Sunday 25th June,
Mitchell Plateau.
![Some wags effort on the Mitchell Plateau Track]()
Some wags effort on the Mitchell Plateau Track
We were away at 9:00 a.m. sharp. The road north towards Kalumbaru was very dusty but in reasonable condition. 100 kilometres to the turn off through groves of
Mitchell Plateau fan palms and many creek
![OBJ preparing the U-boat for a water crossing]()
OBJ preparing the U-boat for a water crossing
crossings. From turnoff it was 50 kilometres of rough ands dusty road. Plenty of traffic coming the other way. Once bleep in a forerunner with a sea-kyak passed us. A disaster waiting too happen that bloke.
The turn to
Mitchell was clearly signposted and from the Kalumbaru Road, it is only 7 kilometres till the
King Edward River. The track held plenty of sudden rocks and stony patches and a couple of good creek crossings until we hit the
King Edward River. This
![Negotiating one of the creek crossings]()
Negotiating one of the creek crossings
narrow but fast flowing stream is bordered by pandanas and a large
camping area on it’s western side. The water depth was still over the tyres meaning for an interesting crossing. It was achieved with out incident and made for a nice photo opportunity. The road to
Mitchell Falls
campground is some 78 km in total length and we found it in excellent condition having just been graded.
![The mighty Navara tackling the King Edward]()
The mighty Navara tackling the King Edward
You can be blessed at times and being the first vehicles on a notoriously rough track after the
grader is certainly one of the best. Despite this it was still very dusty withsome patches of excellent red bulldust which caused the trailer to disappear from view in the billowing red clouds of dust. There were also several long stretches of water inundated track which while looking challenging provided little difficulty.
![The magnificently graded Mitchell Plateau track - You can be lucky!]()
The magnificently graded Mitchell Plateau track - You can be lucky!
We stopped at the final turnoff 18 km short of the
Mitchell Falls
camp ground and collected fire wood before continuing in to the
camping area. I had been running the Nissan on vapour for most of the morning and finally ran out fuel only 5 km from the
campground causing me to empty a jerry can and then prime the fuel filter before we could head off again. At least it gave me an accurate run-out figure for the big tank.
We have sited in a
nice camp spot if a little dusty. We sited at the western end near the
day use area. As a result it’s only a 3 minute stroll to the
Merton creek and a refreshing dip in
the pool there. A great place to form up the senate as fellow
![Convening the senate in the Merton Creek.]()
Convening the senate in the Merton Creek.
travellers came down to revive and refresh. At one point there would have been 10 people in
the pool swapping anecdotes and information about their times on the road. It was a scallop risotto for dinner to the chorus of howling
dingo’s at sunset. From the depth of the chorus I’d say there are quite a few
dingo’s here. They seemed to have every corner of the
camping area ![John preparing to cremate Jules bread!]()
John preparing to cremate Jules bread!
covered and would howl and answer to each other across the distance. Julie made bread which
John incinerated due to over zealous coal placement. We were visited by a barking owl early in the night who scavenged a dropped scallop from the ground and danced a little routine for us.