Tag Archives: swimming

Overnighter at Jarrangbarnmi / Koolpin

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Seeing Jarrangbarnmi (which used to be called Koolpin Gorge) was at the top of my list of things that I wanted to see up here. It was cancelled on us once before, because they couldn’t remove a croc. And all the permits were booked out the last time we tried to go. We decided to book the permits for one night on Saturday and Sunday. It was nearly 5 hours from Darwin, but it was worth it.


That rock is much higher than it looks in the photo

We got there, set up, then went to have a look at the river. It was amazingly clear. There was no swimming here because of possible crocodiles, but it was nice to see. The only thing that irked me a little about the campsite was the massive section reserved for ‘tour groups only’  which is fine, except there weren’t any. Meanwhile the other permit holders were forced to set up next to each other. We had run out of time to do the walk to the Gorge, so we just had a few drinks, watched the sunset, set the fire up and had dinner. Later that night we experienced this strange sensation I had not felt since being in Victoria… I remember it was called… cold?


With beanies by the fire

The next morning we packed up and headed to the Gorge itself. The walk… is… not very well signposted. It would be, if you decided to read the map that you were given. But since we had been down to river and there was a big sign about the walk, and a well worn trail, I assumed that was the starting place. Maps are stupid anyway. After about an hour we hit a trail marker, which meant that
a) There were trail markers, and
b) We had not been on the trail

After that we got to the pink pool, the smaller and easier one to get to. After our long walk across a lot of rocks we decided to swim and eat here before moving to the black pool upstream. We were the only ones around which makes things that much better. We had a long swim involving jumping off some rocks, and just generally lay around. Claire was having some trying to take photos of me jumping off the rocks. She was finding it hard to time which meant I probably did it twenty times in a row. It was pretty funny, and of course, a lot of fun!

I went for a walk to check out the black pool. It was amazing, far larger than I thought it would be. I sort of regretted having spent the day in the pink pool, but the way that I figure, it gives me an excuse to go back.


The black pool

On the way back going across the correct track markets, it took about 15 minutes. Whoops. Otherwise everything went well, the new car suspension was fine, I used the roof rack for gathering a large amount of firewood and that worked well. It was great to get away, even if it was for the night, and now I’ve been to all the swimming spots in Kakadu.

El Questro – Part 1 of the Kimberley

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We arrived in El Questo for the first part of our trip. We managed to get a private campsite. It was $174 for two days, though about half of that was the “park pass” that gave you access to the gorges. A bit pricey… but wow! It was worth it. It was the best campsite that I have seen. Right on a river, under some great trees, with no one around. It is a cattle station and we were a bit suprised to see a herd of cows sitting around the camp site. Most left but one was a bit bold and kept trying to come over. We shooed her away, but she would always come back. Eventually we managed to chase her off in the car.


Campsite

Moonrise by the River

The next morning we woke up early and headed straight to the thermal spring. It was a great spot to swim, with only a couple of people there we timed it really well.


Then we went to Emma Gorge. Claire nearly walked over a black snake. Usually snakes are quite scared of humans but this one was quite happy taking the path, not interested in leaving on account of us.


Emma Gorge

The Emma Gorge walk was amazing, when we got there it was far too cold to swim, but we had some bikkies and dip before heading back.

On the way back we went to El Questro gorge. It was really Jurassic Park like. Walking at the bottom of some massive escarpments all the way through. Had a good swim in the half way pool too, then headed back. The water crossing there was a bit scary, all of them are very easy but this one started easy at about 300mm on rocks then suddenly changed to 500mm on mud. But we got through without a problem.

That night we had some more fun with a swim a few drinks by our river, once again had a great moon in the blue sky. One of the neighbours was pumping music, and I went over to ask them to turn it down… turns out it wasn’t them, but the homestead. What was even funnier was, thanks to WA time, it was actually 7.30pm at night. I’ve clearly turned into a grumpy old man.

The next morning we packed up and checked the stockmans waterhole out. We had a bit of driving to do to get to the King Edward river camp site, so we didn’t go for a swim.

Long weekend in Wagiman Country

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Just got back from an amazing long weekend away.

On the first day we got to Douglas Hot Springs to find the camping ground was packed! I guess you can’t really expect much else on a long weekend. We found a nice spot and then went to the thermal springs. I was expecting them to be like the luke warm pools of Mataranka, but I was wrong. Parts are hot enough to burn you! Everyone sits up a bout 20 metres downstream and the water temperature is fantastic, ranging from a hot bath to cool.

Claire and I had a swim and a drink, before heading back to camp. We were treated to an amazing sunset. I used this to take some snaps of Suzi with her new roof rack. (And everyone knows bullbars double as clotheslines).

The next morning we went to Butterfly Gorge, and I managed to leave my camera at the campsite! We had been there before it wasn’t so bad. It is one of the best places to swim in the NT. I have to admit the rock hopping can get quite difficult – I am always a little relieved that Claire manages to get out uninjured.
We went back and hit the thermal pools again in the afternoon, it was much needed, as the water at Butterfly Gorge was freezing.
The Sunday night was slightly less crowded but unfortunately it brought out the camping behaviour that makes me avoid busy periods. A shame, but I would still recommend the campsite, especially to those with young children.
Got up on the Monday and headed to Umbrawarra Gorge. It took a bit of finding, but it was a really lovely spot, a nice beach next to a striking gorge. You could have spent a lot of time moving up it, but we only had a few hours, so we just had a swim and some lunch, before having to head back home.

Kakadu Trip for Easter

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I wasn’t able to get home to Paradise Valley for my normal Easter Trip, so Claire and I decided to go away for the night and booked into Cooinda. On the way down we stopped at Ubirr. It was interesting to see it with a lot of water, it was extremely green. We also got to do a small creek crossing, just 40mm over a road.

We stopped at a few of the culverts and I had a flick. It was the middle of the day so I wasn’t very hopeful that we would get anything and we didn’t. But it was still good fun. In the afternoon friends of ours arrived (Renee and Mick) with their boat. We fished yellow water for about an hour and half, didn’t get a lot of barra, but got some a few tarpon, Claire was very impressed and took this photo:

I guess the other interesting thing was the sheer amount of dragonflies that were mating each other. Everywhere. All over the boat, a few landed on my rod and just started going at it. Good on them I guess. Had a few beers in the evening. Saw the eclipse or “Blood Moon” which looked great.

On Sunday we drove the full look and went to Ikoymarrwa for a swim. I was amazed about how cold it was, despite the opressive heat! Also only a few groups stopped off, the majority of the time it was empty, this being the only swimmable water hole in Kakadu on Easter Sunday. It just goes to show how much more you can get of things with a bit of research.

Greenant day trip in the wet season

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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