Our next four-wheel drive challenge was the Gibb River Road which is a 670km stretch of unsealed road cutting through the Kimberley - a remote area of large cattle stations and where they filmed parts of the 2008 movie Australia. As well as negotiating the track one of the main obstacles is driving across the wide Pentecost River.

The big question before setting off was what tyre pressure should we have? Our normal setting for tarmac roads is 40psi but we'd heard various horror stories of people getting several punctures along the way, so in Kununurra we canvassed various opinions. A guy we met whilst washing up had done the road a few years ago and got two punctures, but on his recent trip put his tyres right down to 28psi and didn't get any. He helped out a group of girls who had very firm highway tyres and on their third puncture. So we thought we should go low. However, other people stated if you go low you are more likely to get a rock puncture the side wall and that's the weakest part of the tyre. A retired farmer who'd been using four wheel drives for years advised not to go below 35psi. With all the varying comments, in the end we opted for 35psi on the front and 37psi on the back and just hoped we had good luck on our side.

Along the road there are many side tracks you can take leading off to gorges and stations you can camp at. Our first day was to get to Home Valley Station which was only 66km down the road. We had a surreal moment as we pootled round the Cockburn Range and came across a guy resting with two camels that where pulling a carriage. He's been travelling around the unsealed roads in Australia for years, collecting money for the Flying Doctors.

We emerged over a hill and in the distance was the Pentecost river. I stopped the car just short to take a look and work out how I was going to tackle the crossing which looked to be nearly one hundred meters long and up to the top of the tyres in depth. At the entrance was a family lazing around in deckchairs submerged up to their waist happily having a picnic in the river. They all seemed merry and not fazed by the fact there are deadly salt water crocs in the water! I put the car into first gear and headed in. Richard filmed the view from the passenger seat. Water soon started to splash above the bonnet and in my attempt not to stall I drove through rather quickly - over 10 seconds faster than a couple behind us from Melbourne. I can't have been too fast, however, as we emerged safely on the far bank.

Home Valley Station is an old cattle station but now mainly focuses on tourism. There's a metal barn-type shed housing a bar and restaurant, green lawned areas for camping and a lovely pool in which to cool off from the sweltering heat. Not the sort of luxury you'd expect to find in the middle of nowhere, but a pleasant change for us. We were offered the choice of camping down by the Pentecost river with a splendid view of the Cockburn Range, but having recently camped in scenic, isolated locations we fancied an evening watching the cricket in the bar whilst sipping a cold beer - it was the Ashes final test after all. Having thoroughly enjoyed ourselves, we stayed a second night. The place had put us into holiday mode so we spent the day lounging around the pool and enjoying the newly discovered Matso beer produced by a small Broome-based brewery. The beers come in a variety of strengths and flavours - I liked the Mango one so much I drank the bar out of stock!

The evening entertainment proved interesting. An old guy who claimed to be one of the top 3 didgeridoo players talked through the complex nature of playing the instrument and gave examples of the different sounds. To play it properly you have to breathe in through your nose and blow out through your mouth at the same time - this is how people can play for hours on end without stopping.

Our second stop along the 'Gibb' was at Mt Elizabeth Station. We'd chosen to camp here as we saw a sign saying 'flushing toilets' and even though it involved a 30km trek down a side road it was worth it. This less polished working station was a complete contrast to Home Valley but nice in its own way. Peacocks roamed round the camping area, jumping on cars at will and generally making sure everyone knew they were the boss. We went on a 4km walk around the station just before dusk to see what other animals we could spot. In the tall yellow dry grass I saw the heads and ears of two wallabies sticking up. As I walked nearer to get a closer luck about twenty wallabies emerged from the grass and hopped away into the bushes. It was like a scene from Saving Private Ryan as their colour is such a good camouflage.

Back on the road again for our third day we drove along to Manning Roadhouse to stock up on a few supplies. We were also hoping to take a walk to Manning Gorge but they wanted $10 each which we thought was a little excessive for a walk so we headed on to Bell Gorge which is meant to be one of the prettiest along and had a camp area. Up till now the road hadn't been too bad at all, in fact one of the best four-wheel drive roads we'd experienced. However to get to Bell Gorge camp ground we hit rocky corrugations and the car was bouncing all over the place. I can drive on rocky roads - you just go slow; I can drive on corrugated roads - you go fast until you hit the sweet point; but rocky corrugations are a nightmare. I don't know how but we got to the campsite in one piece and found a nice spot under some trees to erect the tent. I had already anticipated the toilets being the pit variety like in the Bungles so I held on as long as I could before going. Only then did I discover that although the outside resembled the ones we'd previously seen, these were in fact flush!

We got up bright and early the next morning and were in fact the first to arrive at Bell Gorge. It was rather charming so we sat on the bank watching the water cascade over several platforms into a pool. It wasn't long until other people came down and got in the water. There was a rope attached to the rocks and a family hauled themselves up to the first level and stood taking a waterfall shower before jumping into the pool. As we weren't swimming we probably didn't get the best out the gorge but it was still worth going to see anyway.

This time I tackled the rocky corrugations much better as we drove from the gorge the 30km back down to join the Gibb. When we arrived at the junction we saw a group of three backpackers who'd camped by us that night. I recognised their car as it stood out like ours for being on the scummy side. I had noticed that the tread on their tyres had seen better days so wasn't surprised to see them changing a tyre after getting a puncture on the rocky road. We asked if the needed help but luckily for them they had everything under control.

Our final sight seeing location was Windjana Gorge. We approached it in the early afternoon and the light was fantastic. The charcoal grey and orange colours in the rocks looked like a sideways Bungle. We took a walk into the gorge and the animal noises echoed around the very high cliffs and created a really nice ambience. There was a stream of water running though the gorge and several fresh water crocodiles swimming along. The fresh type are much smaller and have pointed mouths compared to salt water crocs, but more importantly they aren't deadly though can injure you if you upset them. As we liked the place we decided to stay for a second day to see the place in different light conditions.

We took a morning walk further into the gorge and came across a colony of Flying Fox bats. We've seen many now but this was the closest we got to them You could see their really cute bear type faces and we watched them manoeuvre along branches upside down. In the heat of the day we went croc spotting as they tend to lay out on the banks in the sun. It wasn't long before we were nearly tripping over them. They look just like logs sometimes and you can be nearly on top of them before you see their beady eyes looking at you.

The next day, we finished the final, partly sealed section of the Gibb River Road and headed to Broome on the west coast. Having done several of these rough roads now I don't think it was that bad, but I would say that as we were one of the lucky ones and didn't get a puncture!

Katy