Vikings in Australia - Víkingar í Ástralíu

30^th August – Mitchell Falls

We woke up early and had our brekkie and then got our gear together (Lots of Water!!). We walked over to the helipad office just around 7am. There we met our friends and received our safety briefing. (In essence, don't walk into the rotor blades!!) They also weighed us on their scale, which according to Sibba is a very kind scale i.e. it is not calibrated properly by a fair few kilos. Even I was surprised to see how little I weighed! Then we were off on our walk to the falls.

On route to Mitchell Falls are two sites with rock art. The first one is near Little Merten Falls, but we couldn’t see any signs, so we missed it and decided to visit it later in the afternoon as it’s only a short walk from the camp. The second rock art site is also just before the Big Merten Falls and we also missed that turn off when we realised we were at the Big Merten Falls. We scrutinized the map and worked out that it was only a short trip back. We went back and found the rock art.

Pretty amazing graffiti, or pictures of “Ailens” as Sibba calls it (Not me!). After a few photos, we headed back to Big Mertens Falls and admired the deep gorge that it had dug out.

Then it was only another 500m or so to the Mitchell River. This is where the river flows down the waterfall, so it’s not visible. We then walked further up-stream along the Mitchell River and then across it. This required us to wade it as there was no bridge. It’s not a big stream by any means, but you do get wet! Once across we followed the path around until we came to the point where you can see the Mitchell Falls. It’s a pretty amazing view. There are in fact 6 separate waterfalls, cascading down four levels. Pretty spectacular to see.

Bear in mind, during the rainy season, the water grows a few hundred times so the whole gorge is pretty full and instead of being six waterfalls, it turns into one or two. After viewing the falls for some time, we went back up-stream and found a nice place to chill out in the Mitchell River.

Every day here it’s around 35 degrees during the day so it gets pretty hot and it’s nice to chill out in the flowing water or pools. We then went back to the spot where we could view the waterfall and had our light lunch. Then it was back to the helipad, where the chopper came to pick all four of us up.

I was put in the co-pilot seat, so I gave Sibba the camera to take some photos as the chopper had no doors and it was open out. Sibba has an aversion to heights, so sitting strapped into a seat with an open door in the helicopter wasn’t her cup of tea! Thus, although she did take some photos, one can see they are not taken by someone who is focused on taking photos, rather someone who is constantly scared of falling out!. We should have asked the pilot to swap us, but alas it was too late.

At least the view from the chopper was fantastic as the pilot flew us over the falls, plus down river over the Little Mitchell Falls and then up again another creek/gorge called JC, where another small waterfall eked out its existence! Then it was back to camp in a flash. A lot faster than walking I must say!!.

The rest of the afternoon was spent relaxing and reading. Then just past 3pm we decided to kit up again and take a walk back to Little Mertens Falls and see the rock art, plus take a swim in the pool below it. This time we found the rock art and took a few photos, plus spent some time swimming in the pool. Then it was back to camp for happy hour and extracting the photos of the day onto the laptop.

Tonight is a full moon. It’s called a blue moon as it’s the second full moon within the same month. This only occurs about every 2.5 years, so it’s not an every month occurrence. Thus you now know where the expression, “Once in a blue moon” comes from. It’s not that rare! Speaking of that, if you recall, myself and our friends in Bell Gorge managed to see the Northern Spotted Quoll. Sibba never got to see it. Tonight we threw some chops on the bbq and while it was smoking away, Sibba and I sat in front of the tent. Suddenly Sibba saw something coming towards her in the dark, heading on a path that would collide with her feet. She shouted something and a small shadowy animal changed direction. I jumped up and got a flashlight and put the spotlight on the offender. Lo and behold, it was a Northern Spotted Quoll. Probably not the same one as in Bell Gorge, but it could have been its twin! After his detour, he returned back to the bush and quietly disappeared into the night. We have taken measures to secure our garbage for the night, just in case! Tomorrow we plan to drive out to the Surveyors pool and Port Warrender i.e Walsh Point.