Category Archives: Nothern Territory

Greenant day trip in the wet season

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Much of my memorable adventures start with reading the Kakadu or Litchfield access report, find a place and calling the rangers up and asking about it. In this case I called the Litchfield rangers to ask about swimming at greenant creek. A quick google search said there was a rockpool you could swim at, the access report said the track was open, but didn’t mention anything about the swimming. What followed was a hilarious conversation with a helpful ranger handicapped by the world we live in. Basically he said:

“there isn’t anywhere that is zoned for swimming there, so I can’t tell you you can swim there. But there is a rockpool above the waterfall that people swim, I swim, and we don’t mind. You don’t have to worry about crocs but you do have to worry about flash flooding, since you’re on top of a waterfall.”

Litchfield in the wet season is generally pretty full, as you can only swim at Florence and the Buley Rockholes, and the weather is such that you really want to swim! So we decided to walk there, and were utterly amazed that we had the entire place to ourselves all day. I imagined all those other people braving the crowds… ah well!

The highlight of the walk were the enourmous golden orb spiders. We saw a few big ones, then ran into two that were just enormous, easily bigger than my hand.

Other than that, just a great day chilling out on top of Litchfield!

 


On top of the waterfall


In the rockpool

Gubara – Kakadu

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Gubara is a fairly long bushwalk followed by an amazing swimming hole. It’s a good 5km on way, so be ready for the walk with water. The swimming hole is beautiful, the walk back always seems a lot longer

HOWEVER it has since been brought to my attention that swimming there isn’t always such a good idea.

It is generally closed for swimming in the wet as there might be crocs, the walk is usually open. And during the dry they often say it best to miss it due to the algae inside a stagnant pool.

I’ve done it a few times, each time I relied on the advice of friends, rather than me checking out the access report.

I would not recommend this 🙂

Mary River Houseboats

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Mary River houseboats is one of the best things you can do in Darwin. See the wetlands, fish a little, crocs, birds, have a few drinks, it is fantastic. It is one of those trips that you always take visitors on but never gets old.

Make sure you don’t use any lights! Finish dinner and clean up well before sunset. Wetlands is another name for a swamp, getting every single mozzie and midgee in your boat is what will happen if you leave the light on.

Life is a bit easier if you have a small boat with it. Easy to tow, but you don’t have to worry about getting stuck against the wind, as you can just tow yourself out.

A single night really is enough to see everything, more is good, but it isn’t necessary.

Nourlangie – Kakadu

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Nourlangie is a series of rock where indigenous people used to live for tens of thousands of years. It is also home to some terrific rock art, and a reasonable view. It is very accessible, all the time. The walk is really easy. As a consequence this is sort of place you will go once and love it, but end up taking every interstate visitor to a million times. It sort of lost its sheen with me, but if you are in Kakadu once, and you are interested in the ancient rock art, it is it worth it.