Tour Australia

For the rest of this week we were in Kakadu National Park. We spent 5 nights in Kakadu and left on Sunday when we headed for Darwin.

Day 1 in Kakadu
We dropped in to the Mary River Roadhouse in hope of getting some local information on the road conditions and to collect our parks passes. Unfortunately they were out of passes but the gentleman did give us some information on the road to Gunlom. He told us the road was a little corrugated but nothing to worry about. We proceeded into Kakadu and headed for Gunlom as we were hoping to camp 2 nights there.

The road to Gunlom was some of the worst road we’d driven. It was 40km of dirt and it was very corrugated pretty much the whole way. We took our time to get there and tried our best not to rattle ourselves to pieces. We eventually arrived at the Gunlom camp area, had lunch and hung around for a while. At around 3pm we decided to head up to the top of Gunlom Falls for a swim and a nice spot for the “golden hour”. The walk to the top of Gunlom Falls is only 500m but it is steep. We arrived to the top and immediately jumped into the plunge pool. There are a number of plunge pools at the top and you get an amazing view from them. They are often referred to as a natural infinity pool. We enjoyed the swim and having a look around each of the pools. The view was fantastic and we had some beautiful clouds in the sky giving us a great view!

   

Day 2 in Kakadu
The next day we jetted up to Cooinda to get our parks passes and book ourselves onto a Yellow Water sunset cruise for the following evening. From there we headed back down south to Maguk. The road out to Maguk is classified as a 4wd track but we found it to be better than the road out to Gunlom and it was only 10km.

Maguk is a great swimming spot and has an easy 1km walk to it. Towards the end of the walk you are required to scramble over some rocks but it isn’t very difficult. The water was an amazing blue colour, it was very deep but it still was quite warm. At the far end there is a waterfall which is putting “cold” water into the plunge pool. We enjoyed a relaxing swim for a while before heading back to camp.

 

Day 3 in Kakadu
We packed up camp and left Gunlom. We took it very slow and it ended up taking us 1hr 40mins to drive the 40km’s out. We were not even the slowest vehicle traveling out, there was a hired campervan that we overtook. Once we hit the sealed road we headed north up to Mardugal where we set up camp and chilled out until the afternoon.

We drove to the Warradjan Cultural Centre and had a look around before heading to our cruise. The Cultural Centre was very well set up, very fancy and told a great story of the Traditional Owners. We then went to Yellow Water and boarded our boat for the cruise. We thoroughly enjoyed the cruise and highly recommend doing one. The tour guide was knowledgeable and had a great eye for spotting wildlife. It was a privilidge to see many different types of birds including Forest Kingfisher, Azure Kingfisher, Sacred Kingfisher, Rainbow Bee Eater, Whistle Duck, Sea Eagle, Jabiru, Egret, Magpie Goose and Comb Crested Jacana, and see Salt Water Crocodiles in their natural habitat. At the end of the cruise we watched sunset and were lucky enough to have a crocodile right in front of us.

Day 4 in Kakadu
Today we went to Twin Falls and Jim Jim Falls. We had been told by a ranger that the road down to the falls had been recently fixed and was in good condition. After our rough ride out to Gunlom we were really hoping this was the case. Unfortunately it couldn’t be more wrong. The road was so rough and corrugated that it was a very uncomfortable ride out. We made the turn for Twin Falls and proceeded through the deep water crossing. It was around 75-80cm deep and came right up to the lip of the Jeeps bonnet. It had a concrete base so it makes the crossing quite easy other than the depth of water.

We arrived at the carpark and made the short 400m walk to the boat that takes you down the gorge. We jumped right onto the boat and the Ranger took us down in the gorge. It is a beautiful gorge with amazingly clear water and high steep walls. We disembarked from the boat and walked up to the falls. There is quite a rock scramble to get up there but it is a very nice walk. The water was inviting but you are not allowed to swim for cultural reasons and due to the danger of Salt Water Crocodiles. Twin Falls itself is quite a high waterfall and has a lovely beach area below.

 

We headed back down the gorge, boarded the boat and walked back to the Jeep. We drove through the deep water crossing once again and then stopped for some lunch. After lunch we headed down to Jim Jim Falls. We decided that we were walking to the top of Jim Jim Falls. It was only 3km but looked like a tough climb and the sign warned that the walked was very difficult, very steep and would take around 4-6 hours. It advised to only start the walk before 10:30am. It was now 3pm but we decided to do it anyway. As warned the climb was very difficult and steep. As we crossed the second river we were lucky enough to spot a Green Tree Snake.

We eventually made it up to the top of the climb and were surprised that it took a further 30+ minutes to walk to the top of Jim Jim Falls. We were exhausted when we got to the top and had a look around before resting in one of the plunge pools.

We left the top and made our way down. The sunset was amazing and we got a great view of it on our way down. As we arrived back to the Jeep it was beginning to get dark. We were in for a late dinner back at the caravan!

Day 5 in Kakadu
We packed up camp and headed north to Nourlangie. It has a fairly short and easy walk which takes you in and around the aboriginal rock art. It was quite interesting and has some nice art works. It was a very popular spot so we couldn’t marvel at the art for too long before being swamped by other tourists.

From here we headed to Jabiru where we visited the cultural centre and then had lunch by the lake. We then went up to Merl and set up camp. We then took the short 500m walk down to Cahill’s Crossing to have a look for crocodiles. We saw over half a dozen in the water and a couple on the banks of the river.

After returning to the caravan we then drove up to Ubirr. It is a very short drive from Merl and there was plenty of parking at this time of the afternoon. We wandered around the aboriginal rock art sites. Ubirr is a very nice spot with plenty of shade and lots of rock overhangs and small caves.

We then walked up to the lookout where only a few people were and set up to watch the sunset. As sunset got closer, more and more people came. By the time the sun eventually set there would have been a couple of hundred people up on the rocks watching it. The lookout at Ubirr is very beautiful. It looks out over the wetlands which are amazingly green and when the sun sets it looks brilliant. We found it difficult to capture on camera but enjoyed the beauty of the sunset very much.

Day 6 in Kakadu (perhaps now week 7?)
It was now Sunday and time for us to leave Kakadu. We had had a great time in Kakadu with beautiful swimming spots, great walks, amazing wildlife and a rich history of aboriginal culture. We were however disappointed by the costs ($40 entry each for 7 days, $30 camping per night) and the severe lack of care and maintenance for the facilities and roads. The toilet blocks were quite dirty, there was no hand soap, Gunlom didn’t have toilet seats at all, the roads were unmaintained and severely corrugated, there is differing information in the visiter guides/flyers/signs to what’s actually there, the visiter guide online which I downloaded a few weeks before we left has out of date information ($25 entry for 14 days, wrong information about the park, where to buy tickets etc.), the Rangers don’t seem to have a clue about the actual road conditions but yet the cultural centres were amazing with great displays and beautiful facilities. It is disappointing that some care and maintenance couldn’t go into other parts of the park as well.

On our way out of Kakadu we visited the Mamukala Wetlands. It has a nice little bird watching bunker where we planted ourselves with a set of binoculars to see what we could find. We saw some Magpie Geese, some Jacanas, an Egret and birds we couldn’t quite make out in the distance. We found that our knowledge of the wildlife had greatly increased due to our guide on the Yellow Water Cruise.

We traveled up to Darwin and made ourselves at home in the Big4 at Howard Springs. In the evening we went up to the Mindil Beach Markets and had a nice time looking around, having dinner and watching the sunset. It was pretty busy and there would have been a couple of thousand people on the beach watching the sun set with us but it added to the vibe of the markets.