Why this ride
From Derby it runs 852 km to Kununurra; allow about 19 h 45 of riding. It goes by way of Windjana Gorge, Bell Gorge, Mount Barnett and El Questro. A steady touring day rather than a sprint.
CURVESCOUT / MOTORCYCLE RIDE
Gibb River Road
Plan this ride
- Recorded distance
- 852 km
- Riding-time estimate
- 19 h 45
- Journey
- One way; return travel is separate
Distance and timing basis
The recorded total and the leg detail need reconciliation. Inspect the leg notes before using this record for timing or navigation. 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. Derby
Derby sits on a flat peninsula of mud and mangroves at the edge of King Sound, in the far north-west of Western Australia, and it is where the Gibb River Road starts. The tides here are among the biggest in the country, rising and falling about eleven metres, so the shoreline retreats for hundreds of metres twice a day and the water runs fast and brown. The town is small, with around four thousand people, and it has the dusty, relaxed air of a place that does a bit of everything: cattle, mining services, Aboriginal art and tourism.
Read the complete Derby write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Derby is where the day begins. Next is Windjana Gorge.
2. Windjana Gorge
Windjana Gorge is where the Lennard River slices through the Napier Range in the west Kimberley, and the gorge walls are the remains of a Devonian reef, built by algae and corals when this country lay under a warm sea about 350 million years ago. Walking beside those cliffs you can see fossils in the limestone, shells and marine creatures, and the sheer scale of the place is humbling. The walls rise some thirty metres or more above a sandy river bed, which in the dry season shrinks to a chain of green pools.
Read the complete Windjana Gorge write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Windjana Gorge comes up 267 km in. Next is Bell Gorge.
3. Bell Gorge
Bell Gorge is one of the best-known swimming holes of the Kimberley, a series of falls tumbling over red sandstone into a deep green pool in the King Leopold Ranges in the north of Western Australia. It sits well off the Gibb River Road, reached by a rough track of around thirty kilometres from the main road to the Silent Grove campground, and then a walk of about a kilometre or so over rocks to the top of the falls. The dry season, roughly May to October, is the only time you can sensibly get here; in the wet, the road is cut by floods and closed.
Read the complete Bell Gorge write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
534 km in you reach Bell Gorge. Next is Mount Barnett.
4. 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, about halfway. Next is El Questro.
5. 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 sits at 1069 km, late in the day. Next is Kununurra.
6. 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 852 km.
Leg by leg
Derby to Windjana Gorge
Derby → Windjana Gorge is 324 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
Windjana Gorge to Bell Gorge
Windjana Gorge → Bell Gorge is 117 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
Bell Gorge to Mount Barnett
Bell Gorge → Mount Barnett is 188 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
Mount Barnett to El Questro
Mount Barnett → El Questro is 515 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
El Questro to Kununurra
El Questro → Kununurra is 191 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.