Woke to the sound of the alarm chime (which tries ever so hard to sound cheerful, and fails) at the glorious hour of 05:00 as a last minute check of timing last night revealed that we actually needed to leave camp by 05:40, not 06:00. Showered, dressed, packed some lunch and the obligatory litre after litre of drinking water into the truck by braille, with much stumbling, groaning and muted cursing, and hit the road for Yellow Waters. Constant prayers for a wallaby free road were answered, and we made it to the boat on time.
Was it all worth it? Is the Pope a Catholic? Does Night follow Day? Does Jack Newton swim in circles? Do bears sh.... you get the idea. Too right it was worth it. I doubt the whole two hour cruise would have covered more than five kilometers of the Yellow waters billabong and South Alligator River as we were constantly stopping to look at different birds, tree snakes, crocs, water lilies etc, etc, etc. Just amazing. The guide, Margaret, seemed to be able to spot things before they were even there. She was fantastic and really knew her stuff. The wildlife is so used to the boats that you can generally get up quite close and watch them just go about their stuff. We sat right next to a Darter (apparently that's the proper name for a Shag. Well at least up here it is.) for at least five minutes watching it try to get a fish it had speared off it's beak so it could swallow it. Poor bugger really had to work hard for his breakfast.
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| Almost as foggy as my head :) |
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| White Breasted Sea Eagles |
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| Blue Winged Kookaburra |
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| Azure Kingfisher |
Cruise over, it was back to Gagudju Lodge at Coolinda for buffet breakfast. Now that's something I could get used to :)
Waddled back out to the truck with groaning bellies and headed off to the Jim Jim Falls (and Twin Falls) track. 56ks of corrugations settled the stomachs admirably. When stopped at Garnamarr to buy tickets for the boat shuttle to Twin Falls, the woman there advised us to go to Twin Falls first to make sure we wouldn't miss the last boat. She also told us that it was 42 degrees C in the Twin Falls car park yesterday, and not likely to be any cooler today! Took her advice and turned off the main track to Jim Jim and engaged the diff locks for the final 9ks to Twin Falls which took nearly an hour in first and second gear with a little bit of low range through the river crossing to keep the speed down.
Much more fun than the corrugations on the main road.
Was it 42 in the car park? I don't know. Suffice to say, if we were made of wax we would have melted! It was HOT, damn hot. Anyway we set off for the falls. First you walk up the creek bed (sand in the shoes is a constant here) to where the boat docks. Then into the boat with the obligatory tour guide (Lisa)
who welcomes you to the land on behalf of the owner, and gives you some insight into the area and it's importance still to the indigenous people. She also explained why you are not allowed to swim here any more, which is a pity cos it was so hot (I think I mentioned that already) and the water is incredibly clear as it comes direct from the falls which are fed by a spring at the top of the canyon. They catch several salties here every year, so you can never be totally certain it is safe, and the area is used for secret men's business which Lisa couldn't talk about cos she is not a man (all makes sense when you think about it). I think this is ultimately a good thing. The local aborigines are trying to maintain their culture and give their people some purpose and self respect, and it seems to be making a difference. There is nowhere near the number of unemployed locals hanging around outside the shopping center, or anywhere else, that you see in places like Alice or Katherine. And there appears to be a complete lack of VB Coroborrees.
From where the boat drops you, ir is another 500 meters or so of rock scramble and pontoon walkway to the falls. There are a couple of hand pump showers on the pontoon, which we made use of on both crossings to cool off - great idea. Last year's wet season was pretty poor, so only one of the falls was really running, bit it was still well worth the effort. A really beautiful place, and we had it almost to ourselves for most of the time which is quite unusual.
By the time we got back to the car park we were completely drained and decided to give Jim Jim Falls a miss as it would entail a kilometer scramble over rocks each way and there was no water there anyway. The pool and bar back in Jabiru was singing it's siren song. So we retraced our path and headed for home.
Hang on, what about the shovel? Did the cup hooks work, or did Vibratum have his evil way with the shovel mounts again?
Oh ye of little faith. They worked a treat and the shovel stayed exactly where it was supposed to.
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