15th August, 2014

Today was the big day, one of the main things that I had really hoped to see and do on this trip. We got up early and went and booked our helicopter ride back from the falls. We chose to walk in to Mitchell Falls and then get the chopper back. Not cheap at $130 per head for 6 minutes but we were hoping it would add to the experience, after all how often were we going to be up here. More good news as we signed up, I have lost 5 kilograms since we left.

We started the walk at about 8:30 and stopped along the way to look at some more Aboringial Bradshaw Art along Mertens Creek.

Then we came to Big Mertens Falls or Merten Gorge as it is know known, where we stopped to take a look at the giant drop to the bottom pool, it was a really spectacularly deep gorge at 80 metres or so.

Then we continued on and very quickly came to a large lagoon covered in water lilies where we saw a water monitor sunning itself on a rock.

We continued on and after a short distance arrived at the top of Mitchell Falls. A short walk around to the left and then across the river had us at the heli pad. From there we walked to the first of the lookouts we could find, where we took photographs of Mitchell's Falls. 

We found other lookouts which take in the gorge that follows and took more photos before returning to the river for a swim.

After our swim we made our way up to the heli pad for our flight back to the campsite. 

The falls were truly spectacular and everything I hoped they would be. They were just as you see in all the brochures, give or take some water flowing over the top and the gorge that flows on from there was just as spectacular.

The helicopter ride back was awesome and gave a great perspective of where we are in this great country of ours, you could actually see the ocean out to the North. We were undecided on whether to do the chopper ride given the price but are really glad we did it, it just adds to the whole experience. 

TRENT

Today I went on a HELICOPTER I was sitting up the front and could see all the switches it was so epic. We saw Mitchell Falls, Big Merten Falls, Little Merten Falls and the Mitchell Plateau.

ALYSSA

Today I woke up to Trent's loud voice "DADDY ARE WE GOING ON A HELICOPTER!?" Dad said "Yes," but of course I didn't see any need to get out of bed right away. Because I'd be woken up when it was time to get ready. I then fell back into a peaceful sleep. 

Soon enough I had to get up though, I stumbled out of bed and eventually we walked down to the helicopter booking office and booked a flight for 1:00. 

Once we started the walk we realised that we would have about 2 1/2 hours at Mitchell Falls. I thought that we'd have taken a bit longer to get there but we got there around 10:30 and went to take pictures (which took about 1 1/2 hours) and then swam for 1/2 an hour. We saw a water monitor sitting on a rock and there were lots of small fish eating the algae that grew all over the rocks. 

Then we got ready to ride back to camp in the helicopter. In the air the view was amazing, I took lots of pictures and when the six minutes were up we said thank you to the pilot and left. I'd explain the view to you guys but I'm sure Dads put lots of photo up so you can see for yourselves. 

Until next time, that's all folks x