Thursday 7th June 2018
Well, what an amazing day. We were up early as I had to be at the helicopter office just before 7am for a weigh-in, payment and safety briefing so I could do my flight out of Mitchell Falls. They had been really nice and offered me the dead leg return back to the Falls so I could walk out with David as he had decided not to do the flight. It was only a 6 minute flight and he really doesn’t like flying. The reason for the early time slot was to arrive there before the first tour group but as you would expect, they beat me but the girl opened our queue first which was really nice, so the 3 people from the campground including me went first. Oops, a little unfair but I figured I was only one person and they were at least 20.

After the briefing I headed back to camp to make lunch and be on our way. It was another beautiful, sunny day, the sky was clear and the temperature pleasant. I would say that would be day 50 of sunshine, pretty hard to take. At least we won’t be here when they have three months of rainy days in a row.

We walked for about 15mins through bushland with sandstone rocks very similar to home. At this time we came to Little Mertens Falls which we climbed halfway down to a rocky outcrop under the falls to view some Aboriginal paintings. It is amazing the number of drawings here as well. I am so surprised how much has been uncovered and because of there beliefs they are just here for us to view. Apparently once a drawing is done no-one will draw over it. So we are very lucky they have not been turned into a paid tourist attraction. Although it has probably cost us a couple of tyres, one at least and we still have to get out of here tomorrow.

Little Mertens Falls was also very pretty with a lovely pool at the bottom. We decided to leave the swim until this afternoon.

Heading along we walked for a while until we came to Big Mertens Falls. This was about 100m high but the waterfall was quite thin. Still spectacular due to the depth of the precipice. We spent some time exploring here trying to find another lookout, which after some bush bashing and rock scrambling we made it. The track had been totally overgrown and not established for this season yet. That’s what we think anyway.

Then we headed on our way to the spectacular Mitchell Falls which comprises a chain of 4 waterfalls. They are currently still flowing amazing amounts of water volume but you can imagine how spectacular it would look just after the wet season. Something to come back for or maybe view from a helicopter.

We did a little exploring then had lunch at the lookout spot. Very spectacular but quite noisy as there are 2 helicopters going continuously. 6 min return flight to the campground $150. The 18min loop from $249 and the 48 min to the coast and back via the falls from $499, if just DB and i did this one with no-one else joining us it would cost $849 each. Ouch!! Anyway after lunch I did the 6 min flight which does 2 figure 8’s over the falls then flies back to the camp. Luckily they also let me do the dead-leg back to the falls so I could walk back with DB. Lucky me I got 2 take-offs and landings. Also for no extra cost and also relieving David of the anxiety of flying and I didn’t miss out. Yay!

The flight was very cool, it is so different to see these spectacular places from the sky. The Mitchell Falls, the Mitchell River, Big and Little Mertens Falls and the cloud of dust along the road created by all the traffic getting here.  It was fantastic to fly in the helicopter but it definitely took away the peacefulness of a hike in the bush. By the way the Whale Shark dive is still number one excitement for this holiday.

After my flight, we did some more exploring, there was supposed to be a track down to the bottom of the last falls which due to Aboriginal beliefs they ask you not to swim as it is the home of the powerful Wunggurr (Creator Snakes) seen in the Falls’ rainbows, also saltwater crocs are found here. But alas, we couldn’t find the track down.

We eventually left the falls at about 2.30pm as we still had a 4.5km hike back to camp and we had been going since 8.30am. It was a pleasant walk back with a swim at the end in Little Mertens Falls pool. A refreshing reprieve from the heat of walking and serving as our shower for tonight. We made it back to camp by about 4.30pm. Time for a drink and some chippies. We think we deserve the reward.

A fantastic day. 13.5km of hiking/exploring was tramped today through bushland, over sandstone, through rocky outcrops, over rivers, through waterfalls and bush bashing. Another wonderful tour run by Broady’s Adventure Co. Never a dull moment, love this man to bits.