Advertisement
Published: July 31st 2021
Postcard View
View from Pat's LookoutThe Jawoyn people, who historically inhabit the Stone Country around Katherine in the Northern Territory, believe that a rainbow serpent named Borong carved a great gorge through the heart of their land. Then from the west came a dragon-like creature named Nabilil, who travelled through the gorge before camping high up on the plateau above. While Nabilil was sleeping, Walarrk the Cave Bat speared him, and in the process his dilly bag full of water was pierced, spilling out over the land and filling the gorge. At the entrance to the gorge Nabilil had heard the call of the cicada ("nit nit nit-nit") and named the place Nitmiluk, meaning 'Cicada Country'.
My parents had brought me to Nitmiluk NP and taken me on a boat trip through the lower sections of Katherine Gorge when I was fourteen, and now that I had finally returned to the Northern Territory nearly thirty years later, I was determined to explore this wonder of nature more thoroughly - first from above on the network of hiking trails that wind across the escarpment on the southern side of the gorge; before making my way through the very heart of the gorge with the aid of
Scenic Cruise
View from Baruwei Lookout a kayak. And though by timing my visit to coincide with the peak of the Dry Season (known as 'Malappar' in the Jawoyn language) there was virtually no chance of any rain falling, I would have to contend with daytime maximum temperatures of around 35 degrees - despite this being the 'coolest' time of year!
Thankfully, with Nitmiluk NP being located so far inland, the overnight minimum temperatures would be down around 14 degrees, meaning that for a few hours each morning the temperatures would be reasonably comfortable for hiking - with a typical day reaching 24° within two hours of sunrise, before soaring into the 30s by midday and remaining there until the final hour before sundown. For this reason I had decided to set my alarm for 6am each day (a full hour before sunrise) so that I could be on my way as early as possible, allowing me to get most of my walking done in the relative cool of the mornings before spending my afternoons cooling off in the various swimming holes. Well, that was the plan anyway...
After hitching a ride from the town of Katherine to the visitor centre at the entrance
to Nitmiluk NP (Sunday 25th July) I first had an orientation session with one of the resident rangers, before setting up my tent at the nearby campground. By the time I was ready to set out on my first hike it was already after midday, but with only a small daypack to carry I figured it would give me a good opportunity to acclimatise to the heat - though in doing so I merely reinforced the need to get started as early as possible in the future! With almost no breeze to speak of, very little shade and the rocky ground acting like a convection oven, my god it was hot!
Starting with the short Baruwei Loop, I then took the side-trail to Butterfly Gorge, where a narrow valley cloaked in monsoon forest drops down between sheer walls of rock before joining the Katherine River, where I emerged at the base of towering cliffs and relished the opportunity to cool off with a swim in the waters of the Second Gorge. Turning my walk into a figure of 8 I then headed back along the top of the escarpment through the heart of the rugged Stone Country, enjoying the
Paddler's Paradise
View from Jeddah's Rock most incredible views down into the depths of the First Gorge from both Jeddah's Rock and Pat's Lookout. And then with daylight quickly fading I managed to make it back to the Baruwei Lookout (not far from the visitor centre) just as the last light of day was leaking from the sky, at which point the daily bat procession commenced, as thousands of resident flying foxes took to the skies on the way to their night-time foraging grounds.
The following morning I was up and away by 8am - this time with a full backpack - to tackle a 3-day, 50km hike that would cover almost the entire trail network on the southern side of Katherine Gorge, alternating between the two main trails that lead all the way from the visitor centre to the Eighth Gorge to form a figure eight-shaped route. But with time on my side I couldn't resist the temptation to head back to Pat's Lookout and Jeddah's Rock to enjoy the same awe-inspiring views as I had the day before, only this time under a completely different light. Unfortunately I spent so long soaking up those views that by the time I reached the Butterfly
Killer Views
Taking my time back at Pat's Lookout Gorge trail junction again - where the Waleka Walk branches off and heads towards the campsite at Smitt Rock - it was 11:30am and the temperature had already climbed into the 30's! It seemed I had learned nothing from my previous day's exertions...
So it was with a sense of trepidation that I immediately discovered the Waleka Walk beyond Butterfly Gorge bore little resemblance to the section leading up to it... in fact it would be fair to say the Waleka Walk is not a trail at all, but merely a marked route across the escarpment, with small steel squares emblazoned with green triangles affixed to trees at intervals of about thirty metres. Given the lack of an actual trail to follow, these markers were prove to be the only way to stay on track - which for the most part wasn't too difficult, as I would generally be able to see at least the next marker in line by the time I passed the preceeding one. There were, however, many times when the next marker couldn't be so easily located, necessitating an impromptu game of 'spot the marker'.
With the sun's heat radiating off the rocky escarpment
Path of Most Resistance
A rocky outcrop typical of the Waleka Walk it would be fair to say the novelty of this game wore off pretty quickly. Many was the time I would reach one marker and look ahead expecting to find the next one, only to find no trace of it whatsoever. Often I would eventually locate the offending marker atop a rocky outcrop or down in the depths of a dry gully, and just as often these would be located at right angles to the route that I had been following. On one particularly frustrating occasion I actually had to climb up and over a rocky ridge to find the way forward, after having spent ten minutes trying and failing to find an onward route.
And to make matters worse, once I had identified the correct way ahead, I then had to constantly watch my footing - as most of the route was on loose rocks, where at any moment the combined weight of my body and my backpack could send me tumbling to the ground. Needless to say I found the Waleka Walk both physically and mentally exhausting! And just to really top things off, there weren't actually any views of the main gorge from the trail, as
Healing Waters
The plunge pool on Lily Ponds Creek it wound it's way this way and that well back from the edge of the escarpment. If it weren't for the plunge pool on Lily Pond Creek - which despite having only the merest trickle of water flowing into it still offered a deep pool of beautiful fresh water, with a single water lily rising up from the surface in a shaded corner of the pool - I'm not sure how (or if) I would have managed to keep my cool; but suffice to say leaping into those cool, green waters was the undisputed highlight of my day!
By the time I emerged - with both of my water bottles fully replenished - I was feeling totally reinvigorated, and ready to tackle the final couple of kilometres to the campsite at Smitt Rock. Yet such was the challenging nature of the Waleka Walk (combined with the relentless heat - from which the sparse vegetation atop the escarpment offered very little shelter) that in the short time it took me to reach the campsite from the waterhole, my mood had once again plummeted! And even when I did finally reach the campsite (after having taken three hours to cover the
Million Dollar View... For $4/Night!
Watching the sunset from my campsite at Smitt Rock final 7km, without including my swimming break) I then had to prepare my lunch under the full glare of the sun, while an army of flies took it in turns to launch lightning raids at any exposed flesh they could find! This wasn't how I had pictured things turning out when I left Katherine!
After finally filling my stomach and retiring to the shelter of my tent, I emerged later in the afternoon to tackle the steep side-trail down to the base of Smitt Rock, where the combination of a deep swimming hole and ample shade was soothing for the soul. By the time I made it back to my tent both the sun and the temperature had dropped, and I had the perfect vantage point from which to enjoy watching the sun set over the escarpment on the far side of the gorge. Perhaps it hadn't been such a bad day, after all...
Thankfully my plan for the following day involved switching across to the Yambi Walk, which proved to be the antithesis of the Waleka Walk - serving as the access road for National Park rangers tasked with keeping the various water tanks topped up, it
Ancient Art Gallery
7000-year-old rock art site in the Jawoyn Valley would provide the sort of easy walking that had been conspicuously absent the day before. In no time at all I had reached the campsite at Dunlop Swamp - an oasis of shade in a desert of exposed rock - and from there it was only another hour down the track to the turnoff to Jawoyn Valley, where I was able to drink my fill at the water tank before leaving the big backpack behind and head out on a 6km loop hike.
Starting out across a sparsely vegetated landscape, the trail then took a left turn and plunged down into a shallow valley, where a number of upturned rock slabs and overhanging cliffs harboured ancient aboriginal art galleries, with the various artworks having been dated at 7000 years. Representing various human figures, spirits and animals (mostly elongated fish - presumably the renowned barramundi - and what looked like long-necked turtles) the paintings had been done with naturally-occurring ochre pigments, and provided a poignant human link to what is an ancient landscape. Never having seen aboriginal artwork 'in situ' before, this was a particular thrill for me; and the fact that only the last 'gallery' (which to my mind
Ghostly Figure
Ancestral spirits... or the earliest known image of Montgomery Burns?!? was the least impressive, with just a single white fish) was signposted - and that I didn't come across another soul during my explorations - provided a real sense of discovery that no guided tour could have matched.
Duly satisfied, I clambered up the dry gully that closed the loop to collect my pack, before immediately heading back in the opposite direction to punch out the final three kilometres to the campsite above Eighth Gorge. And while I had read that it was possible to swim near the campsite, nothing could have prepared me for the slight of a beautiful plunge pool backed by an amphitheatre of cliffs that greeted me right next to the campsite upon my arrival! I reckon it took me all of sixty seconds to drop my backpack and strip off my sweat-soaked clothes, before throwing myself into those crisp, cool waters to wash away the day's accumulated dust and grime. And what's more, barely five metres from the edge of the waterhole I discovered a clearing just big enough for my tent that was almost entirely in shade, and would remain so for the duration of my stay! What bliss.
As with the
The Perfect Finish Line
Cliff-backed waterhole beside the campsite at Eighth Gorge previous day a trail continued on from the campsite, climbing up the back of a ridge before topping out to superlative views of the main gorge below - where a right-angled bend in the river harboured a broad, almost-circular waterhole backed alternately by sheer cliffs and soft, sandy beaches. Again I needed no invitation to disrobe and hurl myself into the water, and with plenty of hidden corners to explore it was a long time indeed before I was able to drag myself back out onto the bank. A fellow solo hiker - who had just arrived at the start of the Jawoyn Valley loop as I was finishing - eventually joined me in the water, and it was pretty clear from the contented smile on his face that he was thinking the same thing I was: 'can you believe we have this whole place to ourselves!?!'
If anything could compare to the pleasure of cooling off in that natural swimming hole in the late-afternoon, it was discovering a little infinity pool perched atop the cliffs overlooking that same waterhole just behind the campsite the following morning; and with not another person in sight I lingered long in that
Stunning Swimming Spot
The wide waterhole in Eighth Gorge spot, gazing straight down the length of that spectacular gorge as the sun slowly brought colour to the scene, while I remained blissfully cool in the full shade of my little side-gorge. These are the little moments that make up for any pain or suffering endured along the way; and it's these moments in time that keep me coming back for more, and which I will remember long after the exhaustion suffered to get there have faded from my memory.
Eventually I was able to tear myself away from those sublime views, and having made the decision to skip the remaining section of the Waleka Walk from Eighth Gorge back to Smitt Rock, I instead simply retraced my footsteps from the previous day back along the Yambi Walk, which I then continued to follow all the way back to the campground near the visitor centre - effectively turning my route from the planned figure-of-eight to something more like a back-to-front six. But though I hadn't quite managed to complete my intended circuit, it mattered not in the overall scheme of things. I had given myself a thorough sample of the different ecosystems present in the park - from the
Infinity Pool
View of Eighth Gorge from the campsite baking heat, crumbling rocks and crumpled ridges of the southern escarpment; to the comparatively cooler and more densely vegetated plains dotted with termite mounds at it's base; to the plunging cliffs and shaded depths of the gorge, with it's soothing waters slicing right through the centre - and in so doing I had caught just a glimpse of the rugged beauty that has mesmerised visitors to this timeless land ever since the earliest inhabitants arrived all those aeons ago.
And I had no doubt the best was still to come...
Advertisement
Tot: 0.181s; Tpl: 0.016s; cc: 23; qc: 81; dbt: 0.11s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.3mb
D MJ Binkley
Dave and Merry Jo Binkley
Great value
Beautiful views do not need to be paid for... lovely.