KAKADU WATERFALLS

30^th August, 2012

It’s four wheel driving time and Mitzi is shivering with anticipation.  Or is it fear?  Today we are leaving the van in the campground and heading out to see Twin Falls and Jim Jim Falls.  These two falls are only accessible via a four wheel drive track and we have been told that the first forty kilometres has just been graded but after that the road becomes a single track and there are sandy patches, rock ledges and water crossings to negotiate.  We head out early and are relieved to find that the information about the graded road was correct and there were only a few sections that were corrugated.  There is a guy at the start of the single track who checks to make sure we have park passes and advises that the water at Jim Jim Crossing is 0.6 metres deep.  He says we will get through OK as long as we take it nice and easy.  We have never really worked out how deep is too deep for Mitzi so we guess we are going to find out.  Twin Falls is the furthest away so we decide to go there first.  Eleven kilometres along the track we come to Jim Jim Crossing.

Jim Jim Crossing

It looks quite deep and a really long way across.  The logical thing to do would be to send someone across on foot to check the depth but the sign about crocodiles puts paid to that idea.

This sign says it all ...

So with fingers crossed Wok eases Mitzi into the water and we slowly chug our way over the rocky bottom. 

We're floating, we're floating ...

Everything seems fine and no water is seeping under the doors.  Halfway across Wok is positive that Mitzi is actually floating. When we climb up the bank on the other side we open the doors to see how high the water went.  The tide mark was over the running boards and the water must have been lapping at the doors.  Well now we know how deep Mitzi can go!  We pull into Twin Falls car park and walk four hundred metres up the gorge to where we need to catch a shuttle boat that will take us further up into the gorge. 

Shuttle boat awaits

On a chair beside the boat ramp is the skull of a 4.1 metre saltwater crocodile that was caught at the crossing we had just floated across. 

Crocodile skull

Thank goodness we didn’t come face to face with one of those when we drove over the crossing!  We hopped on the shuttle boat and the ranger told us all about the fish we could see in the crystal clear water as we motored up the gorge.  He also told us that there was no swimming or fishing allowed in Twin Falls Gorge but not that long ago before the shuttle boats came into being people would swim up this section of the gorge to get to the falls.  That really seemed like madness to us as even now saltwater crocodiles can access the gorge area and the rangers are constantly monitoring crocodile movements.  The fully baited crocodile trap was a reminder that these waters are dangerous.

Croc trap at Twin Falls

A view of the falls at the end of the gorge came into view as we neared the point where the shuttle boat could go no further.

View of Twin Falls from lower down the gorge

We now had to clamber over the rocks up the side of the gorge

Walking up the gorge

passing deep crystal clear pools along the way.

Gorge scenery

Finally we emerged onto a sandy beach below the falls

Wok on the beach at Twin Falls

where there was a  lovely clear deep plunge pool.

Twin Falls

We could easily see why people would be enticed into swimming here.  How could anything so dangerous be in such a beautiful place.

Wok and the waterfall

We had passed a group of people leaving the gorge as we came in but now we had the whole place to ourselves.  It was magical and we spent quite a bit of time just enjoying the serenity before making our way back down the gorge.  We called the ranger on the two way radio at the boat landing to come and pick us up on the shuttle boat and within minutes we could see him puttering up the gorge.

Shuttle boat coming up the gorge

We were surprised to see that it was after midday when we got back to Mitzi so we drove back to the crossing, floated across and had our lunch in the picnic area on the other side before making our way to Jim Jim Falls.  It was a kilometre climb in to see the falls but as often happens at this time of the year the falls can stop running and this was the case with Jim Jim Falls.

Jim Jim Falls

People are allowed to swim at the pool below the falls but with no running water we didn’t think that this was a good idea.  It would be great to see the waterfalls just after the wet but we’re not sure that we would be able to take the heat and humidity.  By the time we got back to the campground we were bushed and more than happy to stand under a nice cool shower.  In the morning we packed up and headed towards the southern gateway to the park.  There was one more place we wanted to see before we left Kakadu.  We had visited Gunlom Falls twenty five years ago and wanted to see if it was as we remembered.  The scene with Paul Hogan shaving with an axe in Crocodile Dundee was filmed at the falls and last time around Wok tried re-enacting the scene.  At the time we were last at the falls they were named UDP Falls.  They were then renamed Waterfall Creek Falls and now they are known by their aboriginal name – Gunlom.  We’d had conflicting reports about the condition of the road into the falls so we decided to give it a try.  It was only 37 kilometres into the falls but it felt more like 137 kilometres.  We thought the Windjana Gorge road was bad but this road was woeful.  When we finally made it to the campground even our teeth ached.  We didn’t even want to think about having to leave via the same road.  We set up camp, had lunch and threw on our swimmers and made our way to the falls.

Gunlom Falls

The falls were as we remembered.

Pool at base of Gunlom Falls

A lovely clear pool surrounded by palms

There was still a walk to the top of the falls where we swam last time in the rock pools.  With the temperature in the high thirties we were quite happy to while away a few hours swimming and floating around at the base of the falls.  In the morning we took one last look at the falls before we headed out. 

Gunlom Falls

Yep!  This place still looks good.