MITCHELL FALLS TRIP

Being complete rookies we were neieve travelling in this past of the country. We set of with our new friends, sorry vehicle and travel companions. The drive was only 190km to the falls camp ground. Which would normally take less than 2 hours on hwy. We had allowed 5 1/2 and this is what it took the was many stops to check the temperatures, shocks and springs and just time the was a new unusual nose. All of which happened to be false alarms. Better to be paranoid. 

We carefully made what would be the deepest river crossing in the Kimberly's, the King Edward river.

We also made stops to check out some fine rock art.

We made it to the Mitchell plateau unscathed but exhausted, we were welcomed by Jazz. A ranger John had teed up for us to meet us and show us around. We were out up in the 'palace' a donga John had built a number of wet seasons ago. We collapsed in be to the sound of mosquitos but that didn't bother us. We had made it, along with our new friends.

That night Claire and Marty had gone out to make a wee run when she glimpsed in the periferal of her torch a snake like figure, only to discover it was a night tiger. Marty had already unknowingly stepped over it and Claire had almost stepped on it. 

The next morning we were early and collected the Scott family on our way to start our trek to the Mitchell Falls. It was a 9km round trip. We had all managed to get on the track by 6:30AM to beat the heat of the day as we were traveling with 6 kids all under 8yo. The trek was scattered with interesting rock art to see and water holes to swim in making it more manageable with kids. We arrived at the falls before lunch and it was breathe taking. Littered with photo opportunities. We opted to take a bit of an extra look around as there were some at sites John had given us a mask diagram to locate. The kids went past of the way and opted to swim whole Clint and Phil forged on. After over an hour of foreging the countryside they came up empty. But the adventure was quite character building. It was a long day by the time we got back to camp at 5PM the kids were troopers and had probably done a solid 12km trek. The memories and shared experiences have built a wonderful friendship with the Scotts.

Our Mitchell adventure would conclude the following day as we retraced our tracks back to Drysdale, doing at some other at sites and shots to take a do to relieve us and the car of the heat.

It was such a feeling of accomplishment to say we had done it and survived the Kulumbaru road to Mitchell plateau as we arrived back at the station. Something not even a bumper sticker could summise.