Vikings in Australia - Víkingar í Ástralíu

29^th of August.

Woke up early to pack and get ready for the trip to Mitchell Falls. While packing a woman came over to inspect our Oztent. She told us that they had arrived yesterday afternoon. They were coming from Mitchell Falls and were just about 50km away from Drysdale, when the axel on their camper trailer broke. They parked the camper trailer off the road and removed the axle and brought it with them to Drysdale so it could be fixed. They simply spent the night on the ground and were hoping to have the axle fixed later today, so they could go out and retrieve the camper trailer. On our way to Mitchell Falls, we came across their camper trailer and I took a photo, so you have the evidence.

Also, a bit further on was an 80 series Landcruiser, like ours with a broken front wheel and windshield. It seemed to be abandoned, so not sure what went on there!!.

From Drysdale it’s around 99km to the turn off into Mitchell Falls. This section is no better or worse than the section into Drysdale, so we simply took it easy and drove slowly where the worst corrugations were. After the turn off and a few kilometers in, we crossed the King Edward river. While crossing, we saw two large waterbirds, which are called Brolgas. They are quite majestic, with a red band around their neck.

The road to Mitchell Falls is pretty bad. Mostly because of consistent large corrugations that seem to go on for ever and there is no way they can be avoided. I had to stop on occasions, just to check that the spare wheels weren’t falling off again, plus tie down the High Lift jack as it had started to rattle on the roof rack. Along the way we came across a bush fire so we of course stopped to take a photo. This is all part of controlled burning, so it’s not a fire that is out of control.

We arrived at Mitchell Falls campsite around half past two in the afternoon. We then proceeded to set up camp and then walk over to the helipad to check if we could secure a taxi ride back from the Mitchell Falls, the following day. You can get a ride out and back, or just one leg. The walk over there is around 4.3km one way, so most people do an early walk and get a helicopter ride back around lunch time. We were discussing this with the operator, when he told us that another couple was looking to do the same, but take a longer flight back i.e. a longer more scenic route. This costs a bit more of course, but the price for four people wasn’t all that much more than for the short ride back to camp, so we decided to join in. As it turns out, it was the couple that we met at the Drysdale camp site and dinner that had booked this, so we are in good company tomorrow. They arrived safely yesterday and today did the Surveyors pool trip and saved the Mitchell Fall walk and flight back for tomorrow. We plan to go to the Surveyors pool the following day, so this worked out well.

So we will be up with the birds tomorrow to receive a safety talk for the chopper at 7am, before we commence our 4.3km walk to Mitchell Falls. The chopper will pick us up there around 12pm and bring us back to camp.