Category Archives: Swimming

Quick trip to Berry Springs

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I was supposed to go fishing but I was a little too eager on my squats Thursday night, given my back was a bit sore, I thought a nice trip to Berry Springs would be better.

Given it was a public holiday I expected it to be full, and the carpark was overflowing when we got there around 10.30am. However it is a very large space, so really wasn’t too bad.

I was a bit more comfortable when I got out to the deeper water. The kids were being kids and super excited in the water, which is fine, but when your lower back is a whisker away from a spasm, it was easy to get a little freaked out.

Had a nice picnic and a swim for a few hours. Claire really likes “big things” and since we had never been to the big stockwhip we made a detour on the way back.

 

 

Jarrangbarnmi – Location

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Jarrangbarnmi is also known as Koolpin Gorge. It took about 5 hours from Parap including a stop for lunch. About 1 hour 30 from Mary river ranger station although you wouldn’t think so. The walks aren’t signposted very well so make sure you read the map. Fires are allowed. Collect firewood on the way though it shouldn’t be an issue. Permits only. The old fashioned smelly long drop toilets. Not too bad of a camp site, definitely something to do if you’ve seen most of Kakadu.

Overnighter at Jarrangbarnmi / Koolpin

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Seeing Jarrangbarnmi (which used to be called Koolpin Gorge) was at the top of my list of things that I wanted to see up here. It was cancelled on us once before, because they couldn’t remove a croc. And all the permits were booked out the last time we tried to go. We decided to book the permits for one night on Saturday and Sunday. It was nearly 5 hours from Darwin, but it was worth it.


That rock is much higher than it looks in the photo

We got there, set up, then went to have a look at the river. It was amazingly clear. There was no swimming here because of possible crocodiles, but it was nice to see. The only thing that irked me a little about the campsite was the massive section reserved for ‘tour groups only’  which is fine, except there weren’t any. Meanwhile the other permit holders were forced to set up next to each other. We had run out of time to do the walk to the Gorge, so we just had a few drinks, watched the sunset, set the fire up and had dinner. Later that night we experienced this strange sensation I had not felt since being in Victoria… I remember it was called… cold?


With beanies by the fire

The next morning we packed up and headed to the Gorge itself. The walk… is… not very well signposted. It would be, if you decided to read the map that you were given. But since we had been down to river and there was a big sign about the walk, and a well worn trail, I assumed that was the starting place. Maps are stupid anyway. After about an hour we hit a trail marker, which meant that
a) There were trail markers, and
b) We had not been on the trail

After that we got to the pink pool, the smaller and easier one to get to. After our long walk across a lot of rocks we decided to swim and eat here before moving to the black pool upstream. We were the only ones around which makes things that much better. We had a long swim involving jumping off some rocks, and just generally lay around. Claire was having some trying to take photos of me jumping off the rocks. She was finding it hard to time which meant I probably did it twenty times in a row. It was pretty funny, and of course, a lot of fun!

I went for a walk to check out the black pool. It was amazing, far larger than I thought it would be. I sort of regretted having spent the day in the pink pool, but the way that I figure, it gives me an excuse to go back.


The black pool

On the way back going across the correct track markets, it took about 15 minutes. Whoops. Otherwise everything went well, the new car suspension was fine, I used the roof rack for gathering a large amount of firewood and that worked well. It was great to get away, even if it was for the night, and now I’ve been to all the swimming spots in Kakadu.

The Long Trip Home – Part 3 of the Kimberley

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The next morning things looked a bit better, I found someone with a bit of knowledge of cars who explained to me what it meant. You can still drive it but you have to go slow. Not knowing exactly how must to trust him we decided to do just that and we drove to 99km to the next station in 4.5 hours. We were pretty happy to get there, had a few drinks that night and met a few people. So far the total was:
– One broken Patrol fan belt, had to be towed
– One broken suspension on a Hilux, fate unknown
– One abandoned Hilux (with a note saying they were ok)
– One landcruiser with a broken strut
– One camp trailer (owned by the Hema map people) with a bolt issue

Plus our car made it 6 in 24 hours since we left mitchell falls. I hate to sound like a jerk, but I had a few people comment that ‘smaller cars aren’t suitable for the road’ so it made me feel a tad better that we weren’t the only ones having problems with the shocking state of the road. I called around Kunanurra but no one had the parts I need, not that surprising really given my car.

Apart from the strut having us worried, and parts being unable to find, Claire really smashed her head into the car door. She decided that Suzi was trying to kill her. The corrugations didn’t help her headache much, she said “I didn’t know what a corrugation was, now I do, I don’t like it, boingey boingey boingey boingey”

The next day was about 170km to Ellenbrae station, where we got a great scone. It was the first night we were starting to think we would make it back to Darwin. Plus there was a lot of firewood available, so it was nice to unwind a bit. We had decided that this holiday would later be considered a “team building exercise”.


Nice to relax by the fire

About 30km before the paved road arived, we heard the same noise in the front right strut… so we were now without any shocks at the front, and noise of the car was terrible. But we got to the paved road okay… and were quite relieved to see it.

We then went onto Kunanurra, stopping at Home Valley station for a burger. Claire decided she had had enough of packing and unpacking the tent so we checked into a hotel, had some beers and pizza and watched the footy.

Very happy to see paved road again

The next day was Saturday and we went onto Edith falls, thinking it would be a good stop on the way home. School Holidays turns that place into something else, it was utterly crammed full of people. We were planning on having a swim before heading home but thought it might be too crowded. We got into the water at about 10.30am to find zero people at the lower pool… weird. That was our last bit of fun before heading back to reality.


Edith Falls