Mitchell Falls & King Edward River

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Continued down Gibb River Road and stopped at Ellenbrae Station (owned by Grollo’s) for Devonshire tea. Huge scone was enough for lunch. Left about 2.20pm for King Edward River. Got stuck behind a Britz car for a while and arrived around 6.10pm - Dark. Set up, had tea and spoke to a couple that drove to Mitchell Falls for the day and back and left their camper at King Edward River. A nice couple from East Kew offered to lend us their spare tent if we wanted to leave our camper behind, but we only had a doona for us and no bed rolls. Had a relaxing day by the river and people we met the night before had a kayak and let the kids have a couple of rides in it. Rod & I after much discussion, decided that Ultimate back their trailers and ours is very new, if we take it easy then we should make it.

Oops, we were wrong. The Koney Shock Absorbers didn’t make the 10,000km mark. The corrugations along Mitchell Falls Road are 300mm apart and 30 to 40mm deep. You just can’t get on top of them. 30 to 40km’s was best suited to our car/camper. When we slowed to 20km the whole car shook, so we had to slow right down to 15km’s. Just as well it is only 78kms to Mitchell Falls from the King Edward River campsite. Anyway, we did one shock on the way in and the other on the way out (favouring the broken one and doing about 10km’s).

The walk into Mitchell Falls is about 7km round trip. We did this straight after lunch and in our bathers. We got very hot and obviously are now a bit browner. Had 3 dips in the water, very cold, but refreshing. The falls are stunning. It is no wonder that so many people go to see them. A lot walk in and take a helicopter flight back, but at $95 dollars each - out of our price range.

Met a couple from St. Andrews, Rye at Little Merton Falls. They were next to us at King Edward River the night before. She is the mother of the ranger we met at the Bungle Bungles. It is such a small world. At the campsite a fellow Ulty owner came over and said hello. He was having a “boys only” trip, so only had his tent. He said if he had his Ulty with him, he had spare Shocks that we could have had. Everyone is so nice. We all fell asleep by the fire before 8pm. Rod was the first to fall asleep and the first to wake up and had get the rest of us to bed. Getting cold by then.

It took 2hrs 40mins to get into Mitchell Falls, and 3hrs 20mins to get out. Drove slowly to Drysdale Station to buy some bread. $5.50 a loaf, and frozen to boot. Oh well. We had to have some.

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