Kakadu National Park

The Walkers came to visit us

Katherine  18/06/12

It was time to leave Darwin so we could meet our friends the Walkers at Katherine. We left at 9.00am, & drove 305km today, and we arrived at the Katherine Big 4 Caravan Park (again) around 1.00pm. The Walkers had already arrived and set up camp, so we quickly set up and went over to see them. It was great to catch up with friends, as this is the first time since we have left that we have seen someone that we know. We had a BBQ tea together and caught up on all the news.

19/06/12

We had an easy day today catching up with the Walkers, and did some planning on where and what we are going to see at Kakadu and Litchfield National Parks. We went grocery shopping in the afternoon, and had another swim at the Katherine Hot Springs. Braydon and Miriam Walker are having a great time playing together.

20/06/12  Cutta Cutta Caves

This morning we caught up on the washing, and played cricket with the kids. In the afternoon the Walkers went on the Katherine Gorge Cruise, which we did when we were here last, so we decided we would go to the Cutta Cutta Caves, which are located about 30km south of Katherine. It was a great experience as the tour was led by a guide who informed you all about the cave and its’ history. There were a lot of stalactites and stalagmites. At first you walked down some steep steps to get into the cave itself, and then you walk along the flat cave floor for about 200m. The cave was quite large, and the ceiling height varied from area to area along with the structure of the cave. We didn’t see any wildlife inside but that didn’t disappoint Di. On the way home we met up again with the Walker family, as they were back from their cruise, and we had Maccas for dinner.

Gunlom Falls

Kakadu  21/06/12

Today the Walkers and ourselves left Katherine at 9.00am & travelled up the Stuart Highway to Kakadu National Park, which is a World Heritage Listed Park. We called into the information centre to buy our Kakadu permit which cost $25 per adult, and lasts for 15 days. We were planning on camping at Gunlom Falls tonight, but since the wet season it has been a 4WD only track. So we unhitched our caravans at the adjacent service station/caravan park, and headed off for Gunlom Falls which was 37km away.  It was a very corrugated road with plenty of dust, but it was still a fairly interesting drive with a couple of nice creek crossings. At about 1.30pm we arrived and had a picnic lunch, & then went on a very short walk to the bottom of the falls and the huge pool. It was crystal clear water with a sandy bottom, with about a 50m waterfall cascading into it. A couple of people were swimming, but it was way too cold for us. We then all decided to do the 1hr return walk to the top of the falls. It was a steep rocky track that basically made its way straight up the mountain. Braydon and Miriam did a great job leading the way right to the top where there was another series of smaller falls and rock pools. It was also a great view over the surrounding mountains. After a rest we headed down the mountain again, and headed back in the cars to pick up the caravans. As it was getting quite late by the time we got back, we decided to stay the night at the service station/caravan park, which cost $30.

Top of Gunlom Falls

The Grubs after the walk up Gunlom Falls



22/06/12  Jabiru

We left the caravan park at 9.30am, & travelled 155km to Jabiru. We arrived at about midday, & set up. We are staying at the Kakadu Lodge Caravan Park which costs $38 a night. We decided to have pies for lunch from the local bakery. We then went to the Bowali Visitor Centre to find out what we could do over the next couple of days. Then we came back to the caravans to plan our day for tomorrow. In the late afternoon, Miriam & Braydon went for a ride on their scooters around the caravan park. That night we shared our curry dinners, with Dianne cooking Massaman Curry & Belinda cooking Butter Chicken.

Ubirr Rock Art

23/06/12  Ubirr

Today we went to Ubirr. This is a 1km circular track that takes you past several Aboriginal rock art sites, which were in pretty good condition. Then we climbed up to a rocky lookout with spectacular views over the Nadab floodplain. This is where some of the scenes from Crocodile Dundee were filmed.  We then called into Cahills Crossing for a bite of lunch. After lunch we went for a walk down to the boat ramp to have a look at the East Alligator River, as we saw a boat being launched while we were having lunch. When we arrived there was a group of guys fishing about 200m downstream, standing in water along the weir with their backs towards us. We then were told by some other tourists standing at the boat ramp that there was a big saltwater croc in the water patrolling up and down the river, which we could easily see. The fisherman either did not see, or just didn’t worry about the big snapping handbag. We then all went for a walk along the Manngarre track which takes you on a 1.2km loop along the river. When we finished the walk, we again went back to the boat ramp, and this time we saw 4 big saltwater crocs, about 3.5m long swimming around. Di even saw a croc catch a big fish and eat it. We were all mesmerised watching these amazing animals in the wild, and were thrilled to see them.  We were all standing well up the bank, but the crocs did not worry that we were there. We then drove back via the Ranger Uranium Mine, which is only about 10km east of Jabiru. This is a huge open cut mine with a large spoils pile and pond. We were talking to the Walkers on our CB radio’s joking about the fact that there is a huge Uranium mine in the World Heritage Listed National Park, and you don’t see this in any of the brochures etc, etc when someone came on the CB radio from the mine asking us to change radio channels as this is the mine CB channel. We had a good laugh about the rubbish all the people in the mine would have heard us talking about. We then headed back to our camp and made plans for tomorrow.

Lookout at Ubirr Rock

Crazy fisherman with 4 big crocs in the water

Jim Jim Falls

24/06/12  Jim Jim & Twin Falls

Spectacular Twin Falls

Mark and Craig filled up the cars with fuel and got some supplies for lunch before picking up the rest of the family to head down to Jim Jim Falls. This is a 4WD only road to Jim Jim Falls, and then you can go further down the track to Twin Falls which is currently closed due to the wet season. All the 4WD tour companies go to these falls, so we new they must be very good, but we had also been told that the road was not very good and the trip would take 2 hrs each way once you have turned off the main road. We left camp about 9.30am for the 50km trip south of Jabiru to the turn off to the falls. Once on the gravel road we got flagged down by a group of 4 backpackers – 3 girls & 1 guy - wanting a lift into the falls. After much discussion, and another car pulling up, we agreed to help by taking them in the 3 cars, as they seemed very nice. We took a German lady, and the Walkers took a German man (who was riding a push bike around Australia) and an American lady, and the other Swedish lady went in the other vehicle. There was about 60km of rough corrugated road that took us to Garnamarr where we were met by a Park Official that was selling tickets for the boat shuttle up to the Twin Falls that had just been opened up yesterday. We paid $12.50 each for tickets. The 8km drive to Jim Jim Falls then started to get interesting, meandering along a narrow track through some sand and little creek crossings. We arrived at the car park at 11.30am, so we did the 2km return walk through monsoon forest and over a never ending boulder trail, through to a beach and pool which flowed from the falls from a 150m high cliff. It was a very hard walk with kids, clambering over rocks on a largely unmarked path with the occasional arrow. Mark did well carrying Miriam most of the way over the rocks, and Braydon slowly made his way with lots of assistance. Even Aaron was starting to complain as we were all tired and hungry by the time we got back to the car. It must have taken at least 2 hours to walk 2km. We quickly made hot dogs for lunch, which tasted beautiful. After a quick rest we packed up and headed for Twin Falls, which is a further 10km south along a similar track, but with a 700mm water crossing of the Jim Jim Creek. This creek was about 25m wide, so we were all excited about crossing it and christening our vehicles. After a while we then came to the car park, which we then had a short walk to the shuttle boat. After boarding the boat we travelled up a lovely gorge about 500m, & the boat dropped us off. After another short walk over boulders and sand we came to a spectacular waterfall, pool and sandy beach.  We took in the scenery for about 30mins and then headed back to the boat and then back to the car. It was 5.00pm when we left the carpark, and headed back through the creek crossing and over all the thousands of corrugations. We dropped our back packer back at their car at 7.00pm, and then finally got back on to the bitumen road. We made the smooth trip back to our caravan park, arriving at about 7.30pm. We were all exhausted, but we all had a truly fantastic day.  

Crossing the Jim Jim Creek

Darwin  25/06/12  Jumping Croc Cruise

We left Jabiru at 10.15am after a disappointing start. We phoned the FreeSpirit Resort Caravan Park in Darwin (where we stayed previously) to book in for a few nights accommodation, only to find out they could only fit us in for 1 night, even though when we left Darwin they said that there would be no problem for 2 sites in a week’s time. We tried a couple of parks, but everywhere was booked out, so we phoned them back and managed to get in for our 4 nights, but we would have to move sites every day. We headed for the Jumping Croc Cruise, which was about 200km from Jabiru, and the cruise started at 1pm. We had a quick lunch and boarded the boat. We had only gone about 150m when we saw a croc swimming towards the boat, but we kept going until there was a couple of bigger ones heading for the boat. The boat stopped, and the ladies fed the crocs from a pole with string, and a big piece of meat attached. We thought the crocs would be fast and aggressive with the food, but they were very slow in their movement even when coming out of the water to get it. We saw some big crocs on the bank, but they said that the water was getting a little cold for them to be doing much. We went further down the river about 1km and managed to get another couple of crocs to feed. It was good to see crocs up close, while the skipper explained all about them. He turned the boat around and we headed for home. On the way back the ladies fed some Whistling Kite birds. They would swoop in as she threw the meat in the air. All in all it was a pretty good trip, and a good way to see some crocs and watch them feed. On the road out of the Croc Cruise we stopped and had a look at “The Window On The Wetlands” Information Centre. We arrived at the FreeSpirit Resort Caravan Park around 4pm, and after a mammoth check-in, we set up camp. We travelled 242km today.

Braydon & Miriam having a close up look at a croc

Edith Falls, Darwin

Edith Falls  08/06/12

Today we had a very short drive to Edith Falls (camps No. 134) which is only 61km north of Katherine. It is also a part of Nitmiluk National Park. We arrived at 10.30am and picked a campsite. It is in a typical national park with earmarked sites, & there were about 10 campers when we arrived. We had a bite of lunch, and then went on a 2.6km circuit walk to the falls. It was a fairly interesting walk with lots of steps and rocks on the path. We were dressed in our togs so we could go for a swim at the falls, but the water was freezing, so we just paddled our feet and admired the scenery of the waterfall. There had been a lot of damage to the path at the falls due to the wet season, so you had to pick your way over rocks till you saw a direction sign. On the way back you cross a crystal clear river via a little bridge that looks very much like what we floated down at Mataranka. It only took about 2 hours to do the walk. By night fall when the ranger came around to collect her $18, there would have been about 50 campers.

Darwin  09/06/12

Somehow we left Edith Falls and got on the road at 8.30am. Some days I think it would be easier to get a steam train fired up and rolling faster than getting the family up, van ready  and everyone in the car ready to leave. Lucky we are not in a hurry. We headed back to the Stuart Highway and headed north to the Adelaide River for morning tea. We had a quick look around some Saturday markets, then moved on and arrived at the FreeSpirit Resort Caravan Park about 1pm. This would have to be the nicest caravan park we have stayed in, with 3 pools, jumping pillow, restaurant and lovely tropical gardens. We got settled in and had a look around the park, where we were invited to come to a concert a couple in a van was putting on at happy hour. We took our chairs and snacks to their site and spent an hour listening to the husband and wife playing a guitar and keyboard and singing country style music. It was a long hour, but we got a chance to leave when they stopped to take a break. Luckily there was about 20 people there listening so we could sneak off. We travelled 273km today and it cost $41 a night.  

10/06/12

We had an easy start to the morning with a Buffet Breakfast at the caravan park restaurant, the first bought breakfast of the trip. We then made our way into Darwin’s central area which is about 15km from our caravan park. For some strange reason there are no caravan parks close to the water. It was great to see the sea again, and it reminded us how much we all love the beach. The water was a beautiful clear blue colour, a bit like the Whitsundays. There was a Greek festival on at the esplanade which was huge, so we had a good look around, & watched some Greek dancing and a live Dora the Explorer concert. Braydon had a great time. We then had a look around the city which we both thought was lovely. Then we got some groceries on the way back to the caravan park.

11/06/12

Today is a catch up day where Di did some paperwork, while Craig washed and polished the car and cleaned the interior. We went to the pool in the afternoon and the boys had a swim, but the water was too cold for the two of us.

12/06/12

We went and explored Darwin some more today. We visited the oil tunnels from World War 2, which are 6 tunnels that run under the city of Darwin that were built to hold oil (only 2 remain open). They started to be built after the bombing of Darwin, as the original oil storage containers were an easy target for air attacks – 7 out of 12 were destroyed in the first air raid on 19 February 1942. The tunnels were never used though as the war was over by the time they were finished. We then walked around the new wharf area, and impressive wave pool, and then headed into the mall to have a look around. We still think Darwin is such a pretty place. After lunch we headed out to the western beaches, and then watched some planes land at the airport as the planes come in really close to the road when approaching the runway.

13/06/12

Today we did the washing, & Braydon went to the jumping pillow and did some bike riding - it was a very leisurely day. Braydon and Craig painted a caravan park layout on the back of his race track play mat so he could use his matchbox cars in a caravan park.

Braydon just hanging with his mate Craig Lowndes

14/06/12 V8 Supercars roll into town

 Today we went into the centre of Darwin as the town is humming with V8 Supercars fever. There are V8 Supercars flags on street poles with the city dressed up for the event. On the radio there is a lot of V8 Supercar talk, and the caravan park is full with people talking about them. All the V8 transporters were having a procession through the city centre, so we went in to see the action. When we arrived at the mall, all the V8 supercar drivers were lined up for autographs, so we joined a fairly short line and got them to sign a couple of posters. Unfortunately by the time we got to the drivers, Jamie Whincup  and Craig Lowndes had left the table due to other commitments, but we still got lots of photos of them before they left. Braydon got to stand next to Craig Lowndes while he cut a cake, so he was happy. After we got the poster signed, it was time to watch all the semi’s come through the middle of town, blowing their horns with the drivers waving. It was quite a spectacle, along with the grid Girls......  We then hopped back in the car and made our way to the Darwin Military Museum. Firstly we had a picnic lunch near the museum which is next to the Bay. After lunch we had a good look through the museum, which Di in particular found very interesting. The Top End of Australia endured more than 64 air raids during World War 2, with hundreds of people killed. We left there just before closing time of 5pm, and then headed to the Sky City Casino, as the V8 Supercars were holding another driver signing. This time we got to see and meet the V8 Ute drivers, and also had another look at the V8 Supercar drivers. The line up to get autographs here was huge, except for the Ute drivers. The Ute drivers were very friendly to Braydon and a lot more talkative. After about 1/2hr we then headed next door to the Mindil  Markets, which are markets held on the beach front that start at 5pm and go into the night. It was extremely busy with people everywhere. At sunset people make their way down to the beach and watch the sun set over the water while having dinner. It was spectacular. The markets were the best we have ever been too, with fire twirling, whip cracking, didgeridoo playing band, every food type you could think of, and the usual market type of goods. After a big day we were all looking forward to a good nights sleep.

All the V8 Supercars transporters rolled into town

15/06/12

Braydons favourite driver Jamie Whincup

A nice easy day today spent around the caravan park, with Di getting a hair cut from a person that does it at their caravan site for the bargain price of $20. We are really looking forward to seeing our good friends Mark &Belinda Walker and their family in the next couple of days, who are driving up from Ipswich on a holiday, and we plan on spending a couple of weeks together.

16/06/12 Hidden Valley Raceway

Today Braydon and Craig went to Hidden Valley Raceway to watch the V8 Supercars. They both had an excellent time, and Braydon loved that Jamie Whincup won the race. It is a great racetrack with great facilities, including covered grassed areas to sit under. There were heaps of different events to keep you interested throughout the day, from drag cars racing, stunt motorcycles, drifting car and the usual support categories. Braydon was a brave boy through all the noisy drag cars, and had fun at the Disney “Cars” transporter and displays. The racetrack was only about 5km from the caravan park and there was little traffic and congestion to worry about. The nice man in the caravan next to us offered us tickets to go to the race tomorrow, but I told him that we will give it a miss as it was a big day today and we have had enough sun for a while. We will see what we feel like in the morning.

17/06/12 

We had a relaxing day at the caravan park today. Braydon got to ride his bike and play on the jumping pillow, while Craig & Dianne caught up on the usual jobs. In the afternoon we watched the motor racing.

Daly Waters, Mataranka, Katherine

Devils Marbles  30/05/12

We had a bit of a leisurely start to the day, with one last jump on the jumping pillows for Braydon. We then made our way out of Alice Springs heading for the Devils Marbles again. We stopped at Ti-Tree for lunch before arriving at the Devils Marbles at 3pm. It is just amazing how many caravans are starting to head north. We had 40 caravans and campers jammed into the camping area, which is one of Braydons favourites. We had time to again climb over all the rocks and have a look around. The resident dingo was also hanging around again. The weather has finally got a little warmer at 22 deg, with the wind finally starting to drop down. We travelled 404km today, and it cost $6.60 for the night.

Banka Banka  31/05/12

We left the National Park by 10am and headed up the road to get fuel at Tennant Creek ($1.75/L). After refilling, we drove a little further and had lunch at the Three Ways Roadhouse. We then had a short drive up to Banka Banka (camps No. 91), which is a cattle station that lets caravans stay on a grassy oval for $20 a night. There were about 26 campers in the station, along with a Japanese man who is pushing a kart with all his possessions, who is walking around the world. So far he has spent 3 years walking, and he does about 80km a day walking from 5am to 5pm. He camps in paddocks along the road at night. We passed him while we were driving today, and he is on the way to Darwin. There is no power, but plenty of water at this camping spot, so everyone, including Craig, were washing their cars and caravans. It was actually pretty funny to see. There was a community camp fire at night, which we all sat around after dinner until the kids had to go to bed. We travelled

Daly Waters  01/06/12

We left Banka Banka at 9am & headed for Daly Waters. There is a little bit more water starting to appear in the creeks and waterholes which we haven’t seen for a while. There are still lots of caravans on the road heading north. We saw our Japanese friend walking along the road, & he had done 22km in about 4 hours. We stopped at Elliott for morning tea, which is a town that is very scary with a lot of houses without any doors, windows or anything else. The caravan park had barbed wire around the fence; not that we stayed there. We arrived at Daly Waters at around 1.30pm, which is just a really old quirky pub in the middle of nowhere, but it has got a great reputation for their meals and evening show. The caravan park attached to the pub filled up pretty quickly with about 50 caravans coming in. We booked our evening meal at the pub, and had a look around the pub which is covered in hats, bras, panties and other odds & ends. Every spare position on the walls and ceiling was covered. We had our evening meal - the speciality being Beef and Barramundi. We both had what they called ½ and ½, which was a good size bit of steak along with a good size fillet of Barramundi. They then had a buffet style salad bar with an amazing range of salads and some damper, all for $27 a person. This would have to be the best meal Craig has had in a long time (no offence to Di’s cooking). We stayed for a little while at the show & really loved it. The guy was a typical Aussie drover, & had a fantastic sense of humour. He also sung some songs with his guitar. It cost $24 a night to stay there, and we travelled 306km today. We had a shower of rain overnight – our first lot of rain so far.

Mataranka  02/06/12

Today we had an easy run of 169km. We left Daly Waters at 9.30am and arrived about lunch time at Mataranka. We stayed at the Territory Manor Motel / Caravan Park which cost $30 a night, which is a nice park with grassy sites & power and water. There were peacocks everywhere. Twice a day they do fish feeding in their dam where they have some huge Barramundi which they hand feed. In the afternoon we went to the Mataranka thermal pool, which is in Elsey National Park. It is a naturally heated spring that they have dammed into a pool that is springfed at a lovely 34 deg. It is a magic spot as the pool is surrounded by palm trees. We all had a fantastic swim, and Aaron had a great time.

03/06/12

This morning we caught up with the washing and the usual chores. We were having lunch when the peacocks came around and Braydon had much delight in feeding them. We then blew up Braydons Big Red Wiggles Boat ready for a swim at Bitter Springs (also in Elsey National Park). This is another natural thermal spring that flows at a nice leisurely pace along a palm tree lined stream that is about 5 meters wide and about 2 metres deep, with a white sandy bottom and crystal clear water. You hop in the stream at one end and float downstream a couple of hundred metres through beautiful scenery of palm trees and reeds, only to hop out & walk back and do it all over again. We had Braydon and Aaron in the blow up boat and Di and I floated along with them. A couple of times Braydon floated down on a blow up ring. We must have done it about 5 times, all loving the experience. We then decided to go back to the Mataranka thermal pool, about an 8km drive away, to have one last swim in this pristine place. On the walk out we saw a 3m Olive Python making its way next to the path. We have all had a fantastic time at Mataranka.

Katherine  04/06/12

We had a very leisurely drive this morning, as we left Mataranka at 10am and we were at Katherine by 11.15am. We only had to do 112km today, which seemed to not take much time at all. In fact the kids didn’t even get through 1 DVD. We set up camp at the Big 4 Katherine, which is about 7km out of town, but it is nice and quiet as it is not on a main road like some of the other parks. It cost $45 a night. Katherine is a lovely clean town with all the conveniences. We set up camp, and then did some grocery shopping, and then came back & had a look around the park. It is amazing how you run into the same people time and time again at these parks. You might not see them for a while, and then you run into them again. Unfortunately there has not been a huge amount of kids at these parks for Braydon to play with, but Braydon makes friends with anyone. We booked a tour for tomorrow of Katherine Gorge.

05/06/12  Katherine Gorge Boat Cruise.

We booked the Katherine Gorge 3 gorge, 4hr boat cruise for today. We booked the 1pm tour so Aaron could have a sleep in the morning. So we travelled 27km in to Katherine (Nitmiluk) Gorge National Park. We had a picnic lunch at the gorge so we were ready for when the cruise started. It was another beautiful day with not a cloud in the sky. We boarded the boat with about 30 other tourists, and made our way up the first gorge with the tour director giving a commentary on the area. After a few kilometres the river came to some rapids, so everyone got off the boat, had a small walk on a path past some aboriginal rock art (with the tour guide explaining the meanings), and then hopped on a different boat to go up the second gorge. The second gorge was a little shorter than the first. When it came to an end, the same process was repeated; we went on a short walk to the third gorge & hopped on a different boat. The third gorge was shorter still (there are 13 gorges altogether). On reaching the end of the third gorge - another impassable rocky area - the boat turned around and let us off at a waterfall and swimming hole. Some people went swimming but the water was too cold for us. We had afternoon tea there, and then after about 30mins we hopped back on the boat and went back the same way we came. It was a fantastic cruise with lovely scenery, & we had the added bonus of seeing 4 fresh water crocodiles. They still had traps out to try and catch saltwater crocs from the wet season, as they come up when the river is in flood. The gorge river is closed to swimming and canoeing for at least another week until the ranges are confident there is no longer a risk of saltwater crocs in the area. During the wet season the river rises about 15 meters, and the tours are by power boat that takes 40mins instead of 4hrs.

06/06/12 

This morning we had a look at the Springvale Homestead, which is the oldest original homestead in the NT. After lunch Braydon went for a bike ride to practice again riding without his training wheels. Finally he has enough confidence to do it, & came back and said that he didn’t need them anymore & wanted to put them in the bin. So Craig happily obliged. We then took him to the park to play on the swings, & then headed back to the National Park to do one of the walks. First of all we had a look at the Nitmiluk Centre - full of interesting facts & information about the area. We did the Baruwei Walk, which is a 1.8km return walk that takes you to a lookout with lovely views of the Katherine River & Gorge. There were 3 boats that went past us while we were at the lookout, & Braydon was pleased to receive many waves from the tourists. On the way home we had a Maccas icecream as a reward for Braydon being able to ride his bike without training wheels. Katherine is also filled with smoke at the moment as there are bush fires to the south of us being fuelled by big winds.

07/06/12

This morning we caught up on washing – again, & Braydon practiced riding his bike. This afternoon we went to the Katherine Hot Springs. They comprise of a number of crystal clear pools winding through the trees at a constant temperature of 27deg.  We had a great time there relaxing and swimming in the pools. We bought Aaron his own little floating chair, so he also had fun. On the way home we filled up the car with fuel at $1.52c/L which was a bargain. Apparently fuel is cheaper at Katherine than it is at Darwin. We also booked some accommodation for the first time in Darwin as the V8 Supercars are there next weekend, and we have heard that all the accommodation is filling up fast. We have booked in for 8 nights at the Free Spirit Caravan Park. We had dinner at the caravan park restaurant tonight as they put on a guest singer every night and the meals are quite nice.