Claire and I arrived in Mardugal on Saturday and set up camp. Love that campsite, and we found wood easily. We went to Ubirr for the sunset, which is probably our favourite place in the territory. We then headed back for dinner and a few cold ones. There were a few fires on the drive back.
We spent Sunday in Maguk. We noticed that the midgees had eaten us alive, I think this is a common thing in June at any campground.
Maguk was great, there were quite a few bogans with eskies around, which was a shame, but they mostly kept to the top of the waterfall – although the signs indicated that they weren’t allowed there.
On the way home on Monday we stopped by Ikoymarrwa, it wasn’t marked on any maps, and this was the first time we had been there. It took a bit of finding… and the water was freezing!! Beautiful spot though.
Paradise Valley again this year, the last one that the Gell’s will own. We got our canoeing trip it, it was freezing, I have become accustomed to the NT weather faster than I want to admit.
There isn’t much to say about it, it is always great fun.
I was down in Victoria for New Years Eve and I was invited along to a camping festival to celebrate the new year. It is run by some friends on mine from high school. It is pretty difficult to describe to people who haven’t been there, it is camping, loud music and partying, very bright colours, silly costumes (just for the sake of it). I won’t post anything too detailed as I suppose some people may not want their ridiculous attire on the internet, so just a few snaps: the campsite; and a group of us playing in the river:
Took the old man’s Pajero complete with car fridge. Definitely a step up from my rig, but a bit out of price range at the moment!
These festivals have been running for a few years, usually on private property and invite only (like this year). This is the second one that I have managed to get to – but hopefully that will change when I move to Victoria!
An amazing trip. One of those trips where everything goes according to plan, the weather was nice, the locations were great, more than a few laughs.
First Claire and I went down to Garnamarr and set up camp. We didn’t burn any wood on the first night as it was pretty warm. The stars were just amazing. We had both been working pretty hard and hadn’t been out in a while, it felt like we were on holidays.
The next morning we headed to Twin Falls. The river crossing was great fun. It is paved, so not as scary as it looks. When you get there, you then take a boat. The indigenous guide/captain was really interesting, he told us a few stories, what the land means and so forth. I found it interesting that all indigenous cultures across Australia believe that a serpent created the earth. Anyway – when we got there, wow! It was paradise on earth. Beach, vegetation, escarpment, rock pools, still a trickle of a waterfall…
Just a real shame that it is now closed for swimming. So we headed to Jim Jim Falls.
Jim Jim wasn’t flowing at this time of year. The walk was interesting… the distance is quite short, but it takes forever, as you need to jump from large rock to large rock to get there. The water was colder than I expected, and the water right at the base of the fall (pictured) was freezing!! Who would have thought?
There were a lot of people there, it is clearly a popular place for guides. It was great, but it still amazes me that Maguk gets so little attention in comparison. After a swim, a packed lunch, and an even longer trip back, (tried to take a shortcut, that was my first mistake) we headed back to camp.
The stars were even brighter than the night before, if I had any skill as a photographer I would have tried to take a photo. We lit a fire for cooking and also to keep the midgees away. Nothing better than having a few beers around a campfire. We stayed up late before packing up and heading home.
We decided to take a few days off during the week and head down to Gunlom. Claire had just come off nights and has an amazing ability to sleep in any car in any condition, including corrugated roads. We met up with a lot of her uni friends who had been down at Edith Falls for the night. This was the first time that we had been to Gunlom, and the scenery certainly didn’t disappoint.
It was May yet Claire and I decided not to bother setting up the outer canvas on our tent. The weather was great the first day, but the rest of the camp decided to pack it up and go home early. We stayed until late arvo on the second day, we packed it up and headed back… and got absolutely belted by a storm! Lesson learnt, don’t trust Kakadu until July!
Claire and me at the upper pool
The lower pool, the waterfall still flowing freely with all the rain they’d had.
