Aus Day 27 - You Were Going Where?

Saturday October 16th Aus Day 27



Rose at 07.15 after a comfortable night in the Air Conditioning, great stuff this modern technology. Shower and breakfast and then I thought that I had better get authorisation from Apollo, (As per contract) to travel the roads that I was intending to in order to visit the Bungle Bungles. Unfortunately, I was informed that the Duncan Road and the Bungle Bungles area had been closed due to heavy rain. This of course threw my entire planned itinerary into the garbage can. Talk about ‘rain stopped play.’ So, what to do instead? After a little bit of thinking I decided to nip back up the road and visit Leliyn (Edith Falls) about 40 kms north of Katherine and then visit Katherine Gorge, about 20 kms to the east of Katherine, sorted!


Plans revised, I got the van packed up and left the caravan park by 09.40, refuelled and headed north. (I am beginning to get to know this stretch of highway) I duly arrived at the Leliyn car park, part of the Nitmiluk National Park, by 10.35. The weather is cooler today and much less humid than of late.

Entrance to the National Park

My first look at the lower pool left me feeling not too impressed; see photo below, so I decided to undertake the 2 km loop walk, advised as a 2 hour trip, and so off I went. It was quite gentle to start, with stepping stones and a boardwalk across streams; see below, before starting to ascend but, nowhere near strenuous as the Kings Canyon Rim climb I had done previously. The most significant problem I had to contend with was; flies, damn flies and even more damn flies.

Lower Pool and Falls

Board Walk Over the Stream

However, I eventually  arrived at the first lookout spot where I had a good view of both pools each being fed by their own waterfalls. You might just be able to see the bridges which cross the outlet of the upper pool.

Upper & Lower Pools & Waterfalls From Lookout

The next stop on the loop walk was in fact at those bridges where I took a couple of shots of the upper falls; there were people swimming in the upper pool in the second of these shots

Upper Falls

Upper Falls and Pool - Can You Spot The Swimmers?

The remainder of the walk was a relatively easy stroll downhill with one other lookout point giving a view of the lower pool.

Lower Pool from Lookout

Anyway, I was back at the start kiosk eating a Mrs Mac Meat Pie by 12.20, having completed the 2 hour walk in just about 1 hr 30 mins including stopping for photographs and video shots. No sooner had I finished eating than a bird appeared from nowhere and finished off the crumbs from my plate, right in front of me. The following picture is not a telephoto shot. The bird is really that close.

Cheeky Chappie

By 12.50 I was off again, heading back to Katherine where I ‘hung a left’ and made for Kathrine Gorge where I booked a boat trip for the morning and a powered camp site for tonight. With any luck I should get some really nice photos tomorrow but in the meantime what do you think of this for a pool in your back garden?

Pool at Katherine Gorge Caravan Park

Having parked and started up the Air Con, I was into the pool by 15.30 to find that it was extremely refreshing and of a length which needed more than 4 strokes to get from end to end.


Although I have no mobile network coverage here and no Internet access identified through the ‘normal’ laptop coverage, my little gizmo seems to be working its magic and I established Skype connection with Eileen spot on time.


The early part of the evening was spent listening to an acoustic guitar performer by the pool side and I have to confess that I succumbed to a meal of chicken skewers although I did have them with salad. Then it was back to the air conditioned van to draft out this Blog update and wait for Zebedee’s bedtime call, while trying to contain my excitement for the day ahead of me tomorrow. At the moment, I have no idea where I will be tomorrow night.