Today is a very expensive helicopter flight to Mitchell Falls and back. It turns out to be worth every cent. 4 helicopters take off and land on a small beach in front of L’Austral, fly 20 minutes to the top of the falls and drop off the passengers. It is a spectacular flight, less windy than the flight in Alice Springs, and the doors are off the chopper. I have the front seat again, but at least have an open window to shoot through. There are four other passengers in the back, all with open doors for windows, two facing the direction of travel, two facing away from the direction of travel.
The scenery is spectacular and greener than I expected given the dry season.
The helicopters land at a clearing at Mitchell Falls, and it is already in the mid-30’s at 10am. There are 3 lookouts on a fairly poorly marked trail, all with good views over Mitchell Falls, which due to the dry season is more a substantial trickle of water than a raging torrent of water.
Some elect to swim in the waterhole near the helicopter landing site, but the waterhole is more of a hip bath and doesn’t look appealing. The helicopters are back for us in an hour, for a 20 minute flight back to the landing beach.
This afternoon’s adventure is a zodiac ride around the Hunter River system. The Hunter River is a large river system, and a combination of outgoing tide and windy afternoon conditions turn a 20 minute zodiac ride back to the ship into a hour or more for the initial groups out. This delays my group’s departure, and we are going to run out of daylight pretty quickly.
The highlight is really in the first 5 minutes of the zodiac ride – a large manta ray is roaming around near the surface of the water – swimming around the (now stationery) zodiac.
There is the obligatory large salty soaking up the last rays of the sun before heading back into the water for the night, and an egret has caught a tiny fish for a meal. A white-bellied sea eagle is watchful in one of the large trees along the waterline.
Whilst the geology is spectacular, there is little wildlife in the area, despite the proximity to sunset. We see 3 saltwater crocodiles, a mated pair of white-bellied sea eagles, egrets, and a few crested terns. Pretty disappointing for a two hour zodiac ride. The sun has set by the time we’re returning to L’Austral, but we do get a nice view of it as we approach the headland.
I’m on the last zodiac to depart the ship for the afternoon, and we are the last to return, well after sunset.
