Wednesday, Oct 20, 2004 at 09:05
Hi Geoff,
It took us about 3 1/2 hours from Drysdale to
Mitchell Falls - it was about 1 1/2 to the turn off on the
Kalumburu Road, and then another couple of hours to do the last 87kms. The road is very rarely graded and pretty ordinary. People do go up there for the day, but you would be missing heaps. There is some fantastic aboriginal art as
well as beautiful rivers,
views, trees etc, just on the journey in. We took our tent and
Drysdale River Station babysat the trailer for free. The walk in to the falls is 4.5kms, and not too difficult. However I really recommend walking one way and taking the helicopter the other, the
views from the air are amazing (costs $60). We heard about the charge to stay at
Mitchell Plateau from this
forum, however it was never collected, so we are not at all sure about it. The
campsite is very pleasant with shady trees and good enviro loos. There is no
water, so take plenty of your own, though we did drink the river
water without any harm coming to us! I recommend buying Ron Moon's book about the
Kimberley - its full of really useful advice and has only just been updated. It is how we found out where to look for aboriginal art etc, because none of it is marked, and the locals won't tell you (it is a sensitive issue with the local indigenous people).
No we didn't take the trailer to the Bungle Bungles, though we met people who did. It is quite possible, but very slow (even without the trailer it took 2 hours to drive 52kms). There are a couple of really steep
creek crossings but we think it would have been ok if you took it gently. There is a secure storage place at Warmun (Turkey
Creek) where people leave caravans and trailers, which costs about $8 per day.
We expected to go to
places where we couldn't tow the trailer, so were set up for
camping as
well. The best advice I can give you is take it gently, get your tyre pressures right, and like us you'll have a great time and not break anything!
Happy travels
Cheers
Anni
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