We decided last night that we would make the effort to drive
to Mitchell Falls – with the camper. There seems to be a bit of a myth about
this place in terms of how hard it is to get here, but I can tell you it is a
myth so make sure you take the journey.
At Drysdale Station I wandered around several camper trailer
sites asking for detail around the drive up there and the walk in – nothing was
consistent. I heard things such as “the drive is the toughest corrugated road
in Australia, it will take 6hrs minimum to get there from here, there are
potholes that will swallow 4WD’s hole, King Edward River is over the bonnet,
the 7klm in from Kalumburu Rd is the worst you will ever see, if you value your
equipment don’t take the trailer- camp here and drive up in the car, the steep
rocky decent in is tragic, flat tyres galore, we are choppering in and out, the
walk is 8hrs return.” Needless to say I wasn’t overly keen to go – well I was,
but Nat was quite rightly concerned with the kids and everything, so as a last resort
I went over to see a bloke that didn’t have a trailer and had just rolled in. He
put my fears to rest as he had just come from there.
The reality is that it is very corrugated, no doubt, the
potholes swallowed my wheels, that’s about it, the King Edward didn’t get over
my running boards, the first 7klms in was a little rocky, but nothing serious,
the decent in was medium at best and not challenging, and if you are smart, you
won’t get a flat – you just have to slow down. We got here in 4hrs, with the
trailer, and the walk is tomorrow. I am sure that will be an overstatement too.
To summarise, we are here, it was not as treacherous as
everyone thinks, we are glad we made the journey as long as the walk isn’t too
hard tomorrow. Nice quiet campsite, we travelled with the family from Newcastle
who left their caravan and brought a tent. He was a little dirty because there
are caravans here and he would have made it in OK. We are pumped for the walk
tomorrow.
Jase……………
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