24^th of September.

Before heading out of Ubirr, we went down to Cahill Crossing.  This is a river crossing over the East Alligator river.  This is a border crossing to pass into Arnhem Land.  To pass, you have to obtain a permit.  The river has lots of salt water crocs, so the crossing is not to be done on foot!! 

As we arrived, we saw a couple in the middle of the crossing trying to catch a fish.  Either, they can’t read all the BIG warning signs, or they were suicidal!!  Someone watching them with us, told us that just the week before a Croc had been spotted just a few meters up stream of the crossing looking for food!. 

I’m sure the Aborigines have trained to Crocs to only attack the ones without a permit to enter their lands!!   Saves having a border control point and much more effective!!

From there we headed back to Jabiru to check out this small mining village.  We stopped at the petrol station to grab some cold drinks.  Then Sibba found a bakery and went for some fresh bread for brekkie.  It’s not a big town by any means, quite small with a few places for accommodation.  

From there we headed along the Kakadu highway to Nourlangie.  This is another famous rock art site.  It’s located under a sandstone ridge amongst huge boulders of eroded sandstone.  We donned our gear and headed straight for the walk.  The first item you encounter is a path into a shelter between huge rocks.  In there the Aboriginals sheltered when the rains came.  Of course they had to graffiti the walls as well!  Like Ubirr it’s a great site for rock art.  We walked all the path around the rock art and also went out to a lookout that wasn’t too far to walk.  Especially since it was around 40 degrees and no shade from the sun.  Along the path we heard this racket and saw for the first time a Helmeted Friabird.  They have this notch on their beak.  A most peculiar bird.  

On the way back to the car park we met this bare headed lady that was about to embark on the walk.  She made a comment about Kylie, so we started chatting.  Turns out she and her husband were out in Oz from England visiting her husband’s brother.  He apparently lives in the NT.  Sibba kindly pointed out that walking in the sun in this heat, without any protection would not do any wonders for her brain.  She seemed to be aware of it, but excused herself with the fact that she simply didn’t have a hat to wear.  So Sibba promptly told her that was no excuse and dragged her to our car to fish out one of our numerous caps!  We ended up giving her the cap we had found in the Bungle Bungle.  So it went to a good home/head!  She took it and then went back to the car to put more sunscreen on.  Her husband then came, pretty impressed as he had tried to get her to buy a hat, but she had refused.  They, then happily marched into the walk, her with the proper protection on.  (Her husband already had a hat and layers of sunscreen!!)

Then we drove back to the main Kakadu highway, but did stop at another billabong to view the birdlife.  The Anbangbang billabong wasn’t as big as the Mumakala one, but had a fair few birds in it.

We then headed off to Jim Jim and Twin falls.  That was only another 80km drive.  50km of that was on a gravel track off the main Kakadu highway.

Once we got there in the afternoon, we went and camped at the Garnamarr campsite.  Then we found the ranger to get tickets for the ferry at Twin Falls, as we had decided we would go there first, but save the Jim Jim one for the following morning.

We got our ferry tickets and headed onwards along a narrow sandy 4wd track to the Twin Falls visitor car park.  Along the way one has to cross the Jim Jim creek.  The water was round .6-.7 meters deep still this late in the season, but the creek bed was concreted so it was fairly easy to cross.  At least it’s a test of how well the car holds water away!!

At Twin Falls, it was a short walk to the jetty.  The ranger takes you up the gorge in a boat, along the Twin Falls pool to a landing.  From there one has to scramble over a few rocks and a float bridge until you get to the sandy beach, just under the falls.  On both sides the gorge towers above with impressive sandstone cliffs.  This late in the season, the Twin Falls are down to a trickle of water, so the falls aren’t so spectacular as early in the season, or during the wet.  However, the place is pretty magical anyway.  We were once again, by ourselves in this place until we decided to head back.  Then a few people showed up.  We got back to the jetty and the Aboriginal ranger guy that drove the boat was already waiting after having dropped the others off.  (He has a UHF radio, one uses to call him back for the pickup!)  We chatted with the guy and he told us about his family etc.  He then slowed the boat down and turned towards the bank to try to spot some pig nosed turtles.  They are pretty rare as they are almost extinct.  We spotted a couple of them slowly swimming along the bottom.  They are quite big to see and do have a pig nose!

Once back at the visitor car park, we headed back again over the Jim Jim creek.  We didn’t have a drop of water leak into the car, so I can’t complain about that.

Back in camp we were preparing our dinner around sunset when these two birds came walking into camp, inspecting the ground for food!  It didn’t take us long to work out that this was the Little Curlew.  Not shy at all, prancing around the whole campsite.  It was too dark for me to snap photos, so you just have to believe us!

The Cahill Crossing.  Who is fishing for who?

The Nourlangie range where the rock art is located.

Entrance to the Rock Shelter.

Pretty colorful rock art..

Kylie reading about the shelter.

Kylie wanted to see if her ancestor was like her!

The helmeted Friabird.  See the notch on the beak.

A drawing of a gun.  Marks the arrival of the Europeans in Australia..

Once again a pretty colorful depiction of dancing spirits.

The top one is a bad spirit.

These are the types of sandstone formations they rock art is painted on.

Anbangbang Billbong overview.

The birds in the Anbangbang billabong.

Entering the boat to go to Twin Falls.

Heading up the Twin Falls gorge on the boat.

Steep cliff faces in Twin Falls gorge.

To get to the waterfall there was additional rock climbing.

There was also a float bridge.  These are Croc infested waters!

The sandy beach and pool below Twin Falls.

Twin Falls are just a trickle this late in the dry season.

Me and Kylie heading to stand under the fall.

Can you see me and Kylie under the fall on the left!

The sun created this nice rainbow effect.

The fall on the right was not as visible as the right one.

The gorge has lots of vegetation.

The float bridge on the way back.

Heading back to catch the boat.

Looking down the gorge.

The pig nosed turtle at the bottom of the pool.

Just about to cross the Jim Jim Creek.  See the mirror effect in the water!

Heading across the Jim Jim Creek.   You can see how deep it is.

Half way across the Jim Jim Creek.

The afternoon sun reflecting on the cliff faces.