Kimberly area 13-7-2018

[Big Red]

Wednesday 1st August
We sat up on the headland enjoying a morning coffee while watching the tide racing out, the mudflats were appearing at an alarming rate as the bay drained but we saw no more crocs.

We packed up and headed back towards Bachsten Camp stopping at the Calder River for lunch then I showed Jeff around Wren Gorge.

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We drove on and pulled in to Bachsten Camp where I did the walk down to the Bachsten Falls, a five tier waterfall.
I went the wrong way and scrambled along the side of the creek for about 1.5 Kms to the top of the falls, I climbed down a couple of tiers and found the marked track I should have come in on and followed the markers back up to the top of the gorge sides to get a pic then walked about 3 kms back around the rear of the hills to where I had crossed the creek and was soon back in camp.
We headed off again and tackled the slow rocky slopes of the Brachsten Jump Up then pulled up at a small creek crossing called
Pearson Camp where we had a swim to wash the dust off and set up camp for the night.

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Thursday 2nd August
We were off a bit after dawn and checked out Jamiesons Arch, the climb up to the left of the Arch then back around and up under the Arch was pretty arduous as there was no track to follow and the leaves on the steep broken rock surface made the footing very tenuous.
I climbed one side and got up on the arch for the view, magnificent!
Once back under the arch I lined up the road below then when I got back to the cars we drove back along the track to where you can see into the Arch and took a few pics.

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We headed off again and crawled up the tough rocky Magpie Jumpup stopping for a drink once up the top.
From here on the driving got easier and we made good time to the last water crossing before the end where we stopped for lunch before driving the final few Kilometres back to the homestead to hand in the key and sign out.
Was an awesome track to drive, very remote and relatively untouched ... just the way i like it.

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This area still has some traditional values to the Elders.
The traditional death is still practiced where an elder would go out into the bush to die. This is so the animals would clean the bones.
The next season the relatives would go out and gather what bones they could find and place them somewhere significant.
I found a small recess while exploring as there where disturbed stones below it where they had fallen out, it was a bit high up to see into so i took a couple of pics with the camera extended up in my hands.
When i saw what was in there i replaced the rocks.
I wont say where i found these and have put the pics at the end so no one knows where they were taken.

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Next it was the long dusty drive to Drysdale station where we Fueled up and headed north another hundred Kms to the turn off out to Mitchell Falls.
The campground I used last time is now gone and we had to drive another 10 kms to the new Aboriginal run campground [Munurra Camp Ground] where we had to buy a entry pass and also a camping fee.
There were dozens of campers set up as they leave campers set up and drive in to the Falls
We made camp and cooked up some tucker before another fairly early night.

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Friday 3rd August
We decided to get up early to beat the rush but one bloke had the same idea so we left 20 to 30 mins after him to let the dust settle … problem was I caught him in about 40 kms but luckily got past him a short time later in the middle of some roadworks.
The road in was cruisy, about 70 most of the way but as soon as we turned left towards the falls the road was littered with large rock outcrops in the roadway that the grader could not remove.
Once at the Campground Jeff booked a helicopter and we relaxed for an hour or so before we took the flight out to the Falls.

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On the flight in I noticed a grotto I had tried to get into previously had collapsed; so after the pics of the falls were done I managed to climb down into it for a look.

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We spent a fair bit of time taking in the spectacular views of Mitchell Falls before i climbed down into the gorge and scrambled around to the collapsed cave.
I was gobsmacked at the amount of rock that had been washed away after the cave in, there was virtually only one large slab of rock 10 metres square which had resisted the flow.
There is a large cavern almost underneath the helicopter landing area which was filled with logs and wood in every crevice [but no rocks].
The cave is big enough to fly a helicopter into and looks like it might collapse next wet season.

I scrambled back up and sat with Jeff for a while then went for a swim until it was time for his flight back.
I grabbed a couple of pics of him leaving in the chopper then pointed my boots at the carpark and hit the trail.

[Big Red]

Large Martens Falls looked pretty spectacular as the sun was reaching the bottom so after a few pics I jumped in the pool above to wet my shirt and shorts then hit the trail again.