Mt Barnett Manning Gorge

Packed the van strategically dumped what water we could put all the extra fuel we could in the cars and off loaded the esky to dad with the plan to nurse our way to manning gorge. All going well for the first 40 km other than us feeling like rag dolls on heavy duty wash cycle. The kids being very tolerant - this had taken 2 hours but becoming sugar loaded with the bribery when the car started to behave as if on a roller coaster - both front shockies gone. After some descriptive language and plan to ring Derby from Mt Barnett we limped on. To see a car crawling along is not out of the ordinary and people give you space till they can overtake that is except for the tour buses who scream past showering you in rocks and dust. I was sure we were going to get wiped out when faced with one taking the corner at 100 plus km/h and bouncing out of control onto our side with every degree of the corner he took. We had nowhere to go plus a vehicle that didn't respond too quickly. He managed to pull it around but was close enough to adjust our towing mirror for us. Limped on to the road house with nil further incident. Rang Derby 4x4 and chatted with my new friend Harry who advised would need to get the parts in and Friday would be the earliest and he would fit them that day - all would be Tickety boo - his expression not mine. Headed into Manning Gorge for the night where there was a nice big swimming hole with sand banks and rock islands plus a boat on a rope to take you to the other side. Kids had a ball playing around for hours plus there was a close approximation to a tepid shower. Up early to beat the heat for an hours walk into manning gorge itself. Very rocky but picturesque walk across several gullies before a final descent into the gorge itself. Once again an oasis, with a quick hop over some more rocks bringing us to a pool running into a wide cave on one side with a trickling waterfall across it's Mouth. Being a crocodile free zone the kids were in and exploring like a flash.
Hiked our way back out to pack up and repeat our slow crawl along the road with the camp-side talk promising improved conditions.