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