Day 13

River Crossing

JIM JIM AND TWIN FALLS

Friday
November 28, 1997
By Rusty, Jane & Andrew

Cathedral Termite Mound

Up and at'em...headed out in the dark for Twin Falls. Billabongs (watering holes) are filling up. Rained last night.. must do that almost every day now. "Build-up" starts in October. Humidity and temperature start to rise at that point. The wet proper continues through January, February and March, with violent thunderstorms. There are beautiful pictures around of the lightning and skies. Around 1300 mm of rain falls in Kakadu, most of it during this period. Twin Falls usually flow year round but sometimes dry up. They of course are merely a trickle this time of year compared to what they will be. We parked and had breakfast in the car park (parking lot). We were told to travel lightly and leave everything we could at home. How we wished that could have been different. Lee would take no responsibility for cameras and we had only one airtight bucket container to put stuff in. We had to leave the digital and cam-corder behind!! We hiked a way in and then left all we could along the rock ledge. From here we would swim about 400 M through the canyon. After about 100 meters walking and wading over rocks it was back to swimming. We eventually found Twin Falls. What a beautiful secluded spot!! There was a huge pool -- like a lake at the base of the falls. We took pictures at the falls and had several hours to just swim, play and enjoy. No matter how much sun screen you put on it's not enough. It becomes a trick how to not get burned!

Click to Zoom

Pay Attention!

We only saw a few other people today. Three came into the falls area while we were there. On the swim out we passed three small canoes of folks taking the easy way in!! That was it. What a treat of an experience. From there we left to drive to Jim Jim Falls. They are totally dry now so not as scenic as they will be later. The pools are filling up at top so it shouldn't be much longer. Jim Jim cannot be accessed once the rains start though. We went over two rivers about a meter deep to get there now so soon that won't be possible. Jim Jim can only be seen then from the air. It was HOTTER than hot about the time we were there so we didn't stay too long. The pool at the base was very exotic. Lots of palms etc.

We had a lot of that 4WD territory to cover again today getting out of where we were. That was interesting! We went back to our camp and loaded up. Had time for a 30 minute cool-down in the pool and then got back on the road. We had 350 K to do today..... We headed back toward Darwin. We stopped at one spot to look at the Cathedral Termite mounds we had been seeing from the road along the way. They are mammoth in size. Maybe two to three meters above ground and a third of the nest is underground. They are waterproof, fireproof and 4WD proof!! They actually feel like concrete. These termites don't eat wood... they eat more grass than all the cattle and sheep in the country!! These cathedrals might be 50 years old filled with 2,000,000 termites. There are all kind of termites here. The flood plain termite mounds are pointed and shorter by far. There are tree tunnel termites and even "magnetic" termites. There nests are tall like the cathedrals but very thin and face north - south.

Back in Darwin, we cleaned up for dinner and joined the group in the center mall at the Victoria Hotel. I'd had an allergy attack of some kind today and the cigarette smoke there shut my evening down. The "old" folks went back to turn in and let the young folks "pub" it. I think Andrew came in about 2:00 a.m. He's enjoyed meeting these kids from all over. We're collecting a list of addresses. I imagine I'll have a few house guests at some point!

IMAGE GALLERY: Click to Zoom