Today we got up bright and early … well early for NT time.
We’ve swapped from 6am starts to 7:30am starts.
Not too far to go … but we’re not too sure where we’ll end up. I’d researched WA plenty, but not so much for NT.
Kakadu should occupy us for about 3 days, but where we were camping and what we were going to do was a bit of a mystery.
We got to the ranger station and asked a few questions and got told a few tall stories. The road conditions just didn’t turn out as bad as we’d been told. Not to say that they were great, mind you … just not as horrific as they made out.
The first attraction that we had in mind was Gunlom Falls and Pool. The road into there was supposed to be ‘rough as guts’, but the part of the road into the first campsite, Kambolgie, was supposed to be OK. Our plan then, was to drop the van at the camp and then take the Prado the rest of the way.
Prado Kakadu in Kakadu!
The camp was in good nick. We even had a ready made fireplace and picnic table on our site. Gotta be happy with that.
The remainder of the track into Gunlom wasn’t really that much worse than anything else we’d seen, but it would have been a pain taking the van the extra 20km each way. Just not necessary.
The trip to Gunlom Falls though … very necessary. Spectacular stuff.
It doesn’t look it in the photo, but the water was really clear. That’s a sandy bottom in the foreground. No wind also meant that you could easily see for ages in the water. Not much chance of a croc sneaking up on ya.
We were screaming hot after this short, flat walk and we all took a dip here psyching ourselves up for the hot, steamy walk to the top of the falls.
We managed to get a bit lost and off the track getting up to the top. It wasn’t real well marked and we just clambered our own way up in the end.
Worth it though !!! … Welcome to the Kakadu Hot Tub.
A spectacular series of small waterfalls and small pools. All very much appreciated after the hot and sweaty climb up here.
Ya wouldn’t know we’d just been swimming by the time we got back down. The kids had a play in the sprinkler … remember that Victorians?
The evening was just plain dry and hot. It took ages to drop below the days maximum of 35 … the Jayco had every flap and window open and it was of no use at all. There was absolutely no wind. It took until almost sunrise before it was cold enough to reach for the doona.
Overnight the animal noises of Kakadu woke us up periodically. There’s an awful lot going on out there after dark.
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