Kalumburu road to Mitchell falls....OPEN!

The Mitchell Plateau was always going to be one of those destinations we hoped we could do but going early in the season after such a big 'wet', we weren't sure if the road would be open.  Its an approximate 12h rtn side trip off the Gibb River Road heading North, the main attraction being the famous 4 tier Mitchell Falls. We knew the falls would be at their best after such a huge wet season, so when we found out it had just opened we were really excited! 

                                                              King Edward River Crossing
We bumped into some friends at Manning,  that we'd first met back in Cape Leveque and they decided to come along too. We broke the trip by stopping at Drysdale River Station for two nights, Mitchell Falls campground for two and King Edward River camp for one.  Drysdale is a working cattle station on a million acres. For us there was the lure of....washing machines and hot showers.  Unfortunately the hot shower didn't happen, but hey after a couple of weeks of either cold or no showers you get used to it.  We re-fueled, filled up with drinking water, and got school work done.  We also frequented the great open bar and lovely grassy beer garden.  Their Kimberley Burgers went down a like a treat too!  Marie and I had a chat to the station owners daughter. It was interesting talking to her about what its like out here in the wet.  They have to do a "run into town" (about 250km, to buy supplies in November to last them until the end of May. Now that's some Woolies bill!

                                                                                          

      Having lunch with Chris, Marie and Jai (asleep) at the stations beer garden
 The road is rough and corrugated and with some deep long river crossings, including the King Edward River crossing.  The turn off to the falls is about 100k from Drysdale and then another 90k on a road that isn't maintained into Mitchell falls.  The 90k took us about two and a half hours at an average speed around 35-40kph.

      Road into Drysdale was rough gravel with rocks to puncture!     Fires close to the road.

       One of the river crossings                                            Looking down stream as we drove across

          An example of one of the washouts                           The King Edward River crossing
The drive was scenic with glimpses of the ranges around us, and dense palm and pandanus vegetation.  The road that continued on to Kalumburu was still closed.

                                                                                      Noooooooooooooooooooooo!                          

           Our 'white' car                                                        Etched into the red dust
As soon as we'd arrived at Mitchell falls campground we wondered across to the Helicopter office to book our Slingair Heliwork one way flight up to the top of the falls for first thing in the morning.  We had decided to fly up and then take our time walking back.  Wow what an experience. We had the flight to ourselves and once I got used to the no door thing it was amazing.  To get an aerial view of such a remote and untouched wilderness area was incredible.  The falls were in their full glory!


After arriving at the top around 9am we were definitely on a high.  Ha Ha.  At this stage the only other people up their were our friends Chris, Marie and Jai who took the flight before us and maybe a couple of others.  We walked around to the left before crossing the top of the falls, to get some shots of the falls. 

The 3rd and last tier of the falls                                    "No Ben, I said no jumping off Mitchell Falls!"

After that we made our way across the Mitchell river which was about thigh deep,and took a sidetrack off to get to the very top of the fall.  It was amazing standing on the ledge to see, feel and hear the thundering power of the enormous volume of water that plunders down.  We tried to visualize what it would look like in the thick of the wet season, as apparently it can turn into one huge fall!

The rest of the day was spent making our way back down to the bottom, exploring, swimming in different pools, finding Aboriginal Rock Art, and just taking in the beauty of where we were. 




      Big Mertens Falls for a swim and found more rock art !                                                        

At the end you are rewarded by by the gorgeous Little Mertens pools, that provide great little sitting spots under the running water to massage the aching muscles.

       The kids and Scott with Jai                                         
We arrived at the top of the falls by helicopter at 9am and walked back arriving at Little Mertons which is about 20mins from the campsite at around 2ish.  It was such a great day, definitely one of the high lights so far for us.

On the way back from the Mitchell falls we stayed at the King Edward Campground.  It was a nice bush camp on the river.  We swam and .....well I won't say any more as Hannah is working on a post about her exciting experience here.....