Welcome to Kakadu
The Kakadu or Kada-don’t debate… We had to check it out to see what it is all about. To start, the NT park pass does not cover Kakadu, meaning you have to pay $40pp = $80 for us. NT is not the cheapest state to explore. Still, iconic, we had to see it.
6th August – Cahills crossing
Cahill’s crossing. A crossing that has so much hype around it, crocs swimming over the road, waiting downstream for the fish. Crossing it is tide dependent. Our timing: we arrived to low tide. Sadly no crocs swimming across the road. With the waters so low, we figured we may as well cross it. Through the water we went, 2 large crocs to the right watching, waiting. Not quite the hype everyone had worked it up to be but still cool (high tide would be a different story). The coolest water crossing we have done so far would definitely have to be Ivanhoe Crossing at Kunanurra (after finishing the Gibb).
3pm, time to start looking for camp. The spot we had pinned (free camp), as we drove towards it we were in cased in smoke from the burns in the area. Change of plan. Up the tiny, narrow and very overgrown dirt track we saw on satellite maps. Well, again the bush had changed since the satellite image and very overgrown. We had to make our own track for camp.
And in the middle of the bush in the Kakadu, 1 bar of reception, somehow still stronger than the reception in Mum’s house in Brissy. It allowed for Bec to plan out what the next 2 weeks look like before arriving back in Darwin for the photo workshop. And Astrid to video edit Pumbas walk through.
People had warned us of the mosquitos of Kakadu, they weren’t lying. By day, fine. Dusk and nightfall … insane!!! So many that sitting inside Pumba we could hear the buzz of them outside.
10pm, getting ready for bed and looking around while brushing our teeth … the undergrowth is now filled with smoke. Climbing into bed, Bec isn’t so sure. During the day we had seen the grass fires, one was separated by a river, the other too a safe distance away … was the smoke from these or was their another? Unsettled and unnerved we packed up camp and moved. Definitely the latest we have ever looked for camp.
7th August – Jim Jim Falls
Morning revealed that the night smoke had just blown in from one of the other fires, we had been safe after all. Still glad we moved though.
Todays goal, the legendary Jim Jim falls. Instagram showed them as spectacular. The lucky part, the drive to the turn off was a patch of reception. We got an email from Oriane about our branding, looks like we have some things to brainstorm and answer for them to work on our project. This excites us.
60kms of corrugations and a couple of creek crossings (a creek crossing is now totally familiar and we no longer get all excited) later we got to Jim Jim.
Now Jim Jim is advertised as a beautiful swimming hole, when we got there, there were signs everywhere talking about croc danger, no swimming, there was even a croc trap on the bank… yet a short 1 and a bit kms in (rock scrambling for the last part), here everyone was swimming… Australia.
The crocodile warning signs at the swimming holes (I mean Astrid also looks terrifying here … swim at your own risk)
Some of the water holes were bathed in sunlight with crystal clear waters and banks of sand (stunning), while the big one at the base of the falls, rocky (still crystal clear) but in shade. The shaded waterhole was stunning but its cold waters not as inviting being in the shade, meant it was all but empty with the crowds in the sun. Naturally we chose this waterhole. I mean we did not swim to the falls as the thought of crocs wasn’t one we could shake but definitely got in for a swim & chilled out by the waterhole.
Diving into the cool waterhole at the base of the falls
Now Twin Falls was 9kms drive and 6km hike away … but the burning desire to get started on our branding meant we decided the beautiful swim at Jim Jim was enough and we headed for camp (and some reception to send to Oriane). Best decision, one thing we are learning is to choose what we want and not just tick boxes. Lucky we did, we got to camp about 5pm and worked till 9pm on it. The format the girls use makes you really narrow down exactly what the brand is about, the client really understands and draws a picture for what they want.
Again the mozzie situation, insane!!! Fell asleep to the buzz of mozzies.
8th August – Gunlom Falls
Final day in Kakadu … Pumba held together by a ratchet we crawled (2km/h) out of Kakadu National Park. Not how we saw the day going, let me explain.
The morning, slow but normal. Bec getting in a phone call to her mum (They have been busy preparing our wedding) and we headed to Gunlom falls. Now this was a last minute change. Our initial plan was to go up the 2 hr, 39km VERY rough 4x4 track to Graveside Gorge. Instead, we changed our minds and headed up the 36km corrugated road to Gunlom Gorge. The importance of this is soon to come…
Gunlom was cute, the falls were small in volume but tumbled from 70m high. As we pulled in we walked to the waterhole at the base of the falls but with no-one swimming there (and a croc trap) we instead climbed the stairs to the iconic plunge pools that overlook the mountain ranges.
There were not that many people at the top (we expected it to be packed) and changed pools a few times, getting them to ourselves. Floating and looking out over the landscape, stunning. We got chatting to a French couple before we left. One last look and climbed back down, back to Pumba to go find camp.
7km up the corrugated road we could hear a loud clunk coming from Pumba. Doesn’t sound right. Nope wasn’t.
Bec holding the radius arm with her foot
Pumba’s missing bolt predicament. Bec trying to push the trailing arm back into alignment.
After getting out to have a look where the noise was coming from, the bolt holding the trailing arm (we didn’t know what this was called until now) and the side rail to the chassis had come off. Hmmmm. We can’t drive like this … and we don’t have a bolt the same size. Astrid was off, looking for the bolt. Back tracking where we had come from.
“Jump in the car, where are we taking you?” the sweet French couple we had met at Gunlom Falls pulled ahead of Astrid. Explaining the situation she jumped in and they took her back to the car. While we problem solved how to fix our situation, the couple drove the track to look for our missing bolt.
“Ratchet the bars together, up & over the bonnet to hold it together?” Astrid suggested. Perfect.
The couple returned, no bolt, but offered to stick with us while we crawled along. Too kind! But our speed was limited to 1st gear low range in the bumpy stuff (to go proper slow), eventually speeding up to second gear. The corrugated road speed … we maxed out at 4km/hr, averaged 2kms/hr.
Astrid literally could get out of the car and walk along side Pumba. Even decided that it was the kind of day for a cigarette and beer. No lunch today, only a melted block of chocolate, a few slices of ham and cheese to fuel us (feeling like we didn’t have time to stop and cook), we crawled on.
Astrid walking alongside Pumba.
3.5 hrs later (and several kind people offering to help) we hit bitumen. The relief, the sweet relief. We could go a little faster. Deciding 40kms was our max, we crawled to just outside of Pine Creek for reception in hope that tomorrow we could go to the mechanic in town. Fate has it that it is the weekend though, will have to see what is open tomorrow.
Pumba held together by ratchet straps and yoga matts. Not his finest hour.
9pm (5.5hrs of driving) we pulled up. Rest, reset and work out what we are doing in the morning.