Kimberley Trip, Day 16: Mitchell Falls

Friday, June 7, 2024

I checked in with Dr. Bob early this morning to remind him that I needed to be checked and cleared to take today’s helicopter flight to Mitchell Falls. He told me that I had been diagnosed too recently and had to be removed from the flight list. I was disappointed. I pointed out that I had been diagnosed at 7:45 a.m. the previous day, and the cutoff time was given as 8:00. But after further consultation, he called back and said I was good to go because the helicopter ride was somewhat after 8:00.

We made a Zodiac boat transfer to a nearby beach. A few minutes later, three helicopters landed on the beach. We met our pilot and were given a safety briefing (tl;dr: STAY AWAY FROM THE SPINNING ROTORS). Dave and Jan were the other passengers on the helicopter with us. I had the left front seat next to the pilot (who sat on the right, as if we were flying on the left side of the sky).

With an open window next to me, the view was, as expected, gorgeous (both in the sense of attractiveness and the presence of gorges). We rode the 30 miles up the Mitchell River to the falls, mostly admiring the terrain as no particular animals were visible.

On arrival, we hiked up a short trail to get several good views of Mitchell Falls. We had enough time to explore the rocky terrain in the area before returning to the helicopter landing area for our trip back to the beach. The return trip was equally awesome.

For lunch, I joined in with others who had also tested COVID-positive and ate separately from others on the observation deck. This precaution was taken because, even though we were eating outside, eating is one of the times when it is easiest to spread the virus. The upper deck was enjoyable and quiet, although we noticed that several people who we knew had tested positive weren’t there.

After lunch, we had an informative lecture and a trip to another native art site. This schedule was coordinated with another (somewhat larger) ship in the area, Le Jacques Cartier, that we had also seen this morning when visiting Mitchell Falls. Unfortunately, the art site wasn’t big enough to accommodate both ships simultaneously, and we went second. The tide was very low when we went, so we had a very long (and delayed) zodiac boat ride to shore. We had to climb shore rocks to get to where the art was, which was slow for some visitors.

There was quite a bit of Indigenous art to look at, but before we could see it all, an urgent call was put out to return to the zodiac boats because the tide had fallen further. We climbed back down the rocks and waded out farther to reach the zodiac boats. We were disappointed not to have enough time to admire the rest of the art.

Today’s delicious dinner was an “Aussie BBQ” with all the trimmings, which I ate with my fellow COVID patients. After dinner, there was a talent show featuring many of the cooks, waiters, and porters from the hotel staff. It was a nice way to introduce them more personally.

This article is part of a series about our recent trip to Indonesia and Australia. To see the introductory article in the series, click here.