Kakadu to Katherine

10th June 2013

We woke early this morning and got straight into breakfast and then packed down pretty quickly to get in the road. It wasn't that we were in a rush to get anywhere today, but given the amount of people camping at Gunlom, we wanted to beat the rush of people leaving later in the morning.

So we were on the road just after 8.15am and had a relatively vehicle free road back out to the Kakadu Highway. Shortly after we got on the bitumen we crossed the park boundary and we said our goodbyes to Kakadu, where we have spent another fantastic week on our adventure.

Leaving Kakadu National Park

We made our way to the small town of Pine Creek, some 60kms away and stopped in for fuel and decided to have some morning tea. We found the Pine Creek Railway Resort, which had a cafe attached and had some of the best food from a cafe on the trip. The girls had pancakes, which were huge and were hand made from scratch when ordered and Rach and I shared a BLT, all of which were very tasty.

Morning Tea at Pine Creek

The cafe was made up from 2 old railway carriage which had been really well renovated, it was a great little stop. We then took a stroll through the water gardens park that ran through the centre of the town before refuelling and hitting the road again. We both said that we could have spent more time at Pine Creek, but as it was a public holiday Monday, most things were closed, might have to put it on the list for another time!

 Our next destination was Edith Falls, which is part of the Nitmuluk National Park and was only a short drive from Pine Creek. We arrived around 12.30pm and given our large and filling morning tea that we would hike up to the main falls and have a swim first.

Edith Falls was, once again, a beautiful spot. We spent a couple of hours at the top pools and Edith Falls, exploring and swimming in the currents between rock ledges. We made our way back down to the main carpark when the main plunge pool was located.

Chloe, Maggie & me at base of Edith Falls

Unfortunately on the way back down the hill, Maggie tripped over on a rock and face planted onto another rock, grazing her top lip and suffered some cuts to her knees, poor thing, she really is in the wars at the moment. So we grabbed some ice for her from the Engel before sitting on the grass and having lunch.

After lunch we headed to the plunge pool where Chloe, Mags & I all had a swim, although the water was a fair bit colder than what we had experienced in the top pools. After Mags had got out, Chloe and I swam across the large pool, to the base of the falls before heading back to the car and deciding to drive the last 40kms into Katherine.

Chloe in the plunge pool at Edith Falls

We arrived at Katherine around 5pm and set up camp at the Riverview Caravan Park, as we were all desperate to have hot showers and get some clothes cleaned, it's nice to have creature comforts every now and then!