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Published: June 25th 2009
DAY 228
We woke after an unbelievably hot night, and though we both slept really well we both feel shattered.
Our campsite is quiet this morning, as the Trumans left yesterday and we are back on our own again. Being very social as we are its always nice to have nice people around, but it is equally nice to be on your own as you can just please yourself, without the consideration of anyone else.
I made tea and we both sat around the fire pit for an hour talking and drinking our morning brew, the fire had long extinguished from the night before, but it still emitted some warmth, a wild Dingo appeared out of the bush and walked on by looking for a feed from someone, who doesn’t know any better or some campers who have moved on and left a morsel or two.
I sit there doing some blog work, frankly I am struggling with it at the moment, and thoughts about knocking on the head are constantly in my mind, we love the aspect of having this as a diary but some days are quite hard to fill with interesting stories as we
are relaxing a little more than we were at the start of our journey, so perhaps the time has come to do a regular update as opposed to a daily blog. As I have said before it just hasn’t turned out the way I had hoped, and there is no real interaction that we were looking for and frankly I am quite disappointed.
Today we are going to drive to Twin falls and Jim Jim falls, so once we are ready we head off, the Kakadu literature says it will be a 2 hour drive up, the drive is about 60 kilometres. The first stretch up to the campsite is just a dirt track that gets graded once a month, but after the campsite it changes into a strictly 4 wheel drive road which is about 18K’s to the Twin Falls.
We have pondered over the corrugated roads, I thought they were man made, as when the wet season arrives (Summer) I thought the corrugations would aide with traction, but corrugations are caused by speed, which would be frequency, however perhaps the greater the speed the larger the corrugations, although it has been said that the large 4wd
tourist trucks are the culprits for the larger corrugations
The road in was not too bad for the first 15K’s a sign had told us that the grader was in there, (so it must be Tuesday) someone had told us that the grader was due next Tuesday, on our way past it we tooted our horn and waved to the driver, he is working his way down the right hand side, facing the on coming traffic, we say to each other, “great we will get a smooth ride out tonight on the way home.”
The road, goes, from OK, to bumpy, to very bumpy, to Sssshhhhiii****iiitt, that’s how bumpy it was, the truck was all over the place, the tyres are only making contact at the top of the corrugations, its more like a pig on roller skates.
We arrive at the Garnamarr camp ground and a big fella comes over to us,” G’day” we say, he says “Do you want a boat ticket, its $12.50 bucks each up to twin falls,” “yes please” I say, so we hand over the dosh, I ask him if he is the mate of Pete who is the manager on
On the Way
Caroline walked around the crossing to get this pictureour camp site at Mardugal and he said he is, he also tells me they are going in to Jabiru tomorrow for a barbie and a beer whilst watching the footie, I will keep that piece of info up my sleeve to pull Pete’s leg with tonight!!
The Ranger tells us that it is a 18K run from here (Garnamarr camp ground) to the twin falls parking area and there are some soft sandy areas and a river crossing that is about 600mm deep and about 70 meters in length, but don’t worry about that it is an easy crossing but there are Crocodiles in there.
We thank him and set off the road is slow as there are quite a few rocks, and other obstacles that need carefully negotiating and the journey took us probably an hour and a quarter, but what a track it was to drive, “awesome.” We pulled in to the car park, and looked at each other both amazed we had made it.
There was only a 800 metre walk to the little boat, it was a very hot day and though the walk was short it was quite tough in the
blazing sun, we handed over our tickets to the Aboriginal Ranger “Don” who welcomed us aboard, he said as hot as it is, please don’t put your hand in the water, you may never see it again, as crocs have been seen in this stretch of water.
Don is very knowledgeable about the area as he grew up around here; he talked us through some of the flora and fauna on this short journey up the river. The little boat only went for only a kilometer but the scenery was stunning we got out on the shore, and started to walk the rest of the way to the twin falls, just before we got off the boat Don said when we want to come back just pick the radio up that is behind the rock and call him back. We see the radio attached to the tree using a pink cord.
The walk was quite difficult, the terrain was clambering over huge boulders, across rocky ledges and around rooty tree’s plus it was about 36-40 degree’s and the sun was beating down. Every now and again we take advantage of walking in the shade from the trees and
Crocodile Frequent this Water
This is the sign we see just before we head into the main river crossing in the Patrol rocks that are available to us.
Onwards we pushed before crossing an aluminium pontoon that had hand pump showers dotted along the length so you could cool off if need be. Caroline took the liberty to pump one of the showers and let some of the cool river water cool her arms down.
We finally arrived at the twin falls and it was marvellous, another paradise found, the water ran off the top of the escarpment about 200 meters up feeding the pool at the bottom, there were Crocodile warning signs up and a baited cage with a pigs head in it, as they need to catch the salties. You are not supposed to swim in this pool, but it does look inviting in the heat of the afternoon. Although this area has been swept for salties, there is no guarantee that one won’t slip in when they are not looking. Really no one can afford that risk by swimming in water, though exceptionally clear, may still harbour one of the worlds Apex predators.
Don was telling us that the salties are coming further and further inland, swimming in through various water tributaries in the wet season,
or anywhere that has water really, they have become so adaptable a true survivor. The were not found so much inland for a long while after the hunting ban, inland hunting had put paid to their presence in these areas, however they are now making a return and becoming a nuisance to people, not just local people but the tourists who flock here in their thousands, particularly being a nuisance up around Darwin in the heavier populated areas.
More commonly it it the local people who are becoming caught out by a croc as they are becoming complacent, and off their guard, you can never be off your guard with a crocodile.
We get out of the blazing sun by standing under some rocks, we have gone through loads of fluids today and are so glad we have the esky with us, with all our cooled Cordial in it, it makes charging up our drinking bottles a breeze.
The walk back as usual is a lot quicker than the walk down, I am never really sure why this is, perhaps it is because you are more familiar with the track and some kind of homing device in you
View from the middle
The water is part of the way up the door - 600mm deep. just points you in the right direction.
In no time at all we are back at the boat pontoon and Don is just bringing some more people in, so as soon as he docks we will be back on the boat, I asked Don if he was local and he said he has family in the South of Kakadu and in Arnhem land, and he has been around this area all his life, I ask him if he used to swim in this water when he was a kid and he said that he did, my mind wanders I can just imagine a load of Aboriginal kids swimming here without any fear of the Crocs or snakes, so much more aware of their natural surroundings.
We get back to the main boat ramp and we thank Don and he wishes us a pleasant holiday, we get off the boat and head back to the truck.
Caroline asks if she can drive back, she wants to have a go at the large river crossing, she loves having the truck in 4 wheel drive and enjoys the challenge it presents. She arrives at the river and faces her demon,
On the way to Twin Falls
This is nearly 2 hours into the drive she slowly edges the truck in to the water and it rises to 210mm above the running boards, (I have just checked this), she keeps moving along and we say wouldn’t it be fantastic to see a croc swim past, that would be the photo of all photo’s, but sadly not. The other side of the coin would be to get stuck in the middle of the river and have to find a way out without a crocodile getting you! Thankfully we did not have to play that game.
The truck reaches the other side and Caroline is delighted to have crossed this stretch of water. It would be foolish if we didn’t share the responsibilities of this trip, if I did all the driving and got sick and needed Caroline to drive and she hadn’t any sand driving experience then we would be in trouble, equally she knows how to fold the trailer away and what goes where just in case, it would be of no use to us if she just sat there sobbing because she didn’t no how to engage 4 wheel drive when the shit hit the fan.
We drove 9k’s back down the
On the Water
On the boat, taking us toward Twin Falls track when we get to a sign for Jim Jim falls, we have to go as if we didn’t it is a long was to come back, Caroline takes the truck in to uncharted territory well it is for us, and crosses a long stretch of soft sand with ease. She is soon parking the truck and we are getting our stuff ready to walk to the falls, which is about 1.5k’s away.
Again it’s a little bit up hill and down dale, and we get to the pool that apparently is safe to swim in (although there is the customary crocodile warning sign), its looks fine, nice and clear and we are hot so have a little relax in Jim Jim falls pool, but can see a huge group of people walking this way so decide to get out and head back before it gets like Piccadilly circus.
Walking back I notice a spider, in her web that must be 6” (120mm) across the span of her legs, she is jet black with yellow behind the knee’s and we have difficulty in photographing her, we are told that she is a Golden Orb Spider, the males are
Donald "Don" McGregor
Our local Aboriginal ranger apparently absolutely tiny, so how they mate is a mystery.
We get back to the truck around 3.30 with still quite a way to go, so Caroline takes the drivers seat again and we are off. We meet far more vehicles coming down the track than we did coming in this morning, soon we arrive at Garnamarr campsite, we are out of 4wd then on to the rough track that we both hope is smooth now, not a chance the grader has not been this far up yet. The track seems even rougher on the way back we have just seen the grader only a 1/3 of the way in, and the side he has done is as rough as hell.
We stop to take some photographs of the Pandanus tree’s that thrive after a bush fire, huge area’s of black tree stumps with new leaves I think nature is amazing.
We get back to our camp site at about 4.50, and go and gather some wood for tonight’s fire, Peter the ranger comes around to collect our camp fee’s I tell him I saw his mate today at Garnamarr, “Ah Greg” he says “he’s a good
Tanquil Clear Waters
Hiding all the crocs. bloke”, “so you two are going on the piss tomorrow a little bird tells me,” Peter responds “yea in to Jabiru to have a Barbie, a beer to two and to watch the footie.”
I ask Peter if “Don” the aboriginal boat driver was a guy he was talking about with me the other day, “Oh, Don McGregor no that’s not the guy I was telling you about, Don Is a good bloke, and has been up here all his life.”
I ask Peter if I heard correctly, “Don, the aboriginal Boat Driver’s surname is McGregor, Donald McGregor, “Yea that’s right,” we nearly roll around laughing an aboriginal guy with the name Donald McGregor. Does he have a family Tartan, I imagine a Bloke Called Donald McGregor, being a big 6ft 6 heavy set fella with rugged features in full Tartan tossing the Caber, not a Slim handsome Aboriginal guy who was about 5ft 9
Peter tells us he is being fed tonight as has to get moving we wish him a good evening and he disappears.
We chat briefly to our neighbours Colin and Libby, they tell us about their day and said that last
The Real Deal
These things are not for show, it serves as a reminder of the potential hazard in these waters. A pigs head is hanging at the back waiting for its prey. night they were awake most of the night as they were too hot in the caravan and their little girl was suffering with the heat, but that is because she has the top bunk in the caravan which is close to the roof and subsequently where all the heat is. Libby tells us they went to get wet flannels in the night to help cool down, they agreed with our idea and said they would have a shower before bedtime too.
The mozzies tonight are unbelievable, we are tired, hot and dirty, we can only be bothered to go and get a shower and clean up, then warm the left overs of last nights Chow Mein, we sit inside with all the flaps up watching all the creatures trying to get in through the insect netting, we would rather sit outside by the camp fire, but the mozzies are relentless it’s the only relief we can think of, tonight is not as humid as it was last night but we still have to go and shower again before bed just to cool down.
The blog is finished and uploaded for Kanga- banga and we hit the sack, the
night already seems a little cooler, but we lie there in the heat until tiredness overtakes us and we fall into a heavy sleep.
So until tomorrow
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willemien
non-member comment
chow mein
Hi Andy and Caroline,Im still following your travels, always want something to eat, like damper, or chow mein, i like eating outside. We are having showers and thunder here, it has been a bit hot, not as hot as were you are. I dont like mozzies, this time of year, you get eaten alive in holland, im glad i left that behind. Lots of love Willy and Chris. P.s Michael Jackson died last night, king of pop.