IMG_6651
Sunday Morning Pine Creek Bird Watch with Rafa - Up at first light- 6am - we’d had some heavy storms overnight - after breakie and coffee Rafa and I headed round the water gardens and park looking for more Hooded Parrots. Got to see a few and also lots of red winged parrots, a bower, lots of blue faces honeyeaters, a great view of a Koel calling and many of the other usual suspects.
On the road by 8:30, back up the Kakadu highway to Barramundi Gorge - you can get in there now with a 2WD. It was tough work with the boys they were over the heat and the slippy rocks and sand on the 1km walk in and back - even my dad was struggling again, he is getting older for sure!
We started in paperback forest - superb and we all go a great view of a Mertens Water Monitor. I’ll be encouraging Miguel to submit his shot to the NT field nats comp next year! It was boardwalks, sand and then slippy sand rock - some nice pandanus groves in the creek through the paperbarks. We should have worn regular shoes and not thongs - that did not help.
We had an awesome hour in the swimhole. My dad swam out to the waterfall - the boys and me went about ⅓ of the way there and hung out on some rocks - Miguel was tired but Rafa with his noodle would have gone the distance!
After a snack, photos and some encouragement we headed back to the car - it was fly central and Miguel was the one struggling - Rafa did incredibly well. It really is a spectacular swim hole. We headed to to old Jim Jim road and stopped at the dried out river bed of South Alligator for our lunch at 2pm. From there it was a quick drive back to the Arnhem Highway and home with a unsucessful stop at the Mary River gravel pits - not too much water there at all apart from a dirty puddle.
E was home soon after - she had a great time at Mt. Bundy and the yoga retreat - I hope she can get motivated to do her yoga at home on a daily basis.
After a quick clean up Miguel and my dad had a great time with his electrical experiment kit - he really seemed into it. E did the shop as we needed an $80 spend before the end of Sunday for our $50 discount at Coles and I did bread, sauerkraut, ginger beer, general tidy up and pack away gear. It was a lot simpler with the cabin stay! We had a frozen veggie biryani for dinner - and the great news was everyone liked it Miguel didn’t like the mustard seeds in the past.
I have to say so proud of both my boys this weekend, it was 40C, we did the 2 rockiest, steepest, slipperiest trails we’ve done. The Twin Falls one had not been walked by another person, based on the fallen trees for what must have been a while, the ranger were extremely impressed they made it walking the whole way.
On top of this my 76 year old dad made the trip and for my part I managed to navigate the ute through Jim Jim creek at 70cm depth, enough to come over the top of the bonnet and have some other 4WDers comment on how surprised (read stupid) we were for attempting it with a snorkel! Well now I know the old ute can do it!
IMG_6651
Sunday Morning Pine Creek Bird Watch with Rafa - Up at first light- 6am - we’d had some heavy storms overnight - after breakie and coffee Rafa and I headed round the water gardens and park looking for more Hooded Parrots. Got to see a few and also lots of red winged parrots, a bower, lots of blue faces honeyeaters, a great view of a Koel calling and many of the other usual suspects.
On the road by 8:30, back up the Kakadu highway to Barramundi Gorge - you can get in there now with a 2WD. It was tough work with the boys they were over the heat and the slippy rocks and sand on the 1km walk in and back - even my dad was struggling again, he is getting older for sure!
We started in paperback forest - superb and we all go a great view of a Mertens Water Monitor. I’ll be encouraging Miguel to submit his shot to the NT field nats comp next year! It was boardwalks, sand and then slippy sand rock - some nice pandanus groves in the creek through the paperbarks. We should have worn regular shoes and not thongs - that did not help.
We had an awesome hour in the swimhole. My dad swam out to the waterfall - the boys and me went about ⅓ of the way there and hung out on some rocks - Miguel was tired but Rafa with his noodle would have gone the distance!
After a snack, photos and some encouragement we headed back to the car - it was fly central and Miguel was the one struggling - Rafa did incredibly well. It really is a spectacular swim hole. We headed to to old Jim Jim road and stopped at the dried out river bed of South Alligator for our lunch at 2pm. From there it was a quick drive back to the Arnhem Highway and home with a unsucessful stop at the Mary River gravel pits - not too much water there at all apart from a dirty puddle.
E was home soon after - she had a great time at Mt. Bundy and the yoga retreat - I hope she can get motivated to do her yoga at home on a daily basis.
After a quick clean up Miguel and my dad had a great time with his electrical experiment kit - he really seemed into it. E did the shop as we needed an $80 spend before the end of Sunday for our $50 discount at Coles and I did bread, sauerkraut, ginger beer, general tidy up and pack away gear. It was a lot simpler with the cabin stay! We had a frozen veggie biryani for dinner - and the great news was everyone liked it Miguel didn’t like the mustard seeds in the past.
I have to say so proud of both my boys this weekend, it was 40C, we did the 2 rockiest, steepest, slipperiest trails we’ve done. The Twin Falls one had not been walked by another person, based on the fallen trees for what must have been a while, the ranger were extremely impressed they made it walking the whole way.
On top of this my 76 year old dad made the trip and for my part I managed to navigate the ute through Jim Jim creek at 70cm depth, enough to come over the top of the bonnet and have some other 4WDers comment on how surprised (read stupid) we were for attempting it with a snorkel! Well now I know the old ute can do it!