Upon getting up really early we were greeted by mosquitos during our breakfast... We got ready to meet Shaun the tourguide, his sister Katherine and her husband Paul at 7am and to drive towards the Twin Falls on a 4WD track. Shaun has approached us the day before to come along with them as they had two free seats in their rented car. Despite the 60km/h limit signs Shaun drove at around 100km/h but still managed to spot this two meter long python next to the road! AHHHH!
To get to the Twin Falls you have to cross this river and the water depth was at 0.7 meters and we were very afraid of crocodiles! Should we really go in?
OH YES! We did it!
This is the car that they have rented for their three day trip to Kakadu. We saw a lot of these cars around Karijini and Port Hedland as they are mainly used by mining companies. It even had a rollbar inside which made you feel really safe in it.
Having reached the carpark of the Twin Falls area we spontaneously decided to do the boat trip to the falls later and do the hike towards the top of the falls first. Shaun has never done this hike before and wanted to explore the area. In the carpark we met a group of hikers in serious outfits and equipments. I have never seen such a professional group; it was a hiking club from Melbourne. We spoke to the leader who explained that they would do a 100km hike in eight days carrying about 22kg each in their backpacks!!! RESPECT!!! We took on the hike to the top and half way through we had a nice lookout.
It was already quite steep but then it also got really rocky and very hot. It took us over an hour to get to the top.
We finally reached the top of the falls but as it was dry season it was only a little bit of water that you could see getting down the rocks.
He you see from left to right Phil, Katherine and Shaun.
A little bit further up we arrived at this nicely looking pool. Shaun, Katherine and Charlotte went for a refreshing swim. As I haven't brought my bathers I only walked in the cool water up to my knees.
Then we descended again and arrived at the carpark at midday. So we decided to have lunch first before we would take the boat shuttle to the Twin Falls. Of course: beware of crocodiles!
It was a nice five minute transfer with the boat across the gorge and we even saw two freshwater crocodiles (freshies). In this waters it is actually forbidden to swim and even penalties apply!
This is a trap for saltwater crocodiles (salties). Freshies are not aggressive and if you leave them alone they will not attack you as they feed on fish. Salties on the other hand are the ones with the wider mouth and are quite aggressive. Just standing near the water will tempt them to attack you. These traps have some piece of meat (like pork) in them which freshies wouldn't want.
I was under the impression that the boat shuttle would bring us directly to the falls. Well, I was wrong. We had another 30-40 minute walk in front of us where we had to climb rocks, crawl along the rim of the gorge and make our way through some hot sand and over a small bridge in the middle of the day.
Quite exhausted, especially because of the heat, we finally got to the Twin Falls! HURRAY!
Then we drove back through the river and towards Jim Jim Falls.
There we decided to only do the 1km walk to the lookout as it was already late in the day and we were exhausted from all the walking. It is a 4km walk to the actual falls and quite a lot of people who came towards us told us how difficult the walk is but that it is also worth it.
This is the view we had onto the Jim Jim Falls from the lookout. We didn't get any closer than that. Sorry folks!
After that we drove directly back to the caravan park at Cooinda where Charlotte and I had spaghetti with sausages for dinner but we also prepared some rice with carrots, beans and tomatoes for the next days. Then we met up with Shaun, Katherine and Phil again for some Guun and entertainment for the evening. Luckily a tent of the tour provider that Shaun works for was free Charlotte and I slept in proper beds again - after Phil had removed an ugly huntsman (a sort of spider)! AHHHH! The next morning we would spent again with the three.
Our next stop: Maguk!
Yours falls-visiting-and-lots-of-hiking Stefanie
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Have your say now! Would you do the same thing or would you do it differently? Do you have any travel tipps for me for my onwards travels? let me know!