16– June 2016 - 17/6/16
We spent one night at Katherine in the caravan park which
was virtually at capacity, full of travellers. With our washing, shopping and a
clean tow tug / caravan chores completed we joined the hordes travelling north.
About 40 kilometres up the road we propped at Edith Falls in
Nitmiluk National Park, (Katherine Gorge). We now had to gamble with
availability at the different locations for camping vacancies. Like Edith Falls
where there are no booking options, rather first come, first in with a maximum
permissible stay of 14 days in a 28 day period at National Parks. On this
occasion we were lucky to have a camp site allocated to us by staff and we hoped
the luck continued with our travels.
We had spent a couple of days at Edith Falls 5 weeks
previously (entry 7) while exploring areas near Katherine and yes it was now
very crowded compared to our previous visit. The temperature had dropped about
4 – 5 degrees over the last few days providing a far more pleasurable ambient
day time temperature from the energy sapping hotness combined with the humidity
of the last several weeks. The maximum daytime temperatures were now 32 – 34
degrees with night temperatures staying just above 20 degrees C and the humidity
had thankfully gone.
Edith Falls camp ground is typical of those locations we
immensely enjoy located in a bush setting with walking tracks and several water
fall pools to dip ones hot body into its cooling fresh running water. At times
fish would take a fancy to you providing a different sensation pecking away at
your body.
We immersed our bodies in the fresh waters of Edith Falls (about
200 metre walk from our caravan) from ½ to 2 hour periods every day with the
aid of swimming noodles for floatation. It was a great past time watching new
arrivals cautiously enter the water (beware of crocodile signage everywhere)
not knowing that the water hole had been checked of crocodile presence prior to
permitting people to enter the water. Every now and then someone would scream
out and scamper out of the water when a fish would latch onto them panicking
them into thinking it might have been a crocodile.
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| Walking tracks |
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Edith Falls & swimming area
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We walked along the available walking trails, regularly cooling
off in the various water holes located along these trails, chatted with other
travellers and soaked in the bush setting. In the evenings when the human noise
and breeze rustling the tree leaves dropped off you could hear the roar of the
water fall creating an illusion you were camped close to an ocean with the
sound of pounding surf in the background.
The majority of people walked the shorter Leliyn Trail with
a swim in the upper falls pool which we also partook. One day we walked the
less patronised track, Sweetwater-Falls hike which was about a 9 kilometre
return walk, a 5 hour hike for us. There was a lot of rock scampering combined
with plenty of propping, looking around for signage arrows verifying the
direction or whereabouts of the track. The constant background noise along this
track was very pleasurable and noisy at times provided by chattering birds in
the bushes and trees around us.
It was worth the effort once we laid eyes on
Sweetwater-Falls and the large area of water near its base. We slid our bodies
into the cooling waters swimming about slowly cooling off. When we swam up to
the base of the water falls our bodies were provided with a gentle massage from
the bubbling waters at the base of the falls which we most thoroughly enjoyed.
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| Long Water Hole |
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| Long Water Hole falls |
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| Sweetwater Falls |
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| Sweetwater Falls |
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| Sweetwater Falls |
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| Sweetwater Falls |
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| Sweetwater Falls |
Most mornings by around 11.00 am the entry gate to the
campground was placed in the closed position showing campground “FULL”. At
least people arriving after that time had access to a large vehicle parking
area and still had the option of walking the trails along with a plunge in the
water pools.
Our initial thought of a two day stay progressed out to a 7
day stay at this awesome location and even then we procrastinated over the
logic of leaving. The campground was beautifully laid out with most sites
facing onto a lovely grassed area which was utilized for communal gathering /
chatting areas or families with kids for a great play area while mum slaved in
the caravan kitchen providing the energy (tucker) for the family to operate on
and still monitor the kids from the caravan window whilst dad supervised the
drinks fridge positioned in the tow vehicle.
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| Bush setting campground |
We left Edith Falls feeling like we had experienced a week
of spiritual blessings, cleansing our souls in its holy waters.
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Looks amazing!
ReplyDeleteSweetwater falls looks stunning - would have been hard moving on from such a lovely site. It doesn't look real busy either which would make it even better.
ReplyDeletexxx Peter and Lyn