CURVESCOUT / MOTORCYCLE RIDE
Gibb River Road: Mount Barnett to Kununurra
Plan this ride
- Recorded distance
- 429 km
- Riding-time estimate
- 10 h 06
- Journey
- One way; return travel is separate
Distance and timing basis
Ordered leg totals agree within rounding. Stop distances are approximate sums of rounded legs. Stops, delays, approach and any separate return travel add time. Basis: producer-declared routed record.
Reading history stays on this device. My road watch requires a separate selection; opening it does not subscribe this ride.
Distance and riding time are measured on the routed road. Check local closures and conditions before you ride.
Waypoint introductions and full write-ups
1. Mount Barnett
Mount Barnett is a cattle station in the middle of the Gibb River Road, and a roadhouse that every rider on that road ends up in, whether by plan or by thirst. It sits roughly halfway along the Kimberley's famous 660-kilometre track between Derby and Kununurra, and the Aboriginal-managed station runs the store, the campground and the fuel pumps that let you carry on in either direction.
Read the complete Mount Barnett write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Mount Barnett is where the day begins. Next is El Questro.
2. El Questro
El Questro began as a cattle station and became something else. This vast property in the East Kimberley, a short drive from the Gibb River Road's eastern end, was once a working pastoral lease, and it has been turned into a wilderness park, with gorges, hot springs and waterfalls set in a country of red cliffs and baobab trees. Emma Gorge, with its cool swimming hole beneath a high waterfall, and Zebedee Springs, a series of warm pools among palms, are the best known, and the walk into El Questro Gorge ends at a deep pool shaded by rock walls.
Read the complete El Questro write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
El Questro comes up about 325 km into the recorded legs. Next is Kununurra.
3. Kununurra
Kununurra is the Kimberley's tidy, green front door, a town built in the early 1960s to serve the Ord River Irrigation Scheme and set among red ranges and wide, flat farmland. For anyone finishing the Gibb River Road, it is the first place in hundreds of kilometres with a supermarket, a bakery and a hot shower that does not smell of bore water.
Read the complete Kununurra write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
The route ends here after 429 km.
Leg by leg
Mount Barnett to El Questro
Mount Barnett → El Questro is 325 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
El Questro to Kununurra
El Questro → Kununurra is 104 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.