Edith falls, Katherine Gorge & Katherine – Campervanning part 3

Posted on October 18, 2015 by Matt

Edith falls is amazing! We headed to the upper pools (2.6km return) with breakfast in the bag and made it to the water with only two other couples there. The actual pools are quite deep with a few sections to swim in, not too cold, with a small waterfall into the main part. Had to watch out for the slippery rocks though!

We spent a good hour or so there and decided to carry on around the loop to get back to the main lake to grab lunch and have another swim. Good to see a bit more wildlife in this lake, plenty of fish to see especially near the waterfall. We pretty much did a lap!

Upper pools:

Main lake:

Our last stop of the day was the famous Katherine Gorge. Hmmm, a bit of a let down for us. Admittedly, we did arrive later than we’d planned, but we had expected a few people to still be there, and a bit of a swimming spot, however at that time (only about 16:30) there was neither…! The tourist information centre and the canoe hire hut were shut, so we couldn’t even get any information! Also, no informational signs around for costs etc.! In the end we decided to have a quick walk up to a lookout spot, it was nice, but not exactly anything to shout about, we just didn’t really see the appeal! We finished the 2.8km “The Loop” walk, while getting quite frustrated at the lack of signage (apparently there were supposed to be two paths following the same track, however one was a 13km walk which we did not want to find ourselves on!), the walk even led us though the water treatment plant (great views…!) We ended up alongside the entry road for a good half kilometre, which led you back through the car parks! An amazing walk (joke), and with only one view of the Gorge on the entire track, you could have been anywhere… Pointless!

Anyhow, after a grumpy walk, we headed back into Katherine to top-up on food, and bed down at a powered site, with access to Katherine hot springs… :)

After a pretty good nights sleep (not as hot now, and less mozzies/flies) we got up fairly early to head to the hot springs (just 400m walk from the back of the site). Whilst not as hot as we were expecting they were definitely warm enough. The place is basically a renovated stream that has a few handrails and steps into it, apparently only recently completed by the council. Heather managed to go swimming with her sunglasses and lose them (but we soon found them again thanks to the crystal clear water). The springs were a really nice start to the day.

Now for the first real slog of the journey heading (~500km) towards the WA border, Lake Argyle and Kununurra.

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Kakadu – Campervanning part 2

Posted on October 16, 2015 by Matt

After a brief stop at the information centre (for water mainly!) we went to our first stop in Ubirr to do some croc spotting (LOADS at Cahills Crossing), bat waking (not on purpose), see some aboriginal wall paintings (strangely the first we’d seen!) and sunset viewing from the most Northerly point in Ubirr, great start.

The next day we set out early, literally a get-up and drive start to the day to join a bird watching tour (yes, bird watching!). It was free and a good way to see some things that we would otherwise miss and we are glad we did. It was not only the twitcher (someone well-known in the international bird watching world apparently!) taking us round but we were also accompanied by one of the parks interpretive rangers. For us, the birds were so-so – we didn’t have binos and didn’t really know what we were looking at (bird wise) but it was a nice walk. What really made it for us though were the talks from the ranger when we passed certain sites of interest.

He had a great knowledge of the land and aboriginal culture it was great to see and hear from someone so passionate and so obviously involved in the aboriginal community. He really made the walk for us.

The afternoon we headed to a swimming hole, and then headed out of Kakadu, to find our first free camping spot of the trip. This was at the turn-off to Edith Falls. It was basically a plot of land that people hole up in, great for what we wanted!

End thoughts on Kakadu: Nice NP, very big, but unless you have a 4wd the best spots are inaccessible, even some of the campgrounds are off limits which is a shame. On the plus side though, the crocs were great, the views of the billabongs were amazing, and the aboriginal artworks were well preserved. I think however it changes quite drastically in the wet season, less yellow and orange, and a lot more green! We preferred Litchfield (that we did on our first visit to Darwin last year) over Kakadu, as there was more to do with a 2wd, and there was a few more water holes that we could use there. But overall, Kakadu was nice and different!

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The Red Centre

Posted on October 11, 2015 by Heather

It’s probably one of the first places Brits think of when picturing Australia (along with the Sydney Opera House and generic beaches) and after being in Australia for 11 months, we finally made it – The Red Centre.

We hopped off The Ghan in Alice Springs, a small town that basically served us as a gateway to Uluru, we saw a lovely sunset from the top of Anzac Hill, visited the Botanic Gardens (don’t get me wrong, I’m sure after some rain they would be beautiful but in truth, they just reflected the area outside the gardens, dry and bare) and walked to and around the Old Telegraph Station.

We hired a car and made the 3 night whistle-stop trip from Alice Springs. After an uneventful 6 hour drive, we arrived in plenty of time to soak up the heat and settle in to our accommodation in Yulara (basically a YHA in the only resort in the area located just outside the National Park ($25 per person entrance fee), before heading out to see the sun set over Uluru. As first impressions go, it was pretty good – it looks exactly as it does in the guide books (although the guidebooks don’t show you all the flies!) Our photos don’t really do it justice in terms of showing the changing light as the sun was setting.
The following morning, we woke early to set off on the Uluru base walk to ensure we returned before the mid-day heat set in. From this angle, Uluru seemed much more grand, a 10km walk around it’s base with a few Aboriginal art sites to observe on the way around, the age and history of the place really kicked in.
We headed back to the hotel for lunch and attended an astronomy seminar “How [not] to win a Nobel Prize”, it was interesting if a bit technical, it certainly tempted us to head back out after sunset to look up at the sky though…stunning! We also managed to see Venus lined up against the moon when we got up at the following morning, we tried to take a photo but our camera/crap photography really didn’t do it any justice at all…in reality it looked like something you’d see on a Christmas card, perfect starry navy blue sky and then a super bright moon and Venus).
We headed out for more walking at The Olgas…
And on our way back to Alice Springs we stopped off to complete the Rim walk at Kings Canyon (as with the rest of the walks we did while in the Red Centre, this one was closed by 11am as the forecast predicted temperatures over 36 degrees) we finished feeling rather proud of ourselves as we managed to hold our record and cut the estimated walk time in half! This walk for me was probably the most impressive, a strenuous walk with incredible landscape and views.
The grading of the walks at these sites seemed a little off, Uluru base walk was graded moderate, presumably because of it’s length as it was almost entirely flat all the way round whereas The Olgas was also moderate but although shorter, featured uneven terrain and some steeps hill sections that required decent grips on your shoes (or a run-up!) and would definitely be a struggle for some. The Kings Canyon had several walks that were graded probably more as you would expect (in terms of difficulty, although the times perhaps a little over estimated), if you didn’t feel up to the full rim walk there were other shorter options.
All in all, we had a great time in the Red Centre, a great thing to tick off the bucket list and plenty of walks to keep you entertained.
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