Category Archives: The Best!

Gunlom – Kakadu

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Gunlom

Gunlom is down a 4WD track, that being said a lot of 2WD’s make the trek, despite warnings from the rangers. I’ve saw a bumper broken the last time I was there, but most seem to go okay as long as they go very slow. No way I’d do it though.

The campsite is really good, it has some concrete firepits, running water in the toilet block, and some stone benchtops you can set up on. There was zero firewood around, so I would recommend that you gathered some on the way, like I should have. Even in July, fire is not necessary, but who doesn’t love a fire when they are camping?

Gunlom is two areas, the bottom and the top. The bottom is very accessible, a 50 metre super easy walk. The pool is large, the water is nice. There are some rocks around to sit on. There are usually a few older folks and younger kids around. Kakadu’s freshwater swimming pools vary in temperate, I’d say this one was colder than average.

The top pools are a steep walk up a hill. It takes about 20 minutes, and bring plenty of water and food for the day as you don’t want to have to walk up and down. The pools are smaller, marginally warmer than the bottom, and the view is amazing. Note it is pretty hard to get this shot, as there are usually a few people around trying for the same thing.

You can travel to a few more pools upstream that don’t have the views but have less people, and there is a small waterfall right at the back.

Overall Gunlom is easily one of the best places in Kakadu and that is saying something. $10 per person per night, if you are in the NT you don’t want to miss it.

IMG_0098The view from up the top

P1000820Gunlom at the bottom pool

Success in the Harbour!

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A blind squirrel will eventually find some nuts!! Smashed it, at least, smashed it for me. The day started out badly with jprbeard not showing up at my place, I waited 30 odd minutes, but he wasn’t returning phone calls or texts… (hope he just slept it and it a bit sheepish, as I still haven’t heard back) so I went to Palmertson boat ramp and grabbed one of the land fisherman to give me a hand launching, and thought I might as well take him for the ride. He got a jack 45cm but had to get out at 11am and i wanted to fish through until 2. As the low rolled over I had scouted a mud bank I liked the look off… boom! Got a great threadie, netted him by myself easily. About 20 minutes later I surprised myself (wasn’t near a snake or drain, just a mud bank) by hitting a good barra! He fought like all hell, look a crap load of line off me (it was pretty loose as there weren’t any rocks around) but I got him to the boat. The netting by myself this time was a disaster, he managed to wrap himself in my line haha, was lucky I got him in the end. But I did!

Got:
Darren: 45cm Mangrove Jack
Me: 72cm (from tip of tail) Threadfin Salmon & 66cm Barra

Story of the trip:
Well it’s the last trip for 5 weeks for me (holidays) and I haven’t caught a nice keeper since the the run off so pretty stoked with that.

Boat problems:
NOTHING!!!!!!!!!
Looks like everything is coming up milhouse

Snap
3 snaps for celebrate the end of the year:

Camping in South Eastern Kakadu

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An amazing trip. One of those trips where everything goes according to plan, the weather was nice, the locations were great, more than a few laughs.

First Claire and I went down to Garnamarr and set up camp. We didn’t burn any wood on the first night as it was pretty warm. The stars were just amazing. We had both been working pretty hard and hadn’t been out in a while, it felt like we were on holidays.

The next morning we headed to Twin Falls. The river crossing was great fun. It is paved, so not as scary as it looks. When you get there, you then take a boat. The indigenous guide/captain was really interesting, he told us a few stories, what the land means and so forth. I found it interesting that all indigenous cultures across Australia believe that a serpent created the earth. Anyway – when we got there, wow! It was paradise on earth. Beach, vegetation, escarpment, rock pools, still a trickle of a waterfall…


Just a real shame that it is now closed for swimming. So we headed to Jim Jim Falls.

Jim Jim wasn’t flowing at this time of year. The walk was interesting… the distance is quite short, but it takes forever, as you need to jump from large rock to large rock to get there. The water was colder than I expected, and the water right at the base of the fall (pictured) was freezing!! Who would have thought?

There were a lot of people there, it is clearly a popular place for guides. It was great, but it still amazes me that Maguk gets so little attention in comparison. After a swim, a packed lunch, and an even longer trip back, (tried to take a shortcut, that was my first mistake) we headed back to camp.

The stars were even brighter than the night before, if I had any skill as a photographer I would have tried to take a photo. We lit a fire for cooking and also to keep the midgees away. Nothing better than having a few beers around a campfire. We stayed up late before packing up and heading home.

 


On the trail


The River Crossing

Claire’s Birthday Broome Trip

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So we decided to fly into Broome for a week as Claire was turning 30. We decided there were a few cool places we wanted to explore, so we hired a Grand Vitara. This was before we owned one, it had been on my mind for a while, so we figured that hiring one would be a good test. Despite Broome Broome (best name for a care hire place) restricting a 3 door Grand Vitara from going to places that the Rav3 could go, which made my soul die a little on the inside, they treated us pretty good and the car certainly rocked.

There were so many great places to see down pretty interesting roads. The pearl farm, which wasn’t that good apart from the drive, the dinosaur footprints, Echo Beach resort, it was all really interesting. Completely random, Triple J’s hottest 100 of the past 20 years was on, so you’ve got that, an awesome car, loads of great tracks and destinations… it was great fun.

I think Claire liked the sunset camel trip the best, my favourite bit was Greg’s Astronomy tour.


The rock colour was amazing


Claire being arty


Camel trip

Tiwi Islands – Great Trip

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My boss decided to take us boys out on an overnight fishing trip. Writing this in 2015 it is still the best one that I have done. Got there and fished for Barra for the day with lots of success (by my standards). Stayed the light and had a quick trawl in the morning. Then went goldie hunting.

Got:
Me: 5 barra, 3 good goldies (including a double header on a handline) and tons of reddies
Boss: 6 barra, loads of goldies and reddies
Mate: 1 barra, loads of goldies and reddies

Story of the trip:
Getting smashed by the goldie school! They busted me off and I quickly swapped to my handline, as we wanted to keep feeding squid down there before the school moved on. Nothing like pulling a double header up!