Kimberley Tour - 19 July

Drysdale – Mitchell Plateau:  19 July [231 km]

This was to be another exciting day for Tim as one of his ambitions was to visit the Mitchell Falls.  On yet another beautiful morning, we were on our way to these Falls.  We left Drysdale and continued north along the Kalumburu Road.  The bus made a lovely sight as it crossed the Drysdale River.

After more than three hours of driving over more corrugations, we reached the Port Warrender Road to the Mitchell Plateau;  actually it is more of a narrow track.  We discovered this almost immediately, as the first six kilometres of this track to the King Edward River took nearly half an hour!  This track has numerous sections of corrugations and also has many spots where there are outcrops of very hard laterite – and these caused our bus to jump and shake sharply and suddenly.  Life on the road was becoming very interesting. 

The King Edward River is a permanent water course and is a quite beautiful river.  We stopped here for a swim and lunch.  On a very hot day, it was extremely refreshing to enjoy a swim in a long and quite deep pool.  We then ate our lunch under the shade of paperbark trees growing right to the edge of the river. 

After lunch, we drove a short distance to Murunnu – where there are some excellent examples of Indigenous rock art galleries featuring Gwion and Wandjina art.  Our tour director, Paul, was a fount of knowledge about this art.

A couple of us tried to rearrange the landscape - without success!

We then continued heading west along the track and gradually ascended the Mitchell Plateau.  A significant feature of vegetation on the Plateau is the extensive areas of the stunning Livistona palm forest.  These palms are unique to this area and they are quite spectacular. 

We finally arrived at Outback Spirits’ own Ngauwudu Safari Camp – and what a luxurious site this is on the Mitchell Plateau.  The safari suites are exceptionally well appointed and are located in the midst of Livistona palms.  The camp is situated on the bank of Camp Creek and there is a lovely swimming hole in which to cool off.  We were welcomed by Barbara, Les and their crew of friendly staff.  As soon as we had settled in, we were off for a swim!  Our first dinner was steak grilled to perfection over the camp fire by ‘Brolga’ (one of the staff on site).