A day to remember. Woke at 5am to
the howling of dingos. Then at 8am we reported to the helipad for our safety
briefing before being weighed in and taken to our helicopter. Kate quickly put
her foot in it by announcing to Zara that she should sit up the front and learn
how to ‘drive’ the helicopter. Duncan our friendly pilot looked at Kate
witheringly before pushing and pulling 100 different leavers and knobs
(probably just pretend to make us feel both impressed and safe). We were in the
air for only 18 minutes (for which we had to re-mortgage the house) – but what
a spectacular ride. The helicopter was doorless so the view over the plateau
was magnificent – rivers, waterfalls, pools. We orbited around the Mitchell
falls before landing at the top of the falls for our walk back to the campsite.
Duncan told us that a large population of Aboriginal people were living on the
land here until the 1940s when they were rounded up and pushed out ‘in order to
protect them from a Japanese invasion’ – which of course never happened - well not here anyway. Now
there is a small community living nearby – and supposedly the elders have a big
say in the management of the national park – maybe? The Mitchell Falls are
pretty incredible – second highest in WA (by half a metre…) – they usually keep
flowing through the dry season due to the incredibly high rainfall in the wet.
We would love to see a Kimberly wet season sometime – even if we had to come in
at the start and leave at the end. The humidity must be insane but the storms
and floods would be something worth seeing.
The Mitchell Falls area is quite
tropical with palms and jungly roots and dense, quite lush vegetation. The drop
offs around the falls were a bit scary and while we are usually pretty relaxed
with our kids, we found ourselves gripping their wrists ferociously at some
points. We had been told that numerous tragedies have occurred – the most
recent being only a few months ago when a tourist fell to her death down Little
Merton falls. Horrible. But the walk and the views were spectacular – photos
will never do it justice. It was hot and somewhat exposed walking but made
easier by the opportunity for regular dips in rivers, billabongs and waterholes
along the way. We picnicked beside a particularly beautiful billabong and
laughed at how much simpler our lunches have become – homemade damper rolls (B
becoming a real dab hand at damper) with one little can of tuna or some dregs
of ham, followed by half a muesli bar each and a handful of almonds. But it
tasted delicious to us! The billabong was a great place for swimming and a
friendly couple who had brought along blow-up mats let the kids paddle around
on the mats which was great fun for them. The kids also made friends with a
nice 20-something guy called Cameron who patiently tickled and chased them for
ages. Climbing up around the back of the billabong we found some incredible
rock art – kangaroos, boomerangs, strange skinny figures and handprints. According
to our notes, some of these paintings are at least 17,000 years old. It’s kind
of difficult to comprehend. We arrived back at camp in the late afternoon tired
but satisfied with a pretty amazing day.
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