Drysdale River Station, King Edward River & Mitchell Falls

Drysdale River Station, King Edward River & Mitchell Falls

The next stop after Mt Elizabeth Station was Drysdale River Station we planned to spend a couple of nights before heading onto Mitchell Falls. It is about 160km from Mt Elizabeth to Drysdale & you leave the Gibb River Road & head north on the Kulumburu Road for the final 60km. The roads themselves were again variable, but not to bad, lots of corrugations & rough patches & small creek crossings. We arrived at the station & it was pretty busy, there were a couple of off road caravans that had just come back from Kulumburu so we were pretty certain we would be able to get through. We went into the shop to ask about camping. There were 2 options either at the homestead campground for $15 per person with showers, toilets & a laundry or a bit further down the road to Miners Pool camp on the Drysdale River with only pit toilets for $10 per person. We chose Miners Pool & headed the couple of kms down to the camping area. It was a nice shady large camping area right on the river.  On our first night there were only 6 other campsites taken, & only 3 on the second, so it was pretty quiet. The river itself was lovely, with a huge sand bar & also a deep pool of a water for fishing or swimming. We set up camp & went for a swim & fish in the afternoon. It was getting a bit chilly at night, so we stoked up the camp fire. 

The next day was a getting sorted day, we went back to the homestead to try to organise our 

permit to enter Kulumburu using the stations coin phone only to be told you can't do it over the phone anymore & that we would need to use the internet or go to the Kunnunara office, she didn't seem to understand we hadn't had phone reception for 2 weeks since leaving Broome. So a phone call to Mats mum to see if she could book it online for us & we said we would ring back in a couple of hours to see how she went. It was then time for a shower & a load of clothes washing, & we decided to have lunch at the station. Mat got a burger that was pretty good, but I had the chicken & salad sandwich which comprised of dry white bread, margarine, frozen chicken, lettuce & tomato. Mats burger even had cucumber, so I am not sure what justifies the word salad. It's a bit like the saying you should never order fish & chips when you aren't near the ocean I guess, lesson learned, oh & the sandwich was $9! Diesel at Drysdale was $2.40/L. 

A quick phone call to my parents to let them know we were still alive & also one to my brother & sister in law to see how their gorgeous little girls Isabelle's 1st birthday went. Then another call to Mats mum to see how she went with the permit, which she managed to sort for us with some help from Mats aunty Det, thank god for family! God knows how much money we put through the stations pay phone that day, but I did see the guy emptying it after we'd finished, so we must of filled it up. Back to camp for another chilly night, we stoked the fire again & got the music out & had a really nice night. 

Pack up day had arrived again & today we were heading up to the campground on the King Edward River called Munurru. We would then camp that night & leave our trailer there & head into Mitchell Falls for a day trip. It was only a 110km run for the day from Drysdale to the King Edward river. The road stayed about the same, with lots of rough patches. We reached the turn off for the Mitchell Plateau Road & the campsite was 10km in. The road immediately deteriorated & we saw a sign warning of it being an unmaintained road. It was rough, rocky & slow with the trailer. We came to the King Edward River itself & it was flowing pretty strong, the entrance, bottom & exit were rocky, the water came up to about the sidesteps on the car & was the deepest we had taken the trailer, we crossed with no problem & had no water enter the trailer. The campsite was another 3-4km in, we had information that you could camp just before & just after the crossing of the river, but it seems they have removed this free camp & now you have to camp in a bit further along the river, it is all signposted. The campsite is run by the department of environment & conservation but isn't actually a national park. Camping was $10 per person per night & it had toilets. It is actually one of the best campsites we have found on our journey so far. Very well set out & spaced out, with fire rings in most sites & a good amount of toilet blocks. We found a site up the back by ourselves, set up once again & then decided to go exploring. The campsite runs along the edge of the river & up our end had an amazing pool for swims in or fishing & up the other end an amazing waterfall. The rock surrounding the waterfall was an amazing polished red colour with huge holes worn by smaller rocks where the water flows. It was a great bonus. 

It was then back to camp to organise dinner & organise ourselves for our big trip into Mitchell falls the next day, we planned to leave at daylight, so we packed our backpacks, made some sandwiches & went to bed early. 

We were up at 5.20am with enough time for a quick bowl of cereal & we were off. We had 78km to travel to get to the walking trail. What followed was 2.5 hours of hell, it was the worst road we had travelled on so far on the trip, may be ever! The corrugations were huge & just rattled everything to pieces. We had to stop once to fix the fridge tie downs, as they had came lose allowing the fridge to rub on the cargo barrier. We were very happy to finally reach the car park & very happy we didn't drag our trailer all the way in (you can camp at the Mitchell Falls national park it's $7 per adult with toilets). The walk into Mitchell Falls is 4.3km each way, with the option to get a helicopter ride in or out & just walk one way. We decided to splurge on it & were going to get it back, but they were booked out in the afternoon so we decided to fly in, so 20 minutes later we were in the chopper, it was both our first chopper ride. It was only a 6 minute flight & cost $130 each. Very expensive, but really worth it, it was amazing, I got some great photos from the air & we were only passengers. It feels really close when you fly & you have to remember you have a 4km walk back out. We landed right at the falls, so we got to then take more photos from the ground. Mitchell Falls is massive, it must be one of the biggest waterfall in the Kimberley, it has 4 separate pools & drops, it's just spectacular. 

You then Have to cross the Mitchell river itself near the top of the falls to get back to car park. It is pretty deep & flowing strong, they have put 4 poles across to show the way & there are sticks on each side to use to help you negotiate your way across & to find the deep bits. Use a stick it helps!! We set off, Mat with the backpack, me with the camera & our shoe laces tied so we could hang or shoes around our necks. Mat went first & was almost at the end when he came unstuck & the next thing I saw him half sitting in the water, with the backpack just touching the water, I couldn't do anything to help. The backpack had the satellite phone & video camera & the all important lunch! We thought for sure something would be wrecked, but luckily it didn't get wet  Mats boots didn't fair so well, so I called him squelchy for the rest of the walk! It was very funny, but we were very lucky not to ruin anything. 

The rest of the walk back was lovely & we saw lots of waterfalls & creeks, but it felt a bit weird having seen the most amazing bit first & the exhilaration of the chopper ride, so we felt a bit flat about the rest. Which is crazy because it was gorgeous. So not sure which way we would recommend doing the flight, but it is worth it. It think part of it was we knew we had the crappy drive back as well. 

We made it back to the car park & set off. It wasn't any better going home & we came across a young couple with a broken shock absorber in their trailer, with 2 screaming kids, their air conditioning died, they had trouble with their jerry cans & the convoy they were travelling in had left them & they couldn't get them on the radio. Poor buggers, we gave what advice we could, but there wasn't much we could do, their plan was to get back to Drysdale for a repair.   

We finally got back to camp, exhausted, checked over the car & trailer & it seemed we had faired okay. An easy dinner & to bed early. We had decided to stay another day at camp as we knew we would have had a huge day at Mitchell falls, we had a chat to the camp ground host & he told us about some rock art sites close by. We went for a drive & found some of the best rock art sites we have seen anywhere. The campground at the King Edward River should be a destination in itself, it is great camping, an amazing river & waterfall, amazing indigenous culture. Definitely check it out & stay a few days. Next up was the trip up to Kulumburu, we were excited & anxious to see what we would find.