June 14: Day 40:
Today was going to be an exciting one but first we had to go on a 2 hour drive from our King Edward River campground to the Mitchell Falls. This was probably the worst road we’ve been on yet. Because yet again there were rocks scraping the bottom of the car and there were a lot of crests that had really steep gravel hills. But we all survived and the first thing we saw when we turned up were 4 big helicopters. Mum and Dad had already said we could maybe go on one, but this depends on if there is any room left. The lady said that there was room at 1:30 for us to catch the helicopter back. So we went on the class 5 Track and our first worries were the river crossings. But we all survived without falling in and the rest of the walk was just hot and tiring. Our first waterfall we stopped at along the way was called Little Mertens Falls. These were the mini version of the big ones but were still pretty big. These ones we were allowed to walk behind. There was also rock art there, the whole wall was covered in handprints and animals. So we went back on our walk for quite a while but stopped at a stepping stone waterfall crossing. This waterfall led into a really deep gorge, and Stu went a bit to close to the edge for Dad’s liking. It was so far down we couldn’t see the bottom but we still crossed it and apparently only had 15 minutes left. We went on for what only felt like 5 minutes to where the main part of the Falls were. They were massive and I was imagining how big the worlds biggest falls were because if they could get any bigger! But we had to go on a little longer to where we were going to have lunch. To get there we had to cross a thigh deep crossing before a waterfall and luckily again no one fell over. Dad said we were going to have to go to a lookout of the falls before lunch and I’m glad we went because it was spectacular. Lunch passed by and we went to go have a swim near the rapids. Without mum seeing at first we went over to the rapids and hopped into the current but Dad saw and told us off. Then Stu started to to cry and Dad took him over to the rapids and took him down them so mum got used to the idea and we kept on doing it. The only down side to this was at the end of the current was a massive spiky rock. After we came out of the water instead of walking back another 5 kilometres if you remember what I said at the start....We went back on HELICOPTERS but they only had room for 4 people at a time so they took three people. I forgot to mention that these helicopters had no doors! I was on the second flight but who cares when we lifted off the ground I got scared I was going to fall out but I the straps were strong. Our pilot showed us where the ocean was and showed us the biggest waterfall in the Mitchell River, and took us over the Mitchell Falls. Then we landed back down and left to come back to the King Edward River campground.