Moonlighting in Katherine and Splashing Around Litchfield 28 Aug - 1 Sept

Katherine Gorge by Moonlight

We only had two days in Katherine.  For one of those we took my mum and stepdad down to Mataranka to see Bitter Springs – which I have already covered.  The other day we did something very special.  We did the Nabilil Sunset Dreaming Cruise.

My Mum was due to fly out in a few days so we didn’t have much time in Katherine so we concentrated on the main attraction - Nitmuluk National Park and Katherine Gorge.  In the dry Katherine Gorge is actually a series of 13 gorges which you can walk along, but the best way to see it is on the water.  People canoe up the first couple of gorges or you can take a cruise boat.  The cruise is a bit different as each gorge is separated by rocks in some way.  This means that you hop on one boat which takes you to the border of the first gorge where you then walk across to the next gorge and the next boat.  You can only see the first few gorges – if you want to see all 13 you need to do this from the air or wait until the wet season arrives and take a powerboat all the way up.

Because of my stepdad’s mobility issues we opted for the Nabilil Sunset Dreaming Cruise which was one of the best dinner experiences David and I have had in our lives.  You start with an ordinary cruise boat for gorge 1, transfer to another ordinary cruise boat for gorge 2, but when you come back to gorge 1 the dinner boat awaits.  And then you get to sit and cruise the gorge watching the sunset, listening to Geoffrey Gurrumul Yunupingu in the background, whilst you feast on delicious food, sipping a glass of wine (or special lemonade with a flower in it for the kids says Mr L) in the meantime.  To cap our night off, it was the night of a full moon, so while the sun set the moon rose and what a beautiful moon it was. 

Everything about this cruise was amazing – the setting, the food, the boat, the sensational staff and even our kids.  They tried all the foods, behaved like kids several years older and also had the time of their lives (it helped that there were 2 other kids on board they could sit up the front and talk with them).  This was not the cheapest of the cruise options for Katherine gorge but it really was something totally special and everyone of us would totally recommend it!

Litchfield National Park

Litchfield is a small national park between Katherine and Darwin and we spent our final night with mum and stepdad who left us the following day, we stayed on for a further night.  For us Litchfield was like a natural water theme park.  The waterholes and waterfalls here are great and we spent most of our two days swimming in different places, leaping in and out of the water throughout the park.

Best Termite Mounds Yet

As you enter Litchfield one of the first sights you come across are an amazing group of magnetic termite mounds. We have seen lots of termite mounds in our travels; small, tall, fat, thin, red, yellow, brown, grey and some have even been dressed up (particularly on the Stuart highway to Darwin).  But these are the only magnetic ones – which means they all line up in the same direction and as they are all quite thin and tall this is very striking.  Across the carpark you have a different sort of termite mound – these are more usual in shape (vaguely round) but they are huge, very impressive indeed. 

Waterholes and waterfalls

The best thing about Litchfield is the water – in some respects it feels like a big natural waterpark.  You can swim, you can float, you can jump and you can cool down.  There are rock pools, large waterholes and fantastic waterfalls. Litchfield is pure water fun!  We swam in Buley’s Rockholes, we swam at Florence Falls and we swam several times at Wangi Falls.  We packed in a lot of water time in a couple of days.

 

Getting lost in Litchfield.

You can also get lost in Litchfield.  Along a rather fun 4WD drive track you can find a lost city, well it really does look like a ruined ancient city, but it is in fact sandstone remnants.  Originally the whole area was a sandstone cap but over time much of the cap has broken down and weathered away, what is left are block like shapes and eventually these became the towers that you see today.  For the boys they were like a giant playground of cubby houses and climbing towers.

 

5 days in Kakadu 22 - 27 Aug

Coming from the south you have no idea how the weather really works in the top end.  You hear about the wet and the dry, but I guess I sort of equated this to our seasons of summer and winter, even though I knew that it was hot in the dry.  The aboriginal people across the top end have a much better idea articulating six seasons which make much more sense.

It turns out that we had arrived in the Northern Territory in Wurreng (cold weather season) but this year the hot dry, Gurrung, arrived early (while we were in Darwin,)so by the time we got to Kakadu it was really hot everyday.  We were staying at the Jabiru caravan park (a large and shady park) which had a large shaded pool which we gratefully enjoyed every day.

Kakadu is a very large national park with accommodation based in Cooinda and Jabiru. The rangers have a visitor centre at Jabiru and a cultural centre at Cooinda.  We started with a visit to the Bowali Visitor Centre which is very comprehensive.  There are walk through displays, a DVD on Kakadu and even a library which the boys and I discovered while the others had a coffee at the café.  The library also had two books made about Kakadu by local primary school kids which our boys thoroughly enjoyed.  We also went to the Warradjan Aboriginal Centre before our yellow water cruise and really liked it as well, the material was not repetitive but added a new dimension to visiting Kakadu.

I would recommend a visit to either centre at the start of a stay in Kakadu as apart from the wide range of places to visit in the park, the rangers also run numbers of free talks and activities.  The staff were very helpful explaining what was on offer and making suggestions about what would work for us during our stay.

Cahills crossing and Mangarray Walk

You can only fish the crossing at low tide for obvious reasons.

We started our exploration with a drive to the east alligator river where we walked through the Mangarray monsoon rainforest walk where we saw lots of fruit bats.  We had our lunch overlooking Cahills crossing (the only crossing from Kakadu to Arnhem land) watching 3 or 4 crocs lazily swimming up and down the river.

Painting with traditional Arnhem elders

One day a week at the Border Store something special happens, anyone can paint with traditional Arnhem artists.  They teach you how they paint, tell you their stories (with the help of the ranger), make traditional brushes from the pandanus plant.  Our kids loved this so much in fact that they came home and painted Xray style paintings for father’s day and they are still picking up grass sticks to be their aboriginal art brushes.

 Ubirr with the rangers

 The rangers run a guided walk along the 1 km circular track which goes past a number of fascinating Aboriginal rock art sites before climbing up to the top of a rocky lookout with views over the Nadaab floodplain.  With the guide this walk took over two hours during which we were provided with information about the history of Kakadu and the Aboriginal art, including a discussion of some law paintings in what could be described as the oldest classroom in Australia as this is where the indigenous children learn the law as well.  The walk, unfortunately, was conducted through the heat of the day (11 – 1) but the talk was great.

Cruising the East Alligator river with Guluyambi

Because of the limitations of my stepfather we did more cruises and this time in Kakadu.  The first of these was on the East Alligator River with an indigenous company Guluyambi.  The cruise takes you down to Cahills crossing then up to the river before disembarking for a short time in Arnhem land where the guide talks about their hunting weapons.  Being later in the dry with many of the billabongs drying up through Kakadu and Arnhem land, east alligator river becomes a major source of food for crocs.  This means that there are lots of crocs here.  We were even lucky enough to spot Nigel, a croc who starred in the ABC series on Kakadu.  Up close you can see, Nigel is no small croc, I’m not sure I  would be volunteering to tag him.

Magic Maguk

Whilst the pool had been a lovely refreshing oasis at the beginning or end of our days, with the temperatures now over 37 every day we were looking forward to swimming in one of the legendary Kakadu waterholes.  Maguk is the easiest to walk too and whilst might not be as famous or scenic as Gunlom or Jim Jim, the falls were still running even this late in the dry.  After a short but hot walk in, the water was beautiful, not freezing at all.  We had brought our snorkel masks and were rewarded with a range of freshwater fish frolicking at our feet.  The icing on the cake was a swim to put ourselves under the running falls – magic.

Burrunggui (Nourlangie) art and rocks

Burrunggui is an amazing natural rock.  The colours and height make it a fantastic spectacle.  However, there is a 1.5km walk that takes you past an Aboriginal shelter that has been used since ancient times until the present day (the shelter was still used in the 1980s) and contains several outstanding  art sites.  

The walk continued past the art galleries with a climb to the Gun-warddehwardde lookout which provided great views of Kakadu’s escarpment.  

Yellow water billabong sunset cruise

When David and I were in Kakadu 11 years ago the dawn cruise at Yellow Water Billabong had been a highlight of our visit.  Staying at Jabiru this time made the dawn cruise harder to get to, so we opted for the sunset cruise.  I am not sure I didn’t prefer the sunset cruise – they were both fantastic.  The key difference between the yellow water and Guluyambi cruises was the birds and the waterscape. We saw very few in the east alligator river, but amazing birds on this cruise.  As to ‘waterscape’ this is my own word for the amazing combination of calm water reflecting the surrounding scenery that make this billabong cruise so special.