Wednesday 19 June 2013

7 June 2013 – Kakadu National Park – Flight (over Kakadu, Arnhem Land & Jabiru) and Jim Jim Falls



We were checked into a one hour flight this morning over this great country of ours.  We only had a light breakfast before driving to Jabiru airport and meeting our lovely pilot, Athos.  Although Athos was only young, he looked like we could trust him so we happily risked our lives in his hands and boarded the 7 seater small aircraft.  Josh took the front seat next to Athos, the girls sat just behind them and mum was then behind the girls.  I was in the back seat on my own so that I could take photos out either side of the plane.  It was probably a bad move as I think I took a minimum of one photo every 20 seconds…. haha!  Having the camera in my hand was a bit of a godsend.  Within 10 minutes into the flight, mum was not feeling water.  She had a cold bottle of water and a wet towel on her neck to try and stop herself from passing out or throwing up – whichever was to come first.  About half an hour later Sami too wasn’t feeling well and she had to hold a paper bag for the rest of the flight.  We got to see some amazing views, especially over Arnhem Land.  My favourite being Dinosaur Valley which is a spectacular rocky land formation (if you look closely you can make out dinosaur shapes amongst the rocks).  We flew over beautiful wetlands, rivers, mountains and stunning escarpments; saw cattle, brumbies and aboriginal communities; sighted the small town of Jabiru including the Gagadju Crocodile Holiday Inn which is the crocodile shaped accommodation, viewed the Ranger mine from the air (which ruins the landscape of Kakadu) and saw the Rainbow Serpent flat escarpment (apparently this is now where it resides).  Fortunately, after the hour of flying, Athos made a safe landing back to ground and nobody was physically ill.  It felt good to breathe in lots of fresh air and gulp down a lemonade in order to recover.  From here we went straight to the Jabiru Bakery to settle our stomachs a little more.  A few pies and hot chips later, Josh had the van hooked on and we were on the road heading south to Cooinda.  We found the Gagadju Lodge Cooinda and drove in to set up the van.  Upon driving in, we saw Debbie, JC & NC’s van so chose a site nearby to set up.  We had then decided that we should head out to Jim Jim Falls.  We had heard that it was quite a big trek into the falls so mum opted out of this as she’s had a very sore leg joint.  She hung out at the van whilst the four of us drove the 4WD into the falls, and then climbed through, over and across, lots of big boulders until we reached the stunning falls.  These are definitely the most beautiful falls that we have seen yet.  It really is a hidden jewel, one that is difficult to get into but that you really appreciate once reached.  Jim Jim Falls is about 200m high and is believed to be hundreds of millions years old.  The actual beauty of it is hard to describe so hopefully the photos will do it justice and give you some idea of how pretty this place is.  After swimming in the beach area for quite a while and walking over to more rocks to the plunge pool area, we climbed our way back out of there and headed back to the van, missing out on Twin Falls due to its closure.  Tonight we caught up with our neighbouring friends, trying to avoid the hundreds of mosquitoes surrounding us by sitting in the vans.


































































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