Monday, November 27, 2017

Monday 27th November – Katherine and Edith Falls

It rained overnight, so the air felt cooler this morning.  This, plus the time change yesterday, gave us a lie-in so we need to readjust our body clocks to get back to moving earlier again!  I showered for the second time in less than 24 hours, though there seems little point.  It’s reached that humidity where you step out of the shower and never get dry because your whole body ends up damp from sweat before you’ve even dressed. Yuk!



By the time we’d driven the 90 minutes into Katharine it was 1130am.  Time for another tank of petrol, then it was straight to the VC for lots of information about Kakadu.  It turns out that there aren’t park passes in the Northern Territory, because you only have to pay for Kakadu and Uluru parks.  But they’re expensive.  Kakadu was $25 each. You can visit for up to a week for that, though.  It’s not their fault that we’ve only got one day!  We utilised their one-hour’s free Wi-Fi and treated ourselves to a rare coffee out.  Then it was time to go and see some of the dramatic scenery promised in the ‘top-end’ as it’s known.  

Our first stop was a recommendation from our neighbours in Karratha, Edith Falls, which was only a 30-minute drive away.  There are two pools that it’s normally safe to swim in, however, the lower pool had been closed for the season.  Only yesterday.  We didn’t ask if that was because someone had a close encounter with a local crocodile or just because it’s the end of November?! Either way, what this meant was that if we wished to have a swim, we would have to do the 3.2km loop walk up to the top pool and back.  Donning our swimming gear, we then covered up with fly nets, bug spray and sun cream (and clothes). The lower pool did look inviting, but the signs warning of crocs were enough to let us walk by.  The initial part of the walk was very steep.  We met a couple of rangers walking down who voiced concerns that we weren’t carrying enough water each.  That’s one way to make you feel unsure about what you’ve got yourself into! But, we made it to the top and had the place to ourselves.
Time to give the GoPro a work out.  And ourselves!  I was adamant that I wanted to get as close to the main waterfall as possible but that meant swimming against some surprisingly forceful currents! We had only intended to be at Edith Falls for an hour or so, but we had such a wonderful time swimming and walking that by the time we left it was 4pm!

 

We continued driving towards Kakadu but decided to stop for the night just before the main entrance, at the Mary River Roadhouse. For only $30 cash we were hooked up for another night in the great outdoors, and far enough away from any neighbours to be able to fire up the engine for some air conditioning time. Plus, there was the added bonus at sunset of bats!  I went out to look at the colour of the sky and ended up calling Simon out to come and watch as flocks (not sure if that’s right?) of large fruit bats gracefully beat their wings in slow motion to pass over our heads for a night’s hunting.

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