The Mitchell Plateau and Falls

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Day 25 – Tuesday 24^th July – King Edward Campsite to Mitchell Plateau National Park

After speaking to the ranger enquiring about the state of the road, we decided we would be fine to drive the 75kms to the Mitchell Falls campsite with the trailer. So again we packed up (getting pretty good at that now!) and hit the road at 7.30am. You really get a sense of how remote this part of the Kimberley is when you drive along the narrow unsealed road. We started out driving through a eucalyptus forest and then it morphed into a gorgeous mass of Livistona palms, tall majestic palms that are only found in the Kimberleys. It felt like we were driving through dinosaur country having travelled back in time and we that we could bump into a T-Rex or Pterodactyl around the next corner! Luckily we didn’t and the only thing we met around bends were the odd river crossing, pot holes, rocky patches and dips, obstacles that the driver, car and trailer handled very well indeed. Although

It was just after 10 am when we arrived at the Mitchell Plateau National Park campsite, after having collected firewood before the entrance to the park, the sun was blazing down and not a cloud in the sky. Again. We found ourselves a spot in the very spacious campground, next to a fire pit. While the boys put the tent up, Anna and I enquired about helicopter rides around the falls. The plan was to walk the 3kms to the falls, taking in the two aboriginal rock art sites on the way, then get a ride back to camp by helicopter so we could get excellent aerial views of the majestic Mitchell Falls. For sustenance for the walk we scoffed a highly nutritious pot noodle before we went (a late breakfast really). We booked ourselves on the 3.30pm flight off the plateau and gave ourselves masses of time to walk there, have swims in the water holes and have a picnic.

After 500m we reached the best swimming opportunity of the day – Little Mertens Falls. You can mess around in the rock pools at the top of the falls (taking care not to fall off the edge) or walk down to the bottom of the falls where there is a lovely pool to swim in and sun-soaked rocks to laze around on. The special attraction of the Little Mertens Falls, apart from the swimming opportunity, is that there is some outstanding ancient aboriginal rock art hidden in the rocks behind the waterfall. Examples of Gwion/ Bradshaw art (google it!!) can be seen on the rocks behind the falls. You can make out small images of people wearing ceremonial garb as well as fine line images of animals and a yam on various rocks. It is amazing that you can still walk right up to it, however it is best appreciated from a distance so you can make out the full image.

We had our lunch snack at the very impressive Big Mertens Falls, also known as Mertens Gorge. It is a very deep gorge and we were pretty high up, admiring the view. The flow of water going over the top is quite low in the dry season but there is still a lot of power there and you can imagine how over the years the force of the water could create such a landscape. From the Big Falls it was only a relatively short walk to the Mitchell Falls themselves, however we managed to lose the trail markers and head off in the wrong direction around the falls. We did get some great views of the falls but had to fight our way through walls of sharp spiky spinifex grass, clamber over boulders (we are quite good at that now) and seriously watch out for the edge to make sure we didn’t fall in. Once we had re-orientated ourselves we worked out that the helicopter pad (did I mention that we had booked a helicopter ride out of the falls back to the campsite as a special treat?) was on the other side of the Mitchell River, which meant taking shoes and socks off and wading through to the other side. We made it to the helipad just in time for our 3.30pm transfer back to the campsite. Luke’s face was an absolute picture for the whole of the 6 minute flight. He absolutely loved it and beamed from ear to ear. The pilot made three passes of the Mitchell Falls and Big Mertens Falls for us to take some film and photos, then dropped us off back at the campsite. It was a spectacular end to a spectacular walk in some of the most remote country we have ever been in.

The firewood we had collected came in handy for us to cook our damper twists as bread roll starters for dinner. Main course was jacket spuds and sausages cooked over the campfire and amazing exploding baked beans (make sure you don’t forget to make a hole in the can of beans before you put it in the fire to heat up… The next day we found the can 200m from the fire!). What else could you have for dessert but toasted marshmallows?

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Photos

Mark in chopper.
Not sure if the tan is real or just a few layers of red dirt.