Kakadu - Twin Falls

I couldn't spend a whole week off without doing some proper exploring, so Ryan got himself a long weekend (love the public service) and we headed off to Kakadu.

Ever since seeing an old episode of the Leyland Brothers where they visited Jim Jim Falls in the middle of the wet season sometime back in the 70's, Jim Jim had become something of a pilgrimage for us. We were hoping our trip might be slightly easier than their bush-bashing through flooded scrub at a rate of 400m in 6hrs...

We headed out into Kakadu, pretty much just making a beeline for the nearest camping ground to the falls - Garnamarr. This was at the end of 60km of very corrugated dirt (with a blinding dustcloud everytime a tour bus-truck flew by). The camping ground was nice enough, and pretty much deserted when we got there (although with a few abandoned tents). By night-time it was chockers. We tucked in for the night with plans to see the falls in the morning.

Of the two sets of falls in the area - Twin Falls and Jim Jim, we decided to head to Twin Falls first at the farthest end of the road. This road was very much 4WD only - intermittently rough, sandy, rutted with plenty of steep-sided dry creekbeds and the infamous Jim Jim creek crossing (we had been watching You-Tube clips of people drowning their 4WDs in it for months before we moved up here). It turned out to be only 50cm deep, with good concrete ramps into and out of the water (made slightly more exciting by the threat of crocs should you actually fail and need to exit halfway)(in fact a BMW X5 apparently got stuck there just 2 weeks ago). We, however, made it with no trouble.

At Twin Falls, we first took a walk up to the top of the escarpment - a hot, steep scramble over loose rocks, but with an expansive view as a reward. Once on top, we were walking through cool forest growing in and around huge boulders and slabs of rock, complete with butterflies flitting in and out of the trees. The walk led to one lookout over the falls (limited view), but then continued on to the creek at the top of the gorge. We were able to walk right out onto the rock at the top of the falls - the creek here was actually dry, with the water pouring out an opening from the rocks onto a plateau a bit lower down, then disappearing into another hole in the rock and shooting out over the falls themselves lower down. The dry rock where we stood was worn smooth by the force of the water that must thunder over the falls at the height of the wet. An aerial tour in the wet is now on the cards :)

Exploring further upstream - the creek finally did appear in a series of clear pools fringed by pandanus. At a point maybe 100m from the falls, these also disappeared under the rock. Although by this point it was pretty hot, the geology and landscape was so interesting, that we were both very glad we made the effort. On the way back we didn't have the heart to tell the other tourists struggling up the slope with their swimmers and towels hoping for a swim, that most of the pools up there were only knee-deep.

Back at the bottom, we then took the short boat-ride to the falls themselves. Ryan, I think, saw the boat-ride as the highlight of his day - through the gorge over deep, crystal-clear water teeming with fish (and promising crocs). This ended with a 400m scramble over rocks (and a croc-proof bridge over the final pool) to the falls. Twin Falls was a huge series of cascades which split into two as they came down the cliff (with plenty of water coming down, despite it being the middle of the dry). We spent some time just sitting (in the shade)(well away from the edge of the water). Beautiful.

Then the short boat-ride back (with Ryan again practically hanging over the edge - swore he saw a couple of (baby) Barra). And on to Jim Jim.