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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