Fun adventures at Edith Falls, Kakadu and now in Darwin!

Hi all- haven’t been able to update the blog the last little while as we have been in Kakadu with no phone or internet reception…so this update is slightly long, as I have been keeping notes on our fun Kakadu adventures on the computer anyway and have uploaded them here….we are now in darwin and thrilled to be in a city. We both have been craving the coast and also some city luxuries, like nice restaurants, good coffee, hairdresser, shops etc. We’ve been in the bush, national parks and small towns basically since we left the east coast and Cairns… We arrived here this afternoon and had a lovely walk around the esplanade area and watched the sunset at Mindill beach…beautiful! Now we are mapping out the things we’d like to see and do over the coming 5 days and first impressions of Darwin are very good. Meanwhile…here is what we have been doing!:

*****************************

August 1

A great day exploring Edith Falls, about 60kms from Katherine. Once again it was stinking hot! About 38 at one stage…but lovely clear blue skies and it made swimming in the pools beneath the falls that much nicer! We walked to some upper water falls, a really pretty spot with lovely swimming places. We had a nice picnic lower down on a very large pool at the bottom of a series of falls.
Tonight we ate dip and biccies back at our van park while we listened to the free entertainment- an award winning bush poet. He was great –especially his poems about caravanning! Hilarious. We listened to him yesterday arvo too and it was what inspired me to write my article of the Top Ten Things you Need to Know About Caravanning, which I posted here.

Heading into Kakadu tomorrow and looking forward to it.

Today is also exactly 5 years since Adam and I met… :-)

August 2-3

At kakadu and as usual we’ve hit the ground running! It’s very hot still (low to mid thirties). We’ve been to the Aboriginal cultural centres here, which are really well done and explain a lot about how they lived off the land here for so many years and their way of life.

Lots of people, before we left home, who had been to Kakadu joked about it not being that great, saying “kaka-don’t more like it” etc. So perhaps for the better, we came here with fairly low expectations. This morning, however, was one of the highlights of our entire trip so far for me (Adam loved it too)- we took a Yellow waters boat cruise on a billabong area and it was fantastic!! We went at 6.45 am and saw the sun rise over the wetlands- the water a perfect reflection with bird life everywhere! It was a really beautiful morning…saw jabiru, sea eagles, kites, jacanas, herons, darters, magpie geese, pygmy geese, ducks, herons, kingfishers, corellas, flycatchers, finches….the list goes on. Also saw LOTS of estuarine crocs (the nasty kind). Got some lovely photos.
Before we leave we intend doing the same boat trip, but at sunset!

After that we set off and did a walk around some interesting sandstone escarpments and along the river (bloody hot and we both felt a bit grumpy!)…then went to one of the popular Aboriginal rock art sites- Ubirr…very good collection of art, dating back thousands of years. Listened to some free park ranger talks and saw the sunset from there, with great views. So a great, but very long day - especially considering the rock art we saw is around 100kms from where we are staying- this is a BIG park, with lots of woodlands and you have to travel a long way to see the various highlights to make the visit worthwhile.

Tomorrow we are going over 100kms in the other direction to see Gunlom Falls and catch another free ranger talk (we also watched a slideshow on crocs last night and enjoyed a free sausage sizzle at our park here at Yellow Waters). Then in the afternoon we’ve booked in to take a scenic flight- cant wait. Many people have said it’s the only way to gain a real perspective on the land in Kakadu- it’s so vast and so diverse, surrounded by the Arnhem Land escarpment, rocky ridges and gorges, monsoon forest, woodlands and of course rivers and billabongs and floodplains.

Lots of mozzies here!! Both have lots of bites already.

August 4-5-6

Hi- we’ve been really busy in Kakadu and have enjoyed it. It’s true as I said before- it’s a huge park and lots of it is woodlands…but if you put in the effort you can find some great spots.
Gunlom Falls was a lovely spot- we rose at about 6am and arrived there early and in time for the free ranger talk which was interesting. We walked to the top of the falls where there are rock pools – had a nice swim before walking back down and having lunch on a sandy beach beside a plunge pool at the bottom of the waterfall. Being the dry season none of the waterfalls are very big right now, but it was a pretty spot.

We drove back to Cooinda (where our van is parked) and took a scenic flight in a small plane- really worthwhile…from the air you can a real perspective of Kakadu and much better understanding of the landscape…clearly seeing the long escarpment, the gorges and valleys, the plains, the rivers and the wetlands, billabongs etc.

We then listened to the entertainment here and had a drink.

Next day we were once again up early- this time to drive to the Mamakula wetlands…a good spot for birdwatching and a recommended spot in the park brochures. It was nice, with all the usual waterbirds. We then drove to the Nourlangie section of the park, famous for its collection of aboriginal rock art. The art was interesting, and it’s amazing to think how long ago the first paintings were done and to imagine what our country must have been like then.
We then set off on a walk around Anbangbang Billabong…a very pretty billabong, full of birds and lilies. As we were walking along I thought I saw a large bird near the top of a tree, but wasn’t sure if it was just a branch. I grabbed the binoculars (a must for any try hard birdwatcher like me) and saw that it was an owl! We looked it up in the book later and discovered it was a Barking Owl- as you might expect they make a sound like a dog barking. So we thought that was pretty cool.
We had a picnic by the billabong too.

After lunch we embarked on a walk to some natural pools in a section of monsoon forest in the park- nice and cool compared to being in the sun! It was a hot walk into the forest section but nice when we got in there…there were some small pools where you could swim and we had the place to ourselves for quite a while which was nice and relaxing. We watched the birds and a small goanna which went in fishing, before laying in the sun on a rock right near us. I had a swim in the deeper pool of the two, which was refreshing (although when swimming here I am always nervous about seeing a croc…the area we were in was a monitored area, and only freshies were likely to be anywhere around..but still).
In the evening I watched the sunset over Yellow Waters (right near where we are staying)..it was beautiful, I really really love that spot! The sun went blood red and there were birds everywhere, silhouetted by the sun as it sank from view and lit the water up in a blaze of colour.

Today (Sunday) I again rose early (about 5.45am) as I went on another Yellow Waters cruise, and watched the sunrise and saw lots more birds and saltwater crocs. I saw some birds I hadn’t yet seen up here- spoonbills and brolgas as well as the usual customers. Also saw a huge croc- at least 4.5 metres! It lumbered up out of the water onto the bank right next to the boat.

Then Adam and I set off for another waterfall, gorge area- called Maguk. It was a 4wd road in and then a walk to the gorge and swimming spot (another croc “controlled area” which means they check it at the start of the dry and remove any saltwater crocs, but somewhat unsettling are the signs which say the crocs “may move in undetected to this area”- tour groups etc go these places, swimming etc and it’s probably as much to cover the park from any liability etc…but still!).
It was a really lovely spot- one of our highlights of Kakadu. We walked to the upper pools- so deep and so so clear! One was small and round, and like a perfect natural spa pool…and very deep (maybe 12ft)….so we sat in that for a while…even bombed into it which was fun. We ate our lunch up there too, and once again, were fortunate to have the place to ourselves for a while, before people started rolling through.
I had another swim at the larger plunge pool at the bottom of the falls (lots of people and tour groups etc were swimming which made me feel a bit better) and we read our books for a while before walking back out.
This evening we again watched the sunset at Yellow Waters and it didn’t disappoint. Just beautiful.

Now we are once again exhausted…off to Darwin tomorrow and both of us really looking forward to a change of pace and being in a city for a little while anyway.
********************************

So that’s it for now…some piccies very soon

Lots of love…Em & Ad xx