29 June 2018
Early start today – up at 530 am and on the road towards Mitchell Falls just after 6 am. The road was the worst so far, and the worst corrugations I’ve ever experienced. It took an hour and 50 mins to drive the 75 km’s. To take advantage of the slightly cooler weather in the mornings, we decided to walk the 4.3 km in to the falls, and then catch a helicopter out. We booked the helicopter in for 1130 am, allowing us 3 hours to walk in to the Mitchell Falls river and plateau and have a good look around. There were three 4WD tour buses pulled up by the time we arrived. Transferring people in and out of the falls is big business. They had 4 choppers there, although we only saw the two operating. The walk was fairly easy and we made good time. They have had 2 very poor wet seasons in a row up here, and as a result, the Mitchell River was very low and not much water was going over the falls. It was still spectacular though. We explored the plateau and walked out to a good view point for the falls. Mitchell Falls is a 4 tiered waterfall, with a large pool under each set of falls.The chopper ride was awesome. It was mine, and Mum’s first time in a helicopter and I absolutely loved it. Mum not so much. Dad reckons she almost dislocated his shoulder she was holding on to his arm so tight. We did a couple of figure 8’s over the falls and the pilot pointed out other rivers and landmarks. The chopper was open in the back and Dad and Bill got to sit on the outside seats with nothing between them and the blue sky. They both thought it was great. We had lunch pack in the car park and then embarked off for the rough ride back. We stopped off to look at some aboriginal rock art and then back to camp and all four of us jumped in for a swim. Absolutely magic. That afternoon we got a good look at some Brolgas flying low over the camp. Baked spuds cooked in the camp oven for dinner, a game of Triominos and then we were all ready for bed.
Travelling the Big Island 