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Published: July 14th 2018
Jim Jim Falls Crocodile warning
As we get to the car park we are welcomed by this sign telling is that there might be crocodiles around. It doesn’t give you confidence to swim.
Day 16 - Jabiru
Today we decided we would take a trip to Jim Jim Falls. Now we were told by the caravan park receptionist and by the visitor centre staff that the road into Jim Jim Falls was corrugated and that the 50km Trip would be slow. Well they didn’t tell us everything did they. Firstly the road was graded for half the way, the first half, the rest of the way was heavily corrugated. They were so bad they shake your eyeballs out of their sockets. Going slow was worst so we travelled at an average of about 80km going in. I found that going back it was much smoother if I drove at 100km to 110km remembering this was loose gravel. Let me just say my car lived up to its reputation of being a safe car to drive. It’s Electronic Stability Control did its job to keep me on the road. Anyhow once we got over the corrugated road we had another 6km of a winding dirt track with 6 water crossings. Now let me explain what a dirt track means. If you sway more than one metre to either side you will sideswipe one of
Jim Jim upper pool
This upper pool was hard to get to. You had to swim in the icy cool water to get there. The upper pool is so deep. No doubt there might be a freshwater crocodile or two. the thousands of trees lining the winding track and the ground was sandy and loose. It was great fun to drive through. The water crossings were not anything to write home about. The fact that we had water crossing was enough to put my sister Tracey into a tailspin. That coupled with sand on the ground had her hyperventilating. I would call these crossings puddles. Now once we arrived at the final Jim Jim Falls car park to our surprise the car park had a heap of cars and tourist trucks and this was at 9am and we had left just after 7 am. Anyhow this is when the fun started. The signs told us we had a 900mtr walk. Now why didn’t anyone tell me I had to walk. I was jibbed. This was not just a normal simple straight walk. It was over rocks, trees and I basically had to be a rock hopping wallaby. This little 900metre walk took an hour. Once we arrived we were welcomed by a white sandy beach. Now why would there be a white sandy beach in the middle of nowhere. There were about 50 people on this beach. Plenty of space
The Noodle man
We each bought a noodle to help us float in fresh water. On the way out my son Paul decided to take the bulk of the noodles on his back. He called himself the Noodle Man. for us all. Now we set down our stuff which had lobbed all the way from the car park and I headed straight to the water to cool down. Well I wanted to cool down but I didn’t want to die of hypothermia. The water was so cold you could not feel your skin. Anyhow we still jumped in. I stopped screaming after a few minutes of gut wrenching body temperature change. We spent all morning here. It was a great experience and one we should not have missed even after all of the effort and experience. In the afternoon we headed back to a couple of the local resorts looking for comfort food and coffee.
On the way home we went past the local mine. Now this mine has had a 30 year history with Kakadu and it is set to close operation in 2021. I didn’t realise what an enormous impact this mine has had on the environment. It is a total disaster. I am not sure how nature will be restored once it closes.
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