Day Sixty Six - September 10th, 2013
Kakadu National Park

We stopped at the local supermarket for supplies, and picked up a fancy lunch of humus, strawberries and macadamia nuts. We then pressed on to the Kakadu Visitors Centre for a sticky beak and then quickly onto the road to Twin Falls and Jim Jim Falls. When a word is repeated twice as it often is in Aboriginal terms, it means there is a lot of something - in this case the Jim plant.

We headed off the bitumen and onto a graded dirt road, which after 50k turned into a 4x4 only track. We buffeted our way down crossing a flowing river, several dry river beds and lots of sand. Feeling like I was riding on the back of a camel, I was happy to get out to start our walk towards Twin Falls. We laced up and made our way down to the boat which took us down the river towards the falls. The guide, Shaun, was in the middle of his lunch poor chap, but stopped what he was doing and loaded the four of us onto the boat and drove us along, pointing out a small fresh water croc and supplying us with local knowledge. He was born in Darwin as it's the closest hospital to Kakadu, but was back in the park by the time he was two months old. He clearly loves the place and is very knowledgable.

Once off the boat, we made our way to the falls (which aren't really falling at the moment). We were over rocks and started to work up a sweat in the 38 degree heat. There's no swimming as salties can get in from the East Alligator River, and previous tourists were ruining the pig nosed turtle breeding areas when they were allowed to swim.
We made it to the beach where the remnants of the falls were coming down. In the wet it would be magnificent! As it was it was still amazing and is clearly a spiritual place. I filled up my bottle from the fresh spring water and had a little shower to cool down under the falls - incredible! We made our way back over the floating pontoon and radioed to Shaun saying we were ready, and he sped along to pick us up!

We stopped for lunch and took the track back on ourselves towards Jim Jim. Once there, we laced up again and took our swimming things as we would be able to swim this time! The croc warning signs started to make me a little dubious but I was so hot I was willing to overlook them! The trek was pretty hard going, scrambling over large boulders and unstable rocks, but we eventually made it to the two pools at Jim Jim. There were others in the water and tour guides swimming, so I figured it was safe! The murky green water and pitch black bottom made it a little hairy. Mum and I got straight in while Ang and Elly went to explore the second pool. We had a little swim towards the second pool, but it seemed tricky to get there that way and turned back. Angus and Elliot returned saying it was a cool pool so I made it over with Elly climbing the hot black rocks. The pool was surrounded on tree sides by sheer black cliffs and was hugely deep to accommodate the crushing amounts of water which plummet from the heights above. This pool was MUCH colder, and started to make us chilly even in the hot day. We made it back to the first pool, dried off and walked back over the rocks to the car.

We went over the track for the last time, and headed back to Jabiru. We finally got our shot of a dingo! He was moseying on over the road and stopped for long enough for us to snap him! Our last dinner at the big croc, and off to bed ready to pack up and leave Kakadu tomorrow. Such a spiritual place and so full of life and magic - we'll all be sad to leave.