2002/11 Australia trip - Edith Falls and Gunlom |
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Wednesday October 16th
We took off, bleary-eyed, on the next leg of our journey. I was woken up by the sight of a big snake dangling from an eagle’s claws as it flew across our path. Keep a firm grip there, Mr. Eagle. We took the park road back to Katherine, and turned north again along the Stuart Highway and then down a side road to Edith Falls.
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Exit from Nitmiluk (1.16) |
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We were still within Nitmiluk park. In fact there is a rather long (days!) walk along the river from our previous campsite to here. Edith Falls was on the other side of a large lake, and obviously a popular stop for bus tours, as the tiny beaches were crowded. The waterfall looked very inviting on a sizzling hot day, but it was too far away for us to swim there, so we decided to hike up over the bluffs and get to it from behind.
It was amazingly hot up on the bluffs, difficult to breath, and even hotter when the wind 
came across the black, burned-off areas. From there we climbed down to the upper waterfalls, beautiful pools of hot water. I had a good swim up there but blistered my toes walking over the rocks. It was a hot walk back down to the other side of the lake.
We found one shady spot at the Edith River. This had some water in it but it wasn’t flowing. The lake must have been evaporating faster than the water was coming in from the waterfall.
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Edith Falls (9.05) |  |
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We stopped at the little kiosk in the parking area for some sandwiches. The manager was surprised that we’d hiked the bluffs. “It’s always ten degrees hotter up there and it’s in the mid 40s here (113F) so it must be 50-something (120+F).” It was certainly the hottest place I’ve been since our trip to Death Valley on midsummer’s day!
I never thought I’d look forward to drinking hot water, but that’s what we had in our water bottles. The water in the tank in our campervan was even hotter. The tank is only a few inches off the road, and the water from there was too hot to put our hands in.
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Road to Kakadu (7.16) |
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We decided not to camp there and moved on north instead, hoping to get into Kakadu 
National Park by nightfall. The scenery was changing, with larger trees, and thicker vegetation. Everywhere still looked parched, but there seemed to be water in the creeks and rivers. The termite mounds were now enormous, some over twice my height.
We made it into the park by late afternoon, and asked the ranger at the entrance station for the closest campsite. She sent us 20 miles down a sand and rock track to a place called Gunlom. She said it had a nice swimming spot. It turned out to have a quiet campground, with only a couple of other campers in there.
We had our feet up and were enjoying a beer when the ranger turned up to collect the fees. He told us that he was a “thermal refugee” from Lancashire. He’d been at the park since April working seven days a week and he had about two weeks to go before the Wet came and the campground would be closed. He said the creek crossings would flood and the rest of the road would turn into one big mud hole.
He suggested that we should ignore the “Beware of crocs” sign and go take a swim in the small lake at the base of the cliffs. He said that the park managers had put the signs in front of every piece of water in Kakadu, but that he’d been swimming there every day and had never seen a croc. So we walked through the woods in the dark and went swimming under a nearly full moon. It was a spectacular swimming spot with clear, warm water, towering cliffs, and just a mist coming down the waterfall. Sandie was nipped by something, but it turned out to be just a gang of little crayfish. We had no trouble with crocs.
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Gunlom (10.18) |  |
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Thursday October 17th
Next morning the flies were even more troublesome than usual, so we put on repellant, but it only worked for a while. We were taking an early morning hike that turned into a scramble up the cliffs to the top of the waterfall. We soon sweated the repellant off! We never used it again, or even the head nets. We just learned to live with the flies.
At the top of the cliff there was a whole chain of small waterfalls, with clear water and red rocks, and a magnificent view across Kakadu’s bush, far below. We were the only people there. We splashed around in the pools there too, and later climbed down for a final swim in the main pool to wash off all the trail dust. This was a wonderful spot we’d come to, and really just by accident.
We found out later that this was where Paul Hogan and Linda Kozlowski swam in the Crocodile Dundee movie. Because of this it’s a favourite spot for the adventure tour businesses, and their buses and trucks began arriving just as we were leaving. We were moving on anyway, further into the park.