We decided to take our good friends Tom & Ails down to Butterfly Gorge. It is a series of rock pools in a narrow gorge with very steep and beautiful escarpment.
The 4WD trip was nice, I do love getting out on the tracks, but I have to admit I like the softer tracks more. We got there and there was barely anyone there, and that was the same for most of the day, which always makes for a good trip.
Claire and I had been there before, but it is still one of the best places to go for a swim. We entertained ourselves with a makeshift water slide down a rock, Tom being the most awkward, and Claire being the one who managed to put a large bruise on herself. Of course.
I would highly recommend everyone sees Butterfly Gorge at least once.
We went to Kakadu for the night with Claire’s parents. Managed to see Ubirr, Yellow Water cruise, and Nourlangie. We stayed in the crocodile, so technically we did swim, but it was the pool – not quite the same thing.
The first night we went to Ubirr but it was very cloudy and we didn’t get a sunset. The second day we got up early and went to the Yellow Water cruise, and later went to Ubirr again, this time the sky was clear and it was a great sunset. That night was amazing as it was the night of a supermoon, which was rising directly behind the sunset.
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.
Dad was up in Darwin for his 60th, so we decided to surprise him with this houseboat trip. If you live n Darwin you definitely have to do a trip out here, the wetlands are stunning. We got to have a fish, but didn’t get any barra. Fishing is really difficult in Corroboree Billabong, at least it has been since I arrived in 2012.
Highlight was getting (someone else’s) fishing line wrapped around the prop, which took a while to sort out, and course we were stuck against the bank after that. We somehow managed to get free by pushing a broom against a tree, this pointed the point around enough that we got the houseboat moving.
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.
