Packed up again, drove to the homestead and left the trailer there and headed up to the Mitchell plateau. The creek crossings were pretty numerous both on the Kalumburu road and the road into the Mitchell Falls but most were only 5-10 cms deep. The Kalumburu Rd was pretty good, much of it had been graded in the last week, even the road to the Mitchell falls wasn’t too bad. There were some rough sections near the water crossings, some steep sections and some muddy sections. The major river crossing was the King Edward River, the water was about 50 cms and flowing fairly fast but the bottom was rocky and there was plenty of traction. In hindsight we could have pulled the camper trailer in, in fact while we were there we saw 4 full size caravans in there plus a couple of camper trailers. Still we have to justify lugging a swag on the roof rack so we were quite happy to swag it for 3 nights

We arrived around 3 pm after a 3 hour drive, set up camp and went to explore. First stop was the Helicopter office, Jacky had read the notes about the 2 ½ – 3 hr walk to the falls and was not looking forward to the walk back in the heat of the day. The Helicopter service will take you to the falls or pick you up from the falls, plus they offer extended flights over the Mitchell River and out to the coast. The ride back included 2 circuits of the falls so we decided to lash out and pay for the return trip.

From the Helicopter office we went down to the start of the walk to see what we were in for the next day. There were a couple swimming (getting wet) in the creek near the camp and they thoroughly recommended it. It was pretty hot so we went back to the car and did a quick change in the car park and headed down to the water. It was beautiful, cool enough to be refreshing. We just lay in the water and watched the little fish come up and nibble at our legs. It spooked Jacky a little until she realised what was happening, even then she wasn’t too sure about it