2022 Kimberley Outback Adventure (Part 8)

 

All too soon it was time to say goodbye to the mob.  

We spent three weeks with them and it was sad to go.  

I got lots of hugs from Carmen-Lee.  

Paula left to start the eight hour drive to Kununurra 

(split over two days) where we would meet her the next day. 

The donga was all packed up as it was the end of Paula's contract. 

At sunset we headed up to say goodbye to 

Wilfred, the old man on the hill.

We sat around the fire thinking about our wonderful experience.

The next morning Jazzlyn  picked us up to take us to the airstrip.

Jazzlyn arrived here in Melbourne last Monday to spend 

a couple of months. It was so lovely to see her again. 

The weather has been quite chilly and Jazzlyn is freezing! 

She's just not used to this sort of weather!

Then it was time to catch the mail plane to Kununurra. 

Flying over Kandiwal Community. 

The clump of trees to the right just below the shadow is the community. 

The school is that little white building just under the trees.

 

We had about six mail stops at stations on the way.

 

  

The landscape continually changed.

 

 The novelty of going up and down started to 

wear off after the fourth stop! LOL!

Finally coming into Kununurra. 

We met up with Paula and then we all caught a flight to Darwin.

Kimberley Outback Adventure (Part 7)

  

Noel and I headed off at sunrise to hike up to Mitchell Falls.

The falls are in the Mitchell River National Park.

These Wandjina poles guided us along the trail.

We headed to Little Mertens Falls.

At the top of the Little Mertens.

Below Little Mertens. There was only a trickle of water 

going over as it was the end of the dry season.

Little Mertens Falls.

 

We found some rock art.

Big Mertens Falls but no water at the moment.

At the top of Mitchell Falls.

Mitchell Falls.

Time for a break. 

Then we had a swim before heading back to the car.

 

I just wanted to share this amazing photo 

of Mitchell Falls by Matthew Birch (with Matt's permission).

Matthew is a lovely young man we met through Paula. 

Matt has done a video about the Kandiwal Community titled 

"Ensuring the preservation of culture on the Mitchell Plateau". 

It is a very interesting film highlighting the 

struggles they have in the community.

Kimberley Outback Adventure (Part 6)

 

 The mob invited us to spend the day fishing with them

at Port Warrender which was very special.

Port Warrender is only 44km from the Kandiwal 

Community but it took us nearly 3 hours to get there! 

This video will give you an idea of what the "road" was like.

 Overlooking Port Warrender from the lookout.

 

Boab tree.

We flew over the fishing spot on our helicopter flight the day before.

 Jazzlyn and Taniayah caught most of the fish.

First off Jazzlyn threw in a net to get bait. 

I have a great video but it is too big for to post to the blog. 

They then used hand reels to catch the fish.

Winston, Scotty and Kingsley spear fishing.

These are the fish we bought home. 

They are Fingermark fish, also known as Golden Schnapper.

 

We were too tired to cook them by the time we got 

home so we had them for dinner the next night. 

They were so delicious!

That's the end of another day on our big adventure!

Kimberley Outback Adventure (Part 5)

 

We headed to Mitchell Falls which 

was about 26km from the community.

As this was a once in a lifetime experience, 

we decided we would treat ourselves

 to a couple of helicopter flights.

The first one was a six minute flight up to Mitchell Falls.

The falls were fantastic to see from the air. 

It must be amazing in the wet season 

when the falls are really flowing.

We spent a couple of hours up there and walked around. 

We also went for a swim.

Then it was back onto the helicopter 

for a Plateau Coastal Experience.

It was supposed to be a 48 minute trip 

but we were up there for about an hour!

I was the co-pilot and got to sit up front. 

I even had a window for the floor.

This is Port Warrender. 

I'll tell you more about that in the next post. 

Above the same spot but looking back towards the Plateau.

 

We spotted the odd crocodile! 

There is quite a lot of water inland. 

 The landscape kept changing.

Well, that's it for this post. I have so many 

photos it's hard to pick which ones to share!