Day 14 – Katherine to Jabiru (Kakadu)

As we left Katherine this morning, we drove out through the main street which hasn’t changed much since we were here last. Then it was a forty km drive north, then about another 20kms to Edith Falls. They have really upgraded the facilities since we were here last. Concrete paths down to the water, a caravan park, lawn grass area and kiosk. The main attraction though is the 2km (quite steep) walk up to the upper falls. Only one word for these series of rockpools and waterfalls – breathtaking.

 

 

One of the prettiest places we have ever visited anywhere in the world (and we have travelled quite extensively). Absolutely stunning scenery all around. After our walk on the stony paths, up and down hill, it was wonderful to dive into the cool, clear, deep pools and swim around exploring the small cave like rock formations, and swim over to the waterfall.

Brendan managed to fight the current to swim through the waterfall, but it was too strong for us.  There was a power of water coming over the edge today.

There is a series of rock pools hidden behind rocky outcrops that you can clamber over and explore new pools. A wonderful place to visit, and a must do if you are up this way. We then walked back down the hill to the bottom water access point, past the green lawn area of the camp ground. Lily and I jumped in and had a swim around here too, looking at the pretty striped fish in the water. The temp was about 32 degrees today, so we were certainly ready for another swim.
 

 

After our beautiful stopover here for a few hours, it was back in the car for another 300kms up the road to the Kakadu National Park ($25 per adult entry here too!). We headed for the tiny town of Jabiru to our accommodation for the night, Anbinik Kakadu Resort. A beautiful, small caravan / cabin park – each powered caravan site with its own ensuite building (shower/toilet/sink).  There are only 15 caravan sites in total here.  The park is interspersed with huge flowering frangipani trees, banana palms and pandanas. After checking in, we hit the beautiful resort pool, which was (as a lot of places are up here), frequented by lots of German tourists.

As we travel we have used the WikiCamps phone app extensively to research and book our accommodation for the night. Written by fellow campers it is a truly up to date, wonderful resource for live feedback and prices about each town and each accommodation option. It also lists all the things to see and do (and feedback and prices) in the area. It’s a brilliant little app, and one we use every day.  Anyway, that’s were we found out about this accommodation place, and we could see it would get booked out quickly, so we rang ahead and booked two nights a couple of days ago. Glad we did, as they are booked out. Although we have infrequent internet/phone service as we travel, you can download the app content offline, and then it updates itself with new data when it can. Very handy!

After a cool down in the lovely pool, we headed up the road to Ubirr, which we remembered from our last visit 12 years ago, was stunning at sunset, and we were not disappointed. Ubirr is a short walk down a groomed path through the pandanas palms and gum trees, past many ancient aboriginal rock art painting sites (with explanations), then up a 250m steep climb up a rocky escarpment.  We were astonished at the hundreds of other people that were also up here in this remote place. (Even a big tour group of school kids from Kyabram).

As we ascended up the rockface, and stood on top, we witnessed almost a 360 degree view of the area. A breathtaking view towards the massive plains of Arnhem Land (no entry by white men without a permit) over verdant green wetlands, teaming with wildlife. As we watched the sun slowly sink down over the landscape, it turned the rocks an iridescent red, and lit up the sky in a riot of pinks and oranges – hard to describe, but just absolutely gorgeous. Another very favourite place in Australia to visit. Today, we visited two of our all time favourite places to see in this great big world of ours, not bad for a simple family from Sunbury!