After Richard picked up Ian at the airstrip, Ian set off to
show me the Mitchell Falls, the most famous icon of Mitchell River National
Park. We started off on the same track to Little Merten’s Falls, but bypassed
the rock art turnoff and continued onwards along rockier tracks. Along the way
we saw this cute lizard sunning itself on a rock, and some sort of cool pigeon,
I think it was called a partridge bird, that had bright yellow around its eye.
We passed a different rock art site that was on the side of
a cliff above a narrow ledge, making it hard to get a close-up look without
falling off the edge, but it was still cool to see from a distance. There was
another big kangaroo and lots of slender figures throwing spears at each other,
which were more of the Bradshaw art that is supposed to be from a group of
aboriginals that came over from Indonesia independently and after the earliest
immigrants.
We came to a spot that was in the open and along a cliffside
above Big Merten’s Falls, although you couldn’t see them well from the top and
it was dangerous to get too close to the edge. Still, there was a big chasm and
I could see the river a little ways along in the distance, and some of the
falls pouring down away from the path.
After climbing up the next ridge we were at the top of the
Mitchell Falls, and we could see a fair way down through a few of the tiers,
although again the view wasn’t the best from the top. There was a large flat
plain to our left where the river flattened out before rushing over the falls,
and parts of it were shallow, going over a few large rocks. Ian said that the
best view was across the river, and suggested that we keep our socks on as we
waded across, for better grip on the mossy rocks. This was a brilliant idea
since the hardest thing about wading across a stream is the chance you might
slip on the rocks. And the water was way warmer than the last time I had waded
across a stream (in order to get to some mysterious falls in May in Canada, we
had to cross the most frigid water imaginable).
Anyway we reached the other side, climbed a few rocks, and had
a spectacular view of the Mitchell Falls. There are three levels: the first is
pretty short, the second leads to a small pool, and the third is a big drop
down to the big pool and the rest of the river (the closer you get to the
ocean, the greater chance that saltwater crocodiles may be swimming about, but
none of them would make it that far up the falls to where we were camping). We
perched on a rock overlooking the falls and took a few classic photos before we
headed back over the hill to Ian’s favourite swimming spot. There were lots of
little fish in the water and it was also a very nice temperature for the heat
of the middle of the day. There were little birds dipping down from a nearby
tree to take baths, which was pretty cute.
Apparently if you follow the trail for longer, you reach an
interesting rock art site (I think it’s the one that has reindeer, which is
more evidence of a different group arriving from Indonesia more recently than
other aboriginal groups, because they would have experienced deer-like animals,
or have had them in their legends or group memory) but we didn’t feel like
walking a long ways when there was a pool to swim in, so we gave it a miss.
I forgot to put my socks back on, but succeeded in crossing
the river in my bare feet without any difficulty. We passed Big Merten’s Falls
again, and it was closer to sundown so the light was a bit better in the gorge.
Somewhere along the path back towards the smaller falls I heard a rustle and was
excited to see a monjon browsing around the tree trunks near the path. I could
see its little face and tufted tail clearly, especially through binoculars,
although it was obscured in lots of undergrowth so my photos aren’t too
thrilling. It was really cute to watch and it appeared to be eating dry leaves,
which didn’t seem that palatable, but you never know (if it had wandered up the
creek a little further in the preceding days, it could have eaten peanut butter
instead of dry leaves, but to each his/her own). I was very excited to have
finally seen both a monjon and the famous Mitchell Falls, so it was a nice day
and a good break from the trapping.
Monday we had a long day of setting up more sites, this time
back along the road into the Mitchell Park which meant that we had to drive
quite a ways to get to some of them. The first was off the road a bit in some
big palms, which were prickly when you brushed up against the broken fronds on
the ground. The second was down a different side-road and had a boggy section,
which kind of turned me around and I waded through a lot of mud before
realizing that the main gridline was staying on the dry land. Oh well. The
third one was across the road from the boggy one (spoiler alert, it caught no
animals – bummer).
The fourth was kind of exciting because we had to take the
Can-Am out and use the GPS to locate the trail, which was very overgrown
towards this lagoon. We had some aboriginals out with us for the first few
sites, but they didn’t come out to this site (can’t remember why) so it was
just me and Richard in the Can-Am with Ian balancing on the back (there’s a
little box part at the rear, but it’s not too big and probably pretty bumpy. I
tried to guide with the GPS and sometimes Ian would shout out where the road
led because he had a better vantage point, but we still ended up demolishing a
few innocent plants in the process of navigating to Glaut’s Lagoon. A pretty
site, nonetheless.
The last two sites were right off the main road, although
one was down a very steep hill, and I was reminded a bit of carrying traps up
and down the big meadow site in Canada, which was also very steep (although at
least this wasn’t snowy). We had our lunch at some point on the side of the
road in our slightly creaky camp chairs, and left our trailer at the last site
to finish setting traps out the next day.
After driving all the way back it was pretty late, and I
decided to use up all our extra mashed potatoes by making squirrel bakes
(basically cheesy potato balls dipped in egg and breadcrumbs and baked to
perfection). It was so late though, and the oven was a bit crappy, that I got
kind of hungry and impatient, so they were a little undercooked and not crispy,
but still tasty.
Tuesday we checked our traps and I went to the furthest
sites with Ian so he could start doing some vegetation sampling while I was
collecting mammal data. We didn’t find much except a chestnut mouse and a
dunnart that may have been a ning-bing because it had a very thick tail
(ning-bings are another type of small marsupial, but in a different family than
the dunnarts, so it’s weird that they look so similar). I got some pretty
adorable photos of it, at any rate.
We met up with everyone else and finished setting up the
last two sites, which were nearly 2 hours away from the Mitchell ranger
station, so it was going to be a long drive there and back in the coming days.
One site was in a grassy but burned section hidden behind some rocks, and the
other was in a very rocky area that involved lots of climbing and squeezing
through rock cracks, but was not as successful as the other rocky site from the
previous week (we didn’t catch a single animal there). There were a lot of
cattle noises in a lot of these sites, proof that cattle are still roaming
freely in the upper level of the plateau. We saw a giant dead bull on the side
of the road, left after a ranger had shot it (they do massive cattle culling
once a year, but the rangers shoot every cow they see, though it’s a shame they
can’t do anything with them and have to leave them to rot or be eaten by
dingoes). Because the carcass was in the midst of a bunch of palms, it reminded
me of those drawings of herbivorous dinosaurs lying in ferny fields after being
attacked. All the scene needed was a few velociraptors hanging about (though
this was not wishful thinking on my part, yikes).
We had lunch near the King Edward River, which is the first
entrance to the park area, though technically not within the park boundaries.
There was a pretty rocky section you could walk along to see a small waterfall
(the rock was only accessible because the water is so low in the dry season).
The rocks were nice and warm and it would have been a nice spot for a nap if
we’d had the time, but we had to open all the sites again after lunch and make
the long drive back.
Wednesday we received some frustrating news about our
project. Turns out that the aboriginals who were required to assist us were
having time off because of the elder who had died the week before, and we
wouldn’t be allowed to do our field work until they were available again. Even
worse, the funeral wasn’t until the beginning of August, so we would have to
wait until after that, when we had planned another trip out to the Mitchell for
the end of July. This was the first year that the aboriginal assistance was
mandatory in that area, and apparently we were supposed to have people
accompanying us all the time, even though they didn’t want to be there and
often didn’t even get out of the car to go with us (I really don’t blame them,
I wouldn’t want to be pointlessly following after people doing field work
unless I was actually involved).
At any rate it really messed up our plans because then we
tried to go out to a different site in the middle of July instead, so we could
move the Mitchell trip to the end of August, but the aboriginal group in that
location were unavailable and refusing us entry as well. This is why we had to
go to the Bungles at the end of July, even though that was not in the original
plan and there aren’t that many animals there. The whole situation is very frustrating
and the worst is that it doesn’t seem to be coming from the aboriginals
themselves, but from these in-between coordinators (white Australians) who seem
to want to make extra rules and throw up obstacles. Of course tourists would
still be allowed into these places, but our little project which is designed to
help better manage the land and improve the animal populations in the area
(probably harming less of the environment than the average flock of tourists)
is not allowed because of some new mandate. Anyway, I won’t ramble about that
any more, but we’ve been dealing with it for the whole season and it’s driving
us mad.
We were able to finish out the trapping that week that we’d
already started, at least. I managed to lose my water bottle (even though it is
huge and bright orange) in one of the sites off from the road, and never found
it again. I also lost a big stripey lizard that snuck out of the plastic bag
before I could finish measuring it. Alas.
We had a fancy roast dinner with wine that night and I pre-baked
the cake for the 4th of July the next day. Janie, the partner of one
of the rangers, came over for dinner and brought special chocolate cupcakes
with cherry sauce that were really nice, especially with ice cream. It was
decadent.
Thursday I went with Ian again, but this time in the Can-Am
so we could go to some of the more out-of-the-way sites. It was pretty chilly
waking up at 5am and even more so when you’re in an open air vehicle moving at
top speed. I rode in the car until we reached the spot where we’d been meeting
the aboriginals and then switched to the Can-Am (just a further point of
annoyance, they were constantly late, often by almost an hour. Despite being
disrespectful to us, this is really bad from an animal ethics point of view
since we’re supposed to be getting critters out of traps as soon as possible.
Again, I don’t think the aboriginals want to follow us around and I’m not sure
why they’re being forced to. I think that getting permission and approval from
them that we won’t be trespassing on any sacred sites would be a much better
way of maintaining a good relationship without annoying everyone. But nobody
asks me.)
Okay anyway we had a few more animals in these sites,
including a small ning-bing and a gigantic chestnut mouse that I was sure was a
rat until Ian looked at it and said that it “looked like a mouse” and was just
a large male. Ah well, I still have trouble telling the rodents apart and
haven’t quite worked out how to tell the small rats from the large mice, haha. We
caught another tata lizard (the stripey type) but I still didn’t get any
pictures. On the drive back we nearly ran over a giant king brown snake at one
of the creek crossings. Ian braked quickly and it slithered away. Only later
did he realize that he maybe should have reversed the Can-Am just in case it
decided to slide in our direction...
I was cooking, since it was the 4th of July. I
made kind of a weird amalgamation of food: butternut squash baked with
apricots, butter, and sugar (the apricots kind of burned but it was okay
anyway), deviled eggs (I was a bit heavy-handed on the mustard), yams, and
sausages which Eltica grilled (she was a Dutch traveler that Richard knew who
had stopped by the Mitchell Falls with her boyfriend on their way to go boating
somewhere). I also had a bottle of ginger beer and made a flag cake for
dessert. The cake was a bit odd since the whipped cream was “long-life,” which was
helpful so it wouldn’t go bad, but tasted a bit funky since it wasn’t fresh.
After whipping it with a hand-beater (old-fashioned yeah), I added honey to it,
which helped a bit. I used raspberries and blueberries to make the US flag,
although they were frozen so had that softened thawed-berry texture. It worked
alright, but it was definitely a cake that was more for looks than for taste
(one of my few recipes where that’s important).
I realized it was the first 4th of July that I
had celebrated without any Americans being around (unlike in Mexico, Peru, and
Canada, when I was traveling with my fellow countrymen) so everyone else
probably thought I was a bit silly with my 4th of July socks (yes, I
traveled halfway around Australia with them, just waiting for the right day to
wear them) and decorated cake. I just love celebrating all holidays. I got my
penny whistle out and played a few revolutionary war ditties (which a few
people recognized as old English songs, alas) which was fun.
Friday we saw a few adorable dingo pups cross the road when
we were driving, although one of them looked slightly menacing as it turned to
stare us down (they are 4000 years removed from the domestic dog, after all).
It was the day of the chestnut mice, apparently, as we found one in each site (including
a really tiny one that confused me because it was so much smaller than the giant
I had found before), and I proudly identified one by myself (finally). We also
caught our first melomys, which is a rat with pretty grey fur and a uniquely
patterned tail that was really obvious on this one, which was helpful. We met
up with the others at the hill site, and said goodbye to a few of the students
who had been helping us while they scope out the landscape for theirs PhD
topics. One of them, Hugh, had done microchipping of penguins at some point,
but I didn’t get a good chance to talk to him about how that happened. I should
mention that for most of this week I had a weird cold, so I was feeling icky a
lot of the time, and wasn’t that chatty.
We had lunch at Glaut’s Lagoon and found a very nice
overhanging tree for shelter and a nap. There were a few sulfur-crested
cockatoos hanging around in the trees nearby and squawking occasionally. We
closed our traps and headed back on the long drive. In order to ride safely in
the Can-Am on the dirt roads, we wear goggles and dust masks, and there are
also riding gloves for the driver to wear when it’s chilly in the morning. I
also put in ear plugs for the long distances because there’s an annoying whine
when the Can-Am gets up to speed (like over 60km/hr). We look pretty ridiculous
all kitted up like that (especially the goggles and gloves, like out of an old
movie) but it does the job (I have funny pictures).
I have no notes written down for Saturday, but in short we
checked our sites and closed up the first day’s sites, packing up all the
traps, which I then disinfected and laid out to dry back at camp. I created a
bit pyramid of open big traps, to catch as much sun as possible and dry them
out. I hadn’t thought to close them overnight, and on Sunday when I went to
pack them up, one was mysteriously heavy. Lo and behold, a quoll was inside!
The little rascal had traipsed into the trap without there even being any bait.
What a doofus! It didn’t seem too worried when I let it out, but of course it
made a mess inside the trap so I had to clean it again.
Sunday we had checked and cleared the last few sites (a few
of these were super easy, since they never caught any animals, although I think
we got a crow in one of them). I was still feeling a bit dodgy, and Richard
showed me a tree that had green fruit that were supposed to have an uber high
concentration of vitamin C. They were a bit sour without a really strong
flavor, but I ate a few of them on Saturday and Sunday and I kind of think they
helped (although maybe it was just the end of the cold). Whatever the reason,
it was good “bush tucker.”
After cleaning up the rest of the traps (taking care to
close them all this time) I went for a short swim at Little Merten’s Falls,
spotting a largish goanna along the way. I think it was actually Merten’s
goanna, which was rather convenient (Merten must have been an important
explorer guy). It was nice walk to the pond below the falls, but I didn’t see
any more monjons. We were up really late packing everything, even though it was
dark.
Monday was a bit of a nightmare…We set off at a decent (if
early) hour, arriving at the Drysdale River Station for a morning snack (we had
cake, since they didn’t have lunch open yet). I noticed the bar had a big sign
that said “Annie’s Bar,” right next to a few cattle skulls, so of course I took
a picture with it. As we were preparing to leave we realized we had a flat
“tyre.” No biggy, we changed it and were on our way, heading to the Mt
Elizabeth Station, which was a few hours detour and where we had planned to
drop off the trailer of stuff, since we were going out there a few weeks later
on our next trip (which was then cancelled, so we had to go get the trailer
again, but that’s a side-point).
We were almost there when the trailer started jerking
weirdly, and we discovered that one of the springs had broken (in some way…).
Of course Richard had packed every possible car part and spare tyre imaginable,
but not a spare spring. We tied it up with a bit of rope and inched the car
along, hoping we could make it to the station where they might have a part to
fix it. Naturally, we were on the most corrugated stretch of dirt road
possible, and the rope broke after only minutes. So we tried more rope, got a
bit further, and it broke again. We were running out of intact rope, so we
tried some wire next, but that didn’t last much longer.
Then Richard had one of his brilliant mechanical ideas and
we took some strands of thin wire, tied them to a post, and twisted them
together into a thicker wire strand using a cordless drill – pretty handy. The
newly-thickened wire still broke after a little while, which was very
disappointing. Meanwhile, everyone who drove past us kept telling us how little
distance we had to cover (some said 2km, some said 7, but it was still a pretty
short way). We were close to abandoning the trailer on the side of the road
when we made one more attempt, this time adding a few more strands of wire to be
twisted, and tying the spring in two different places. Miracle of miracles, it
actually held. We then inched our way along for the last few kilometres, taking
about a century to get there and really having time to appreciate the scenery
(not, it was pretty uninteresting due to cattle impacts).
We triumphantly limped into the station, and the men went to
see if they could find some parts to fix the trailer while I waited for station
people to ready our lunch (yes, it sounds lazy, but realistically what could I
do to help?). They had a baby wallaby in their care and it was really adorable.
They let it out on the lawn briefly and it sort of wobbled around for a little
ways. It was so pale and skinny that it didn’t look so good, but I don’t think
there wasn’t anything wrong with it, that’s just how joeys are.
We had lunch (even though it was pretty late in the
afternoon by this point) and learned that there were no tools or parts
available to fix the trailer, so we would have to abandon it and drive back to
Kununurra and return to fix it later. Of course then we were stuck driving the
Can-Am back as well, since it was supposed to ride back in the trailer, so we
got to test out its lights since it was getting dark by the time we left Mount
Elizabeth. We dropped the Can-Am off at a different cattle station closer to
Kununurra (they were very nice about us turning up in the evening and asking if
we could leave it there) and continued. It was not super comfortable in the ute
with three people (it has one of those half-seats in the middle that are okay
for short distances but get a bit cramped for longer) but I sort of slipped in
and out of sleep because it was so late anyway and I was used to going to bed
around 8. We didn’t arrive back at the office until 11:30pm (absurdly late!)
and had been on the road since about 7 in the morning.
It was a very long day.
(Side note: I'm going to completely circumnavigate the globe on this trip, for the first time ever, since my flight out went west, from Florida to LA to Brisbane to Perth - yes, it was a lot of flights! - but then my flight back will continue west to Abu Dhabi and then to New York, so I can catch a wedding before flying back down to Florida. Pretty easy, I'm no Magellan).
My itinerary: 
Then it gets a bit dry and desolate moving inland up the coast (I remember that drive from Perth to Exmouth from the last time - there's not much going on except red and scrub and the occasional non-native ungulate...like goats).
This was the view as we landed in Exmouth - you can't see the reef in the distance because Exmouth is around the peninsula (to the east) of the Ningaloo Reef, but the water and those islands look nice.
