Drysdale Station to Mitchell Plateau

Dark cloud - silver lining.

There has been some late rain during this part of the Dry season which has presented some challenges. Until yesterday when we arrived at Drysdale Station the road too Mitchell Falls was closed at King Edward River to all but heavy vehicles. Up at Mitchell Falls further overnight rains trapped campers for a few days and walkers were being washed off the causeway on the walking track to the Falls. That is probably pretty bad.

It’s about 120k to the Mitchell Falls and we met a young, hard core couple who slogged away for 5.5 hours to drive the 99k from Drysdale to the the falls camp. Decision made. We are not going to Mitchell Falls. Dark cloud descends.

From a casual comment with a fellow campers, an idea is born. Enter: The Silver Lining. Let’s take a scenic flight!

In 2.5 hours we get to see so much of this amazing region and coastline including our forsaken goal of Mitchell Falls. Our pilot is an amazing 23 year old NZ lass, with a great spiel about the regions human history and geology. She also seems to know something about flying, as it went exactly as scheduled and completed without incident including departing and contacting the ground very smoothly.

The highlight for us was the Kimberly coast, shaped when the Kimberly plate pushed into the Australian mainland to create mountains of Himalayan scale, and with hundred of millions of years to weather and erode it back down to its current height and features. High plateau maxing out at 765m for Mt Fyfe, crisscrossed with valleys and gorges, fault lines that host rivers, mesa and butte, offshore features that made early European exploration difficult and costly through loss of ships and lives. It’s still a challenging place. The Prince Regent National Park is huge and completely devoid of settlement or development. WA Parks doesn’t even have a permanent base here.Read more