KAKADU
Updated: Nov 3, 2018
our experience and thoughts 🤔
Kurts parents had kindly offered to baby sit Rusty🐶 for a few nights while we headed into Kakadu for a look. After a little prep work, we left the caravan and Rusty behind, just after lunchtime - while we headed into Kakadu on Friday. 👣
Our first stop was for a typical tourist photo with the official Kakadu welcome sign. Not far down the road, we visited the ‘Rock Hole’. Its not signposted but there is a marker on wikicamps for it. We had a nice refreshing swim🏊🏻♂️and a chat with a ranger who dropped by! Next stop was to Gunlom falls. We made it to the falls carpark at 4pm and our plan was to camp here, but with the darwin show day (long weekend) the place was chock a block! 😒
We climbed up to the infinity pool and watched the sun go down, with about 50 other people. Had a swim and got the iconic shot, before climbing back down before dark. We decided to head back down the road to the Kambolgie campground🏕. It was far less busy and turned out to be great decision, as we met fellow instagrammers ‘powershala’. We chatted to Max and Faye for a good few hours over their fire before hitting the hay.🔥
The next morning we drove 15minutes back up the road to the Yurmikmik walks. Opting to hike in and check out the ‘Motor Car Creek Falls’.⛲️ The walk was 3.8km each way, on an old service road, with a little bit of rock hopping for the last 200m to reach the falls. Another beautiful spot! We had it all to ourselves for a good half an hour, until a young family arrived.
Maguk (Barramundi falls) was our next waterfall on our list. An easy drive in and a easy 1km walk in. This place was also busy, but large enough to still enjoy ourselves. We swam up to waterfall and mucked around for a bit. With our tummy’s rumbling, we made some lunch🥗 in the carpark before heading to our next spot.
We swung into Cooinda Lodge to top up with some fuel⛽️ before hitting the dirt track out to Jim Jim falls. Fortunately for us, the road had been graded 2 weeks prior, so it only took us an hour to reach the Jim Jim falls carpark. A great 1.2km walk in, rock hopping our way to the base of the waterfall. We both looked at each other and said WOW! The towering cliff faces were incredible😯. We braved the afternoon cold and jumped in for a quick dip.
We jumped back in the car and opted to drive the road out and camp up at the Sandy Billabong grounds⛺️. We arrived just as the sun was going down. A nice quiet camp, but my gosh - there was a swarm of mozzies on the outside of our swag in the morning, waiting for us. We quickly made a cuppa☕️, packed up camp and got out of there.
Nanguluwur rock site was our first stop for the day. We ate our cereal in the carpark then hiked in the 1.7km to view the rock art. An easy walk and we were rewarded with the best aboriginal rock art🎨 we have seen all trip! Such a large variety of paintings, you could clearly see and plenty of signboards to explain the figures. We both walked away, glad to of made the detour to this place.🤓
Back on the bitumen, we headed straight up to Cahills Crossing. We had checked the tides and high tide was at 12:50pm, so we wanted to be there 2 hour before⏰, to watch the tide change. We arrived in the carpark at 11:30am and took our camping chairs down to the viewing platform. We had a great spot and thoroughly enjoyed watching all the action.
We loved seeing the cars crossing, while saltwater crocs🐊 were only metres away! A few crazy people were standing on the crossing having a fish during the tide change. We sat there for a good 3 hours and didn’t move until about 2:30pm. It was definitely a highlight for us in Kakadu.
Kurt decided he wanted to have a go at fishing🎣, so we moved down to the boat ramp where he had a go. A few bites, but no catches unfortunately. Amz cooked up an early dinner / late lunch - before we headed to Ubirr Rock. Our plan was to watch the sunset, but once we walked around and saw the scenery - we decided to just take a few happy snaps📸 and get out of there.
Due to not staying for sunset, we decided to leg it back to the caravan that night. We were missing little Rusty🐶 and wanted to sleep in our own bed.
Our thoughts on Kakadu?🤨
We did get to see everything we wanted. Obviously a bit more time to stop, relax and enjoy the sights would’ve been ideal. During our visit, alot of the hotspots were just to busy for it to be enjoyable. Also the high price to visit the park and stay in the campsites leaves a bit of a bad taste in your mouth.
-We’re not saying Kaka-don’t but in all honestly we aren’t in any rush to return to this park. There is alot of driving and nothingness between sights. Plus we’ve seen alot better National Parks for less $$
#honesttalk #kakaducomplete #kakadu #gunlomfalls #magukfalls #ubirrrock #cahillscrossing #motorcarcreekfalls