From Ellenbrae Station we travelled 70km
before turning right for the trip up to Drysdale Station along the Kalumburu
Road. We pulled into the rest stop to stretch our legs and got chatting to a
truckie who was transporting grocery supplies up to the station from Broome. He
reinforced that the next stretch of road was pretty awful and told Sippy to let
the tyres down to 25psi. Sippy put them to 30 – but was not too keen to go
further due to worries that the side walls would get punctures.
True to word – the road was quite
brutal. There was plenty of red dust and the corrugations were both deep and
wide, meaning that travelling at 60km/hour did nothing to get on top of the
bumps. We just had to grin and bear it for 60km, which took us an hour and 15mins.
As we turned into the station driveway, we passed a van whose water tank had
fallen loose and was hanging down onto the road. We had also heard of a family
whose axle had broken on their camper trailer on their travels up and they had
to camp for three days beside the road while waiting for a tow truck from
Kununurra to arrive.
We breathed a sigh of relief after making it and precariously opened the door to the BT to inspect for any damage. Looking up we noticed that the air conditioner was hanging about 10cms down from the roof, luckily being held by one remaining bolt. The other three bolts had worked themselves loose. About an hour in the heat followed while Sippy searched you-tube to find out how it was attached to the roof and Cath’s smaller hands managed to fit through the gap to get the bolt back into position (standing on the table with our necks cranked!) – but we managed to fix it. A thorough inspection was then conducted to unveil that the top of one the reading lights had come unscrewed, and the cutlery tray had been cracked at the back due to the cutlery hitting it. A search then prevailed to locate the 4 knives and 3 spoons that had bounced out and behind other drawers. The BT had come through with only minor mishaps, for which we were extremely grateful.
The next morning we were up at
5:45am for an early coffee and breakfast before jumping on our bikes as the sun
rose, to ride the 10mins to the airstrip. Here we met the pilots, along with
another group of 8 travelling together from Melbourne. The group was split into
two, based on weight, and after a safety briefing, we were loaded into the tiny
planes – heaviest at the front and lightest at the back. Sippy was in the
middle and myself and another lady at the back. At this stage we were wondering
how the tiny thing was going to get off the ground!
Our first stop on the hike was
Little Mertens Falls. Our guides (the pilots) highlighted stories of the local
Aboriginal people and we viewed several beautiful Aboriginal art works on the
majestic rock faces and caves, which dated back 4,000 -10,000 years. We then
sat underneath the falls before making our way down to the water for an amazing
swim in the stunning waterhole below the falls. After a M/T break we were back
on the hike, heading for Big Mertens Falls.
It was then onto Mitchell Falls. We
came out at the top of the falls where we were told the stories of the
dreamtime serpent creating the falls and the sacredness of not swimming in the
top two pools, as the Aboriginals believed this caused infertility. We then
swapped our hiking boots for reef shoes and waded across the water and rather
slippery rocks to make the final journey down to see the falls.
AMAZING!!!! The water was
thundering over the three drops and we marvelled at the incredible vista from
the perfect viewing area. It was just magical! The most beautiful series of
waterfalls embedded within the red Kimberley layers of towering cliffs. A sight
we will never forget. It had been well worth the journey!
After lunch and a swim in the river
at the top it was time for our helicopter journey back to the campground. This
was also amazing, with our pilot doing several passes of the falls and
surrounding area. Sippy and I gripped our phones tightly as we managed to
capture the incredible experience so that we could relive it.
We were all buzzing as we piled
back into the 4WD’s and bumped and bounced back to the Kandiwal airstrip. We
then sat around on camp chairs beside the two tiny planes with cold beers and
relived our experience with each other, before the 40min flight back to
Drysdale Station. Then sun was just setting as we touched down and we all
headed to dinner together at the open-air restaurant.
Yes, it was expensive – but it was a day we will never forget and was worth every penny.
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