Mitchell River – Freshwater – early to mid September

The following day we decided to head across the rockbar and up the gorge to checkout how good the swimming holes were. The tides being so huge, it took about 45 minutes before we had worked out a cunning plan for tying the dinghy – we then roughly calculated this left us 1.5hours to get up and back before the tide kept us stranded for the next 12 hours.

We clambered over and around the boulders, some as big as houses heading for the left hand gorge where there seemed to be more water. After about half an hour we were blocked by a massive rock – Simon took the lower route and I headed up to try and find a way through. Turns out the high road was quicker and I rounded a rock and was presented with an awesome sight. An amphitheatre surrounded by rocks with a clear pool in the center and multiple waterfalls in the middle. Screaming in delight, I charged down the rocks, tore my gear off and slid down the rock face hoping to end up in the pool next to the waterfall. In my excitement I seem to have miscalculated the height of the rock I was on and was now dangling, with a cut hip, blood running down my leg, my face in bird poop scrambling to find a foot hold on the slippery mossy surface. I never did get a foot hold and ended up slipping in the pool while cutting and bruising my tail bone. A little bruised and battered, nothing could stop me from charging head first under the waterfall laughing and screeching like a madman! This was the sight Simon eventually found as he came into the amphitheatre.

On a high, cool and refreshed we strolled back to dinghy not a care in the world. “Does it look like the tide has dropped?”, I ask Simon. “No, can’t be” is his reply. Starting to trot now, then breaking into a run I can see the dinghy dangling by the ropes we had so carefully tied tightly for the rising tide. Shit! Quick! Our cool suddenly evaporated and we sprang into action untying the dinghy, refloating it, Simon motoring with me on the oar navigating us around the rapidly rising rocks. With 6mtr tides we had better move fast or we’d be here until about 3am! At one point we had to get out and crouched on boulders hauled the dinghy over running purely on Adrenalin. Finally we made it back to the boat ever so grateful our lesson was not too harsh. Maybe next time we’ll check the tide tables instead of estimating…