Bulita homestead and tufa dams

Camping by the tufa dams

A last minute decision, we decided to drive into Gregory National Park to do the Bulita Stock Route. It was getting late in the day so we stopped and camped at the Tufa Dams on the way in. We had learnt about the formation of tufa at Flora River. It was interesting seeing the different tufa formations in the limestone creek. The tufa had formed large and smaller dams. Some of the smaller dams had dried up so we got to walk around and look at the tufa formation and there were a few large dams still with clear water for swimming.

Enjoying the tufa dams with water

Catch at Bulita Homestead

We drove on further to the Bulita Homestead for a look. It was great reading and learning about the history of life on Bulita, the hardship, the slavery and the way of life back then. Emma and Kate enjoyed going through every building learning about meat houses, workers quarters, pump houses and of course out houses. Darrin could not go past the opportunity to throw a line in the water and of course caught one. He let it go though to live another day.

Boab at Bulita

Now that we were in Boab country the girls were just mesmerised by these amazing trees. They have made plans to plant one in the backyard and make it a cubby. They had so much fun climbing the massive tree by the homestead. Boab trees live for hundreds of years so they are quite special. They are full of leaves and boab nuts in the wet season and lose their leaves in the dry to save water.

After reading a sign at the homestead we discovered that towing is not permitted on the stock route so therefore we were unable to do that trek. As we had done this trek on our first trip around Australia we knew that it was very rocky and slow track to complete.

Flora River Nature Reserve

A boat ramp with a difference

We were told about this spot from a ranger in Litchfield National Park so we had to go have a look for ourselves.  We were not disappointed and had a wonderful time here. We put the boat in, which was an effort on its own. As the banks are so high a ramp with winch was installed to lower the boats into the water. However someone had stolen the winch rope so we used the 4wd and a rope to lower the boat in.

The water in the Flora river is a beautiful emerald green colour, this is because it is spring fed and passes thru limestone as it comes out of the ground. The water becomes rich with calcium  carbonate and the sunlight reflecting on the water is what gives the water its emerald green colour.

Tufa falls

Taking a dip in one of the Tufa falls pool

There is a 4km stretch of the river in which you can fish. This is because there are tufa falls either end of the stretch. These are just spectacular to see and learn about.  Tufa is when the calcium carbonate solidifies from the water as it passes over rocks or branches. There are so many waterfalls formed from the tufa. We found a section with layers of waterfalls and pools which made for a safe swim.

The base of the waterfalls also make good fishing spots. Finally it was my turn to land the big Barramundi for the day, just a little 76cm catch. This has been my biggest catch for the trip so I was very excited. We were able to share our catch with our neighbours Peter and Maryanne, we enjoyed Barra dinner together that night around the fire.

Mums big 76cm Barra - Yippee

Fresh chocolate cake for morning tea

Darrin and Peter went for an early fish the next morning and while they were gone Maryanne and the girls made a chocolate cake cooked in the camp oven for morning tea.

There are 2 short walks to do from the campground, which we found very interesting as this is where we learnt about the limestone and tufa in the river. There are so many waterfalls/rapids in the river that are formed from the tufa. It is such an amazing and beautiful place to explore.

School time

I have to include this photographic evidence of the girls actually doing their school work. We meet so many people travelling and they all ask the girls "Are you on holidays" and their reply always is "No we are travelling around Australia". They generally further explain that we are away for 6 months but we still have to do schoolwork so it is not a holiday.

Darrins morning catch

 As usual Darrin likes to get that last fish in before we leave somewhere, so he was up early on the morning we left to stock the fridge. Would you believe we were sitting around the fire having some breakfast and back comes Darrin with his catch of the morning. A nice size Barra and a Sooty Grunter.

Happy Birthday Grandpa

Cheers Grandpa

Happy Birthday to you,
Happy Birthday to you,
Happy Birthday to Grandpa,
Happy Birthday to you.

Hope you have a wonderful day Grandpa.
Love you and miss you heaps

Darrin, Tracey, Emma and Kate
xoxoxoxo

Our Secret Spot

Emma's catch

We found a spot on a gorgeous river which we camped here for a total of 4 fantastic days and nights, it was so magic. We call it our secret spot because we want to keep its name and location a secret so it remains peaceful and keeps its beauty.

We enjoyed swimming in the clear running water. Emma and Kate enjoyed fishing and did catch some little fish which made it more fun. They even made their own rods from a stick and fishing line and put some bread on the hook to catch some bait fish, this provided hours of fun. We put the traps in and caught some freshwater prawns (cherabin) which the girls were very excited about.

Some of the Cherabin we caught

Row Row Row the boat

There was a lovely couple John and Wendy camped next to us for a few days and they had a little rubber boat that the girls had so much fun rowing around in. And then John spoilt them more with a proper milkshake. And one night we even got to have some fireworks (NT still have fireworks night once a year, lucky them).



Milkshake.....thanks John



Emma and Kates secret hideout

The girls made their own little secret hideout by the water and made a fire and cooked up a chocolate damper which turned out great and was yummy.

We had so much fun at this spot and enjoyed our time here and the company of the people we met whilst we were there.

Fishing with their homemade rods



A baby turtle



Katherine School of the Air

We spent one hour learning about the schooling of children who live in remote areas of the Northern Territory. Katherine School of the Air is the largest classroom in Australia teaching students from Kununurra on the WA boarder to Tennant Creek south. All classes are run via satellite with use of cameras and computers, a bit like skype, however the whole class logs on at the same time and the online teaching goes for 2 hours each day. The rest of the learning is done thru work posted to the students and they have designated tutors to work with them. The tutors can be a parent, some larger stations employ someone to be a tutor full time and the tutor does not have to be a qualified teacher. Some stations are lucky to have retired school teachers who volunteer their time on for a season in exchange for food and board. The learning in the School of the Air is the same as a mainstream school however just delivered in a different form. It was fantastic to see and from our experience with travelling and schooling I can see the quality learning that the students get from life experiences that they would encounter in the bush.

The classroom

Edith Falls

Swimming in the plunge pool

A hidden treasure just 60kms North of Katherine is Edith Falls. There is a massive plunge pool at the base of the small falls and we could not go past a swim across to the base of the falls. So we all put on our snorkel and goggles and headed to explore the life under the falls. Emma was very excited to see Barramundi swimming under the falls. Emma did so well to swim all the way over and back again, Kate had the help of duckie which made it easy for her.

Upper falls walk

Time for a walk, so we did the 2.6km loop walk to the top of the falls. This was a relatively steep climb and provided  magnificent  views . The pools and more falls up the top were fantastic for swimming.  The water was nice and cool. The walk back to the base gave views of the river and further waterfalls and pools.  We all really enjoyed the walk and the views.

Lizard we found on the walk



The walk back



Kakadu

We entered Kakadu National Park, after a successful morning of fishing, but the day just seemed to be getting hotter. This was the first day that we all really felt the heat. Kakadu has so much water but crocodiles have claimed all these waterways as their home. So it was absolute torture passing all these rivers, billabongs and creeks and not being able to swim.



Cooling down in the creek crossing



Our first camp for Kakadu was 2 mile hole. We turned onto the gravel road to 2 mile hole and just 500metres up the track was the first creek crossing, only a trickle of water flowing into the wide shallow road crossing. There was no way a crocodile would be anywhere near this crossing. Darrin and I looked at each other thinking the same, then next thing the girls asked if they could have a swim. Hot and desperate to cool down we all went in. Such a little amount of water was such a huge relief.  Cool and refreshed we headed to the 2 mile campground.



2 Mile Hole camp


We found a huge shady area to camp. While we were setting up we noticed a little flow of a tiny creek next to the campground. Fresh flowing crocodile free water to use is a bit like finding gold in this territory. We spent a wonderful few days here and of course we caught some more smaller Barramundi which we did not keep any because the fridge was already full from Kate and Emma’s catches at Shady. This camp spot was a little gem because there were absolutely no mosquitos, yippee, but hard to believe for Kakadu.

2 mile hole

Aboriginal Rock Art at the Main Gallery Ubirr

Ubirr was our next stop. We arrived their as the gates opened at 8.30am so we could catch the ranger talks. The girls were very excited about going to see some Aboriginal Art so they took their scrapbooks and pencils to copy the art. We walked to the main gallery and while we waited for the talk to begin the girls went to work on copying the art, the Barramundi, turtle, hand prints and wallaby. The ranger talk was great learning about the way of life of the traditional aboriginals and the meaning of the rock art and how it was a big part of their life. You could then understand the stories that were being told via the rock art.

Artists Emma and Kate at work

The next part of the walk was to the most spectacular, and I am sure the most popular part of Kakadu.  The 360 degree views that can be seen from the top of Ubirr Rock is just amazing.

Just one view from Ubirr rock

Another view from Ubirr rock

Having seen some wonderful rock art and fantastic views we headed to Merl campground to learn how to do some basket weaving with the Aboriginals. This is a wonderful talent that they have. They showed us how they collect the pandanus leaves from the very top of the tree (as those leaves are the newest and stronger) then split each leaf in half then make strips to weave. They die some of the leaves using roots of different plants depending on what colours they need. The girls got to weave a bangle each.

Traditional basket weaving

Emma and Kate learning the process

Kate painting with the Ocher

After our lessons we went to put the boat in at East Alligator River to see what we could find and catch. At the boat ramp there were some Aboriginals on the river bank and Kate had picked up some red ocher and wanted to know if that was what the Aboriginals make paint from. So we wondered over and asked an elder whose name is Neville. He was so warm, polite and gentle and wanted to teach the girls so much. He mixed the ocher with water and drew on his arm to show the girls the paint. He also showed them a green leafy part of a wattle tree that is used for bush soap, its amazing with a bit of water and rubbing it foams up and cleans the dirt. Keen to show them more he got some white sand and did some sand art using his hand, arm and fingers. He drew baby footprints and dingo footprints and called it baby and friend. Then emu, goanna, crocodile and adult footprints. He told us that the elders take the kids out in the bush in the school holidays and write stories in the sand. It was such a wonderful experience learning some aboriginal culture.

Beautiful scenic East Alligator River

The East Alligator River was gorgeous, the view of the escarpments and sandy banks were magnificant, the photos don't really capture the amazing beauty of this river. We spent a few hours cruising up and down the river. We managed to see some rock art, only a couple of crocodiles and of course we got some Barramundi. We had to keep Darrin's catch because it had engulfed the lure and would not swim after we eventually got the lure out of his gills.


Darrin's catch we had to keep from East Alligator River



Dingo greeting us at Jabiru

As we drove into the town of Jabiru we were greeted by a dingo hanging around the welcome sign. A town set up to service the employees of the Ranger Mine, all the houses looked exactly the same and there was no appeal to any building in Town. However, we could not go past the crocodile resort and walked in for a swim. We had freshly caught Barramundi and chips for dinner at the Jabiru lake picnic grounds, nice green grass and top playground. We sat on the picnic blanket eating our dinner while watching the sunset, wonderful.

Nourlangie Rock

Our next visit was to Nourlangie Rock to see some more art. The art was very faded here but we enjoyed the walk thru the cave like rocks and the views of the distant escarpment.

Cruising up Twin Falls Gorge

Rock hoping to twin falls

We set up camp at Jim Jim Billabong for 3 nights. From here we went for a drive out to Twin Falls and Jim Jim Falls. The drive in was very scenic, we really enjoyed the drive. Twin Falls were the first of the two that we visited, absolutely spectacular. A short and enjoyable boat ride thru the gorge, the water was so crystal clear that we saw some good size fish and turtles swimming around. And the gorge was just amazing to see, we then rock hoped up to the base of the falls where no swimming was allowed because of crocodiles but they did have showers set up on the bridge to cool off. The girls enjoyed cooling off.

Twin falls

Showering to cool off in twin falls gorge

Now for a proper swim we headed to Jim Jim falls. Only about a 1km walk to the falls but it was very rocky going. The single fall was hardly flowing at all but quite a big drop. We swam off the sandy beach and the water was very crisp, but cooled us down on a hot day. After a swim, snorkel and Darrin and Emma did some rock climbing - very impressive we headed back so we could make it back the camp for sunset.

Emma and Darrin rock climbing

Jim Jim Falls

Yellow Waters was not far from our camp so we spent half a day exploring this area. In the morning we drove there and did the board walk over the billabong and saw a nice size salty cruising the shallows of the billabong. We then went for a swim at the Cooinda lodge which was lovely to relax for a few hours around the pool and catch up with fellow travellers. The billabong is the same waterway as the Jim Jim Billabong so we spent the afternoon cruising the waterway from our camp. Went up as far as we could by boat to have a look. The bird life was amazing, Kate loved looking for all the different birds hiding in the trees. And of course I do have to mention the big barra Darrin caught and much to our campsite neighbours dibelief he let it go for someone else to catch.

Relaxing around the pool



Cooinda Lodge pool



Our Jim Jim Billabong camp

Barramundi Gorge

Darrins self portrait of his barra catch in Jim Jim Billabong

We packed up camp to move on from Jim Jim Billabong.  On our way our we stopped for a quick swim at Cooinda, four hours later we on the move again. We stopped at Barramundi Gorge for a look, the walk was only 700metres and followed the creek and we got to see some sarratoga, barramundi and turtles in the creeek it was so clear. The little gorge and waterfall at the end of the walk is just spectacular, on of the best little walks we did in Kakadu. We were there late in the afternoon which was not good for getting a great photo because of the shadow. But the water was fantastic so we swam to the other side of the gorge and saw a whole different view.

That night we camped at the Gungural lookout to we could watch the sunset and sunrise over the escarpments. We are just loving the colours at sunrise and sunset up here.



Walking to the top of Gunlom falls



Our last spot to visit was Gunlom falls, we drove in there early to do the steep climb to the top of the waterfall. This provided magnificant, views and once at the top the pools to swim in were fantastic and right on the edge of the escarpment. A wonderful way to finish our visit to Kakadu.

Swimming at the top of Gunlom falls

Our Kakadu experience was truely amazing. We saw some beautiful country and experienced so many wonderful things. Our visit to Kakadu will be one we will always remember as unique.