Edith Falls is also part of Nitmiluk NP, being a 50 minute or so drive from Katherine Gorge campground (got to drive through Katherine itself). It is a completely different style waterway to Katherine gorge, being a creek with waterfalls and swimming holes at the base (more similar to what we’d see in SE QLD) and is very beautiful.

This morning we did the 2.6km Leiyn walk that takes you up to the upper falls (not too big a walk after the previous days outings!). The swimming area up there is smaller than the large plunge pool of the main/lower Edith Falls itself (but still a decent size), but is more interesting so we spent quite some time up there swimming and relaxing by the water.

Here are some pics from this morning…

Main Pool, Edith Falls, Nitmiluk NP

View of Upper and Middle Pool, Edith Falls

Why do they keep changing the names of these places? Katherine Gorge is now called Nitmiluk Gorge…. Anyway, it’s hot up here! So far this trip my showers have been to help warm me up (as well as getting clean!), but not so here at Katherine Gorge! The aim of my shower this evening was to cool down!

We arrived Wed evening and caught up with Aunty Kathy as mentioned here. Great to catch up again! The plan was to do a walk Thurs (7/8), and I gave the others two options – a 12km return walk to Butterfly Gorge, or a 19.8km return walk to Lily Ponds. Being the softies they are they chose the shorter one to Butterfly Gorge. Early on in the trail we came across this sign…. I thought it was still winter!!!

Yikes!!!

We made good progress over to the Katherine River/Gorge, and had a lovely time there. The area at the end of the walk (ie. the gorge) was very small, almost just a shelf to stand on, so we ended up leaving our stuff there and going for a swim around the gorge. We went probably 500m or so downstream, part walking part swimming. The water was lovely – cool enough to be refreshing, but not freezing and not hot – just right! No photos as no waterproof camera to swim with! The boys did well swimming across the deep water sections. We spent some time there, keeping off the sand banks with ‘do not enter, crocodile nesting area’ signs (!!), went back to the packs and had some lunch, and then headed back along the path.

the gorge!

Heading north from Longreach Waterhole, we could have mistaken much of the terrain for our home area – SE QLD! The sparser traffic, weird number plates, 130km/hr speed limit and unknown towns kinda gave it away though….

We stopped for fuel at Dunmarra, and I noticed some nice looking pies in the roadhouse, so we had morning tea there (first hot pies these holidays!). I must have a good eye, because they turned out to be nice big homemade ones with real beef inside! They also had some large snakes in tanks!

We continued on to Mataranka, around 100km’s shy of Katherine. Elsey National Park, with the well known Mataranka Thermal Pool/Springs is just a few km’s out of town. It is clear we are no longer in dry central Australia – there are sprinklers running in the caravan park till the point the ground grows moss rather than grass in places!

We spent the night camping at the Thermal Pool homestead caravan park. The thermal pools are beautiful crystal clear water with a light blue tinge to them. The water springs out of the ground just 50m or so upstream, at a temperature of 34C!! We all enjoyed a nice dip in the warm water. Unfortunately it is a fairly busy place – I was lucky to get these photos of the pool without them showing heaps of other people!

Mataranka thermal pool

During our initial trip down to Alice Springs, after just completing the Barkly Highway, the boys were dead keen to visit a caravan park just to the north east of Alice called Gemtree. The reason of course was gem fossicking at the central Australian gemfields! However, our turbo problems kicked in just before the turnoff, so there was no chance we were going to do it then (if we ever were going to!).

However, the requests from the boys resurfaced as we began to head north again following Uluru. To keep the peace and quiet, we headed off east along the Plenty Hwy for 70km’s to the caravan park known as Gemtree (Fri 1st/8). Fortunately this initial section of the Plenty Hwy is sealed (though single lane). We booked in the park, and into a Garnet fossicking tag along tour for the next day (Sat). A nice campfire and damper desert were nice finishing touches to a meal that was otherwise, lets just say, um, edible….

Sat morning we set off for the fossicking area which was another 28km’s east; there was us, a French couple with a kid, and the tour guide who went off after he had us set-up and operating. The process was rather similar to gem fossicking at Rubyvale, but without a willoughby, and the ground is quite different – dirt rather than granite rock. This makes it a quicker process to examine the sieves for goodies, but that means you end up processing a lot more dirt – ie. it requires lots of manual labour.

digging!

Not a particularly fair title as we had a whole week of fun, but I’m referring to those activities with less scenic intentions!! Of course quad biking fits squarely in that category, and good fun it was! Nikki had never ridden one, and though I have ridden a quad bike for utility purposes on the farm at Maleny, this was another ball game altogether! Nicole wasn’t too keen on the adrenaline rush and decided to sit this one out.

Getting ready! Photo by Nikki

We all (including Nikki and girls) made the 4hr or so trip from Uluru/Yulara to Kings Canyon Resort on Sunday 27th in the motorhome and a hire car. Somehow I ended up with the majority of the kids the whole drive (and back!), but they were good fun and I was driving a late model Camry which was a nice change from the motorhome! Nikki had thought of hiring a campervan for this part of the trip, but the trust controlling the whole Uluru/Yulara area don’t allow the hire of campervans/motorhomes from Yulara resort or airport (Yulara is the resort town close to Uluru – where you stay when you visit).

so we shared ours for a bit!

It is quite a drive to Uluru, heading west from the Stuart Hwy along the Red Centre Way. The boys were keen to keep an eye out for the big well known rock, and Daniel was the first to claim in excitement that he had spotted it. So much so that he was repeatedly singing ‘I was the first to see it’ whilst bouncing up and down on his seat in glee! Unfortunately for him, this is what he was looking at….

Mt Conner…!! From a distance.

It isn’t till another 100km’s or so that Uluru is visible…!

Uluru, from a distance, in the middle of the day.

That evening (Wed 23/7), after catching up with Nikki, we all drove in closer for our first encounter with Uluru – at sunset. Below is some of what we captured that evening.

Btw, I’ll add that all these images (including The Olgas, Kings Canyon etc) are straight off the camera. I have not done any editing (aside from resizing) to improve the colours/saturation/brightness to make the rocks etc look any better than they did at the time.

Uluru at Sunset!