Today began before dawn, with a float on the Manning Gorge billabong in our trusty inflatable. I didn't see the bittern again, or the fresh-water crocodile which basks on the bank during the warm part of the day, but I did see some blue-winged kookaburras, and lots of lovely reflections. Some may call the place a paperbark swamp, but it's been one of the major highlights of our trip so far. Pristine and peaceful.

We stopped at Galvan's Gorge along the way today (along with three tour buses), the walk in was short and flat, and the waterfall and swimming hole at the end were lovely, with fig trees and ferns clinging to the rock wall.

Then we headed to Adcock Gorge for lunch, which has a "road" right into it, which sounded good on paper, but turned out to be a rough 4WD track. Creeks, mud and rocks. Our trailer happily followed us along, but Len caught a big rock on his near side and banged his caravan pretty hard. The gorge was very nice, with lily pads a feature of the creek below the falls. I almost got Jesse in for a swim, but he decided it was too cold.

The Imintji store was our next stop, where we picked up some ice creams. These were a nice reward for all the shaking and rattling along Gibb River Road which occurred between all these stops.

We have stopped for the night at Silent Grove, the campground near Bell Gorge. We haven't seen the gorge yet, it's 8km further in. We did manage a shower, which, although the water was barely warm, was very welcome. It's also a very mild night so far, even without a campfire we were comfortable in t-shirts, and we've left the tent window open for the first time on the entire trip.