk the last 2km but Larry put the Jeep into proper 4WD mode and we bumped our way over the rocks and through the creeks to the closest car park area.  Clambered our way over the rocks and into the gorge which was absolutely beautiful and for a little while we had the place to ourselves.  Swam over the cliff and Ben climbed up to a little waterfall and had a refreshing shower.  Back to the water's edge and ate our sandwiches and then some more people turned up including a couple with two dogs including a very friendly blue heeler who insisted we play stick games with her whilst her owners had their swim.  Very lovely spot and a bonus extra as we had not planned to visit this particular gorge.   Back to Over the Range and Carl was still working on the van so we sat under a tree and looked at their photos of the Gibb River Road in the wet season and watched various cars come through for repairs and advice on tyres, suspension etc.  Had a chat to Neville and told him of our plans to head to Manning Gorge and then on up the Kalumburu Road to the Mitchell Falls.  He strongly suggested we rethink our plans as they have had a number of vans in that had been shaken to pieces on that road due to the very deep corrugations at the moment and said the APT guy had told him that when he had driven it a day or so ago there were at least 5 vans stranded on the side of the road as he passed.  Hmmm.  As much as we really wanted to go and it was on Larry's bucket list, the idea of prematurely ending our 7 week holiday a week in doesn't sound like a smart move. 

Onwards to Mt Barnett roadhouse to refuel  at $2.09/lt and purchased our camping pass to Manning Gorge.  Also to buy cereal and a packet of biscuits - $20.60!!!   Drove on to the Manning Gorge campsite approximately 4 hours later than planned and the place was heaving!  Kept on driving deeper and deeper into the park and eventually found a place next to a camper.  Sorry young couple we thought - you can't have this whole piece of dirt to yourself!  Parked up and started setting up and next thing the young bloke goes "Jeez, it's not Larry Bender is it?" and lo and behold it's one of Larry's old work mates from Murrin and in even more of a coincidence Tom notes that he'd only been looking at Larry's Facebook page a few days ago and noted the Jeep and Caravan set up in his cover photo and so when we drove up today he thought "I know that set up!"and looked at the driver and there was Larry!  Small world huh!  We let them get the campfire going whilst we finished setting up and had dinner and then we headed over to the campfire with chairs and wine and had a good old catch up.  Tom's partner Ash is from Wyndham/Kununurra and so she knew Warren and Barbara Johnson (for whom I worked in the 1980's) and Larry knew her parents from his Wyndham days.  It truly is a small world.  They were having late dinner of a campfire roast chicken and offered Ben second dinner which he respectfully gobbled up.  Just a really lovely end to a fairly stressful day.