Kakadu, Arnhem Land and Nitmuluk

It only seemed fitting that we should end our amazing month in the Northern Territory with the jewel of the Territory; Kakadu. Although we had passed through Kakadu on our way to and from Cobourg, we had saved exploring this part of NT until Tash and Adam arrived. So as we left Darwin heavily laden with our additional travellers, their gear and all the usual Big Red paraphernalia, we were very excited about the week ahead of us.

To get our visiting Sydney-sider out of the southern winter and into the mood for some outback adventure, they decided to head off up Katherine gorge in a canoe overnight. We decided they would either come back totally psyched for the rest of their trip or…. they might not come back at all. We had decided not to join them, partly because it would simply be too difficult with Jarvis and also because we don't have a tent with us. We happily pottered around the campground, went for a swim and walked to the lookout over Katherine Gorge whist we awaited their return.

As it turned out, our visitors did return, weary and tired but with very big smiles. So after a much needed night of recovery, we set off for Arnhem Land. We had managed to get tickets to a performance put on by the Beswick Aboriginal Community. It was a corroboree of sorts set down on a river bed with a rock wall surrounding us and a waterfall flowing into a plunge pool nearby. The whole community attended and most of them took part in the dancing, singing and story telling. The performance was fantastic. It was disorganised and generally chaotic but it felt like it was a night of culture for the community and we were simply lucky enough to be permitted to join in. Just to make the night even more special all the visitors were welcomed to camp in the surrounding bush, normally visitors would only be allowed into the art centre in the town and only for a day visit, so we felt very privileged. 

The next day we were finally off to Kakadu. Tash and Adam had completely relaxed into life on the road and we were all ready to see what Kakadu had to offer. Our first stop didn't fail to impress. We set up camp at Gunlom Waterhole. This is supposed to be one of the most popular swimming spots in the park, but we were lucky enough to have the falls to ourselves for an afternoon swim amongst the palm fronds. In the morning we climbed to the top of the falls to watch the sunrise over the rocky hillsides and grassy plains of southern Kakadu. We again had the place to ourselves and watched the land reflect the sky's changing colours as the sun rose and lit up the world below.

We'd had a taste of Kakdu's waterfalls and wanted more, so we made our way through the rough 4WD track to Twin Falls and Jim Jim Falls. The last part of the trip into Twin Falls was via a small boat up the river, run by the local Aboriginal Community and then a walk / climb past waterholes and through steep rocky gorges. Again, as providence would have it, we had the place to ourselves. 

After soaking in the serenity at Twin Falls we made our way to Jim Jim for a swim (no swimming at Twin Falls due to crocs). To get to Jim Jim we wandered under the canopy of remnant rainforest and then clambered over huge rocks. Just when we thought we could clamber no more, we came upon dark green pools surrounded by huge rock walls over which poured a thin stream of water. The pools were inviting enough for us to ignore the biting cold of the water and we washed away the day's grime and floated in the cool water.

No visit to Kakadu is complete without a visit to Yellow Waters. Most people have to pay lots of money to pile on a boat with dozens of other people just to get out on this beautiful billabong. But who needs a paid cruise when you've got a 3.7m tinny. It was a stretch, but we all piled in to our little boat at the crack of dawn for a breakfast cruise (banana and peanut butter sandwiches) amongst the lily pads, flocks of birds and some of the biggest crocs we've seen. Just as we were thinking about heading home, Rob decided to flick a couple of lures around and five minutes later he hooked a Barramundi. He couldn't have staged it better for our visiting friends (yep, it's always that easy). It was a keeper too (60cm) and we had a delicious Barramundi barbecue with camp oven veges for dinner that night.

Being able to have fires and cook in the camp oven was a fantastic part of Kakadu camping, we made basically every meal in the camp oven. But the fires were't the only good point, the campsites in general in Kakadu were fabulous. None of them were too busy and each site was pretty private and large enough to fit a few people. It was some of the nicest camping we've come across on the trip.

The north of Kakadu is renowned for its rock art. So we finished our tour of the park visiting two of amazing sites (Nouralgie and Ubir). Some of the rock art is thousands of years old and relics found in a rock shelter have been dated to 20,000 years. It's fairly amazing to walk the same paths and into the same rock shelters as Aboriginal people have been doing (and continue to do) since before any of the cities on earth were built. At Nouralgie, we made our way up to a lookout which had story boards which put some of the paintings we'd seen into perspective of the landscape and surroundings.

We had started our Kakadu experience with the sunrise over southern Kakadu so it only seemed fitting to spend our last night in the park watching the sun set over the northern floodplains of this remarkable place. We walked to the top of Ubir with several other people and were mesmerised by the setting sun in the west and the rising full moon in the east. A simply perfect moment none of us will forget any time soon.

Kakadu exceeded all of our expectations and the experience was made even better by being able to share it. It was so special cooking dinner with friends by the fire under a blanket of stars, laughing for hours instead of watching the km's tick over on the long drives and sharing our wonder at this amazing place.

A big thank you to Adam for providing us with many of the photos on this post.