Whitehaven Beach
Constantly rated in one of the 10 best beaches in the world
It is hardly seen by many Australians
If you go to Airlie see it
The sand is white, not photoshopped, utterly white.
Amazing
Me at whitehaven, slightly skinner
One of the best photos I’ve taken
Cascades is divided into two areas, upper cascades and lower cascades
You can swim at both in the dry, generally only upper cascades in the wet
It is a short but very tricky walk, with a lot of rocks
Nice to get away from the crowds, but expect some people there
Lower is under a waterfall
Upper are mostly small rockpools
Greenant creek is location in litchfield, a 1.6km walk will take you to a nice waterfall and a viewing platform. You can’t get into the water there or anywhere downstream from it, as it is a sacred site for the traditional owners, however, you can swim* at a really nice rockpool right above it. I have been told it is best in wet season, these pictures are from February 2015, and it was a Saturday and we had the rockpool all to ourselves.
* it isn’t a zoned swimming site but the rangers “are aware people swim there and we don’t mind. Be careful of flash flooding as you are right above a waterfall”
Much of my memorable adventures start with reading the Kakadu or Litchfield access report, find a place and calling the rangers up and asking about it. In this case I called the Litchfield rangers to ask about swimming at greenant creek. A quick google search said there was a rockpool you could swim at, the access report said the track was open, but didn’t mention anything about the swimming. What followed was a hilarious conversation with a helpful ranger handicapped by the world we live in. Basically he said:
“there isn’t anywhere that is zoned for swimming there, so I can’t tell you you can swim there. But there is a rockpool above the waterfall that people swim, I swim, and we don’t mind. You don’t have to worry about crocs but you do have to worry about flash flooding, since you’re on top of a waterfall.”
Litchfield in the wet season is generally pretty full, as you can only swim at Florence and the Buley Rockholes, and the weather is such that you really want to swim! So we decided to walk there, and were utterly amazed that we had the entire place to ourselves all day. I imagined all those other people braving the crowds… ah well!
The highlight of the walk were the enourmous golden orb spiders. We saw a few big ones, then ran into two that were just enormous, easily bigger than my hand.
Other than that, just a great day chilling out on top of Litchfield!
On top of the waterfall
In the rockpool
Gubara is a fairly long bushwalk followed by an amazing swimming hole. It’s a good 5km on way, so be ready for the walk with water. The swimming hole is beautiful, the walk back always seems a lot longer
HOWEVER it has since been brought to my attention that swimming there isn’t always such a good idea.
It is generally closed for swimming in the wet as there might be crocs, the walk is usually open. And during the dry they often say it best to miss it due to the algae inside a stagnant pool.
I’ve done it a few times, each time I relied on the advice of friends, rather than me checking out the access report.
I would not recommend this 