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Published: December 7th 2007
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Day 243 (25.11.07)
Yet another early morning saw us up and onto our next tour bus, this time a funky 4WD truck, by 5.15am. The next two days would be filled with a visit to Kakadu National Park renowned for it's centuries old aboriginal rock art and huge waterfalls. We set off down the road and began to get to know our extremely laid back tour guide Karl.
A couple of hours later and we were at our first stop, the Mary River Wetlands currently a river but further into the wet season this will expand to become 15km across in some areas and water will cover all but the tallest trees. We would be taking a boat cruise along the river to look for the resident wildlife, which we hoped would include some of the dangerous estuarine/saltwater crocodiles or 'salties' as they're known in Oz. We were told that we might not see many due to the heat as they would all be in the water keeping cool but we were lucky to see one in the water and another 'freshie' hiding in some flooded tree roots near the banks - no swimming here then! We also saw
a huge amount of birds including the fantastic jabiru and a white chested eagle sat up in a tree. A great start to our trip.
After having some lunch we spent the afternoon exploring the Ubirr site far up into the corner of the park. Here we saw some amazing examples of aboriginal rock art and learnt some of the stories behind the pictures, incredible to think how long these decorations have remained at this site. We continued on up to the top of a rocky outcrop which gave us fantastic 360 degree views of the escarpment and flood plains surrounding us including a fierce looking storm brewing on the horizon.
Heading back to the bus we caught sight of some of the local rock wallabies - very cute. On the way to the camp site we stopped at another local billabong for sunset which was amazing as wellas seeing yet another croc stalking the tourist platform for dinner!
We made the journey onwards through the park to Cooinda and our campsite for the night. Nina's birthday was coming up but she'd be leaving on a flight on the actual day so we decided to help her
Big Saltie ....
'Well he was a bit bity' celebrate with a few sparklers which, in the absence of a cake, we stuck into her spaghetti bolognaise dinner! We think she was pleased!
After dinner we went over to make the most of the site's swimming pool to refresh ourselves after the heat and humidity of the day. We floated about on the water with the stars shining above us - beautiful.
Day 244 (26.11.07)
Today was to be waterfall day. The itinerary for the tour usually takes in Jim Jim falls and Twin Falls but due to the start of the wet season Twin Falls was now closed as there was an uncrossable river barring our path. Karl suggested another set of falls and we all opted to go there instead despite the fact that this would mean an earlier get-up as they were further away than Twin Falls would have been.
We left Cooinda at 6.30am and made our way to the Jim Jim road where the 4WD capacity of the truck truly came into its own. Securely seat-belted in but still bouncing about we had a great time on the journey alone. The walk to the falls is 1km along the banks
of several pools formed when the river lessens in the dry season. Before we started the walk Karl discussed with us the likelihood of crocodiles being present in the waters. During the wet season the crocs are able to spread far and wide in the increased rivers of the area. Once the river starts to dry up into pools they are trapped where they end up and tend to remain there until the next wet season. In areas visited by tourists looking for a cooling dip park rangers thoroughly search the pools at the start of the dry season and trap any crocs which may be present, only opening the pools when they are certain that no crocs lurk beneath. They do however state that crocs may wander into the area during the season unnoticed so you swim at your own risk - just in case! Technically we were at the start of the wet season but the river had yet to swell and tourists had been using the pools for the last few months with no 'mishap' - great!
The track ended with us clambering over a few boulders before we reached the fantastic sight of the Jim
Jim Falls. Well...the Jim Jim trickle! The thing about Jim Jim is that in the wet season when the water is flowing fully the road is impassible so you can't see it. It's only really possible to see the Falls flowing fully at the start of the dry season when the road opens and before the water dries up - tricky huh?! Thankfully there had been some rain in the last couple of days and we had enough of a trickle to give us a small idea of what it would look like in full flow. We were still however rewarded with views of vast vertical rock faces dropping into a huge deep green pool beneath.
Several people were swimming and no-one appeared to have lost any limbs so we ventured in for a dip. The pool was lovely and cool after our walk in the heat and we were able to swim right over to where the falls enter the pool and stand on the rocks directly beneath - like standing in a heavy rain storm. We were able to float on our backs and look directly up to where the falls flowed over the cliffs - stunning
and something that won't be possible in a few days once the flow increases.
We were loathed to clamber out of the pool and make our way to the bus but lunch and some more falls beckoned. We arrived at the Barramundi Falls and had another short walk to climb to the top of the falls. As the water has flowed over the cliffs at the top of the escarpment it has formed a series of small but extremely deep pools which made for a gorgeous view but more importantly great places to swim and jump from the rocks - it must have been one of the most amazing swimming holes we have ever been to! We had a lot of fun exploring the pools and jumping from the highest rocks we could find into the pools beneath - superb!
Once again having to be dragged away by Karl we made our way back to the bus for our journey back to Darwin. We made a quick stop to view the hugest termite mound we have seen so far, towering way above our heads. We had seen thousands of termite mounds on our way from Alice to Darwin
and seen then get progressively bigger as we journeyed north but this one was a monster!
We arrived back into Darwin having had an incredible visit to Kakadu, highly recommended! We once again checked into the Youth Shack and were given free meal vouchers for the Vic again. Not wanting to look a gift horse in the mouth the four of us went over for dinner and then finished the evening with cake and sparklers and much laughter to celebrate Nina's birthday which she would spend part of on a plane tomorrow. Team Sweden you are so good...mmmmm! Thanks for a great tour!
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kateyevans
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Hey the Haywards!!!! Looks like you are STILL having a blast!! Will it never end?? So glad you made this leg of the trip, I remember doing it well. Isn't Uluru just the most amazing place, even at sillyo'clock in the morning? I loved Kakadu, Katherine gorge, Jim Jim falls (they were flowing when I was there, sorry..)....the whole of that area!! Hey guys what are your plans for new year? I'm missing a house party to go to!! xxxxxxxk