Day 141 - Thursday 18 May - Nitmiluk National Park

Day 141

Thursday

18 May 2017

Katherine – Nitmiluk (Cicada Place) National Park – Katherine Gorge – Edith Falls (leliyn)

I had set the alarm for 7am so that we had plenty of time to get ourselves organised before heading out to Nitmiluk National Park. The park was formerly known as Katherine Gorge and named by John McDouall Stuart after the daughter of one of his sponsors in the late 1800’s, but when the park was returned to the local Jawoyn people, they renamed it Nitmiluk, which translates as Cicada Place.

We found our way to the car park then into the Nitmiluk Centre where we checked out their information display and a floor mat outlining a 4.7m salt-water croc, overlaid by a 3.5m tinny and a 1.8 m person. Yikes!

After wandering around in the cool, we made our way outside and down to the boat ramp, the chatter of hundreds of bats was deafening. At one stage it sounded like a baby crying. As we moved through along the path we soon saw the bats. The trees were dripping with little brown dags, well that’s what it looked like. There were just so many of them trying to find the best hanging spot. We found out later that there are two colonies, 500 black frutibats and 2000 red fruitbats.

Just after 9am we were ushered onto our boat, ready to cruise up the Katherine River and check out two gorges. There are about 13 gorges here. In the wet season it is possible to get on a powerboat and cruised the complete circuit in 45min, but with the water receding you can only access three and we were on the tour that completed two in two hours for $89 a head.

Our boat was almost full, with 65 person capacity. We did manage to board quickly though and had a seat at the side where I could take photos. As we began our journey we had two white belly sea eagles pointed out to us just surveying the scene.  

The journey took us between the gorge walls, great sandstone walls of 70m rose above us, stained red from the oxides and black from the water that runs over them during the wet. It was very pretty and great to take it in from the water. 

At the end of the first gorge, the boat was moored and we had to walk about 400m to another boat wait for us at the start of the second gorge. I enjoyed the walk, taking photos of the small rapids and the cliff face rising from the water.

We boarded the second boat a little slowly and had to settle for seats one behind each other, but in the second and third row, so not that bad.

Our guide and boatie, was Jason, a well-spoken and humours young Aboriginal bloke who told us stories of the land and the people. The tour group Nitmiluk Tours is 95% owned and run by the local Jawoyn people with profits returning to the communities. At the end of the year it will be 100% theirs.

We had a cliff face pointed out to us where a movie had been shot, apparently the movie Rogue was partially shot here too, not one I have seen and probably just as well considering it’s croc and tour boat theme.

We made it to a 90 degree turn and were told the water was 50m in depth at this point, we were also told about floods and just how deep the water can get. One season the boat ramp area was underwater and the tourist centre was an island, this was also when Katherine township was under 3m of water and when the army was sent in to clean up the shopping centre they were chased out by a 3.5m salt-water croc.

Once we had made it to the end of the second gorge the boat was turned around and we made our way back down the gorge. A small waterfall was trickling over the edge still, this one is the first to begin flowing and the last to stop. It must be spectacular when the rains fall and the water begins to cascade.

We floated into a shallow cave where we could see mud nests of some migratory birds and a cane toad was also spotted in the far corner, damn things. We were encouraged to find a golf club and whack them if we ever came across them.

Jason went on to tell us about the various plants of the hanging garden and those at the water’s edge and how they were used by the locals in bush medicine and to catch fish. It was all very interesting.

Just before returning to the first boat, we spotted our first croc, a “Freshie”. It was quite happy to float around with its snout sticking out of the water, just keeping a lazy eye on us as we sailed by. We also saw a blue winged kookaburra, his wings were electric blue in colour and he was just stunning.

When the boat was parked up, Paul made a quick trek to the first boat in order to secure seats together by the side, while I ambled along taking photos. We had missed the rock painting on the way through the first time, so I stopped to take a photo of the hunter and his animals before we boarded the boat to travel the first gorge again.

A Fresh water croc was out on a rock sunning himself, allowing me to get a decent photo as we cruised by. The cruise was very relaxing and enjoyable and it was cool, something we would appreciate later. We passed a croc cage tied up at the side. They caught two “Salties” this season, something unusual, as it is normally only one. 3.1m and 3.7m in length, the cage is 3.4m in length. It had me peering out over the side, though Jason said they are 99% sure that there aren’t any here now. Yeah right.

Two rock formations were pointed out to us the “Face” and the “Crocodile” on which the lookout platform sat. the face looked like an Easter Island statue and was keeping an eye on the travellers on the river.

A further croc cage and small freshwater croc were pointed out to us as we made it back to the ramp. We were left with the greeting Boh Boh, see ya later in Jawoyn and then we made our way back through the tourist centre and back to the car where we dumped our things and then began the hike up the escarpment to the Baruwei Lookout. It was a decent hike to the top, but the views over the gorge were beautiful. You could feel the difference in temperature up here, so much hotter.

We returned to the car about 40min later and drove about an hour to the other end of Nitmiluk National Park to check out Edith Falls (Leliyn).

We ate our lunch in the lush grounds, watching people return all wet from their swim. When we had finished, we donned the bathers, returned things to the car and made our way to the lower pool. It did look rather inviting and there were a few people swimming. I took photos of the falls in the distance before we dumped our things on the edge of the pool. Paul dived straight in, something I was NOT going to be doing, in fact I was happy to just stand in knee deep water where I could see what was around me and could make a quick exit if needed. I was glad I had worn my reef shoes, they were not coming off. Jason had told us they had pulled a 3.4m saltie from this pool not long back and was telling us to swim in the upper pool. Hmmm.

We watched little fish dart around, before moving down towards another pool entrance, here you could have walked across to a small island, though we didn’t. We checked out the final pool entry where there were some other people and most were happy to be swimming out some distance from the edge. I stood in the water and watched the larger fish, including ones that looked like gardies dart around.

We walked to a small foot bridge that crossed a narrow section of the pool and then returned to the car. There is a loop walk you can do that where you can see the falls and swim in the top pool, but Paul’s ankle wasn’t right and his Achilles was playing us so we didn’t do this, maybe on our return,

We made our way back to the caravan park. It was now quite warm and we were looking to get back and go for a swim. We unloaded the car and I prepared dinner, while Paul went into town for supplies. I began going through the photos and when he returned we pulled on the bathers again and walked to Katherine Springs.

Today I wanted to try out the top pool where the spring starts, it was a bit of a feat though as the water rushing through the rocks was quite strong and I was pushed away a few times, almost loosing my bikini top in the process. I did eventually make it and was rewarded with a small calm hole to just lounge around in.

When we had cooled off we slid over the rocks, not so elegantly and I checked out the small waterfall at the other end of the larger pool. I was still wearing my reef shoes but something in me doesn’t like the thought of putting my feet down on the unknown, so instead I splash around like a looney until I eventually make it to the ladder and clamber out.

I wanted to also check out the other end of the spring where there is a small waterfall and plunge pool. There were plenty of people here taking advantage of this spot, I don’t think the top end is frequented by most, not realising what is there and how pretty it is, made it secluded for us and only one other couple.

At the lower pool I jumped in and slid over the rocks front first like a slide. It was so much fun, I was one of the kids.

With that out of my system, we made our way back to the van, time for a drink, to finish loading the photos and do some looking into Darwin. We sat outside where it was much cooler and enjoyed watching life go by.

Just after 6pm we began dinner, ate and cleaned up. It hadn’t taken long to feel the warmth again, so it was back to the pool for a refreshing plunge before we settled in for the night.