Down Under, by Land, Sea and Air

[Zubbie15]

Next stop, Edith Falls

Leaving Litchfield, our next stop was Edith Falls (Leliyn) in Nitmiluk National Park, almost at Katherine (220 kms away). The roads in the Northern Territory are straight, good and quite deserted, and you are permitted to go quite fast (to be honest, we generally were going less than the speed limit).

One thing we needed to be aware of were the road trains, which were quite apparent along the trip.

But we made good time, and got there with a couple of hours of daylight remaining. I had read that the upper falls were the definite highlight of this trip, so we set off on the path to get to them.

It was quite hot at this point, with the sun beating down on us.

Taking it slow, though, we made it up the incline, and then followed the path further along. This area was predominantly more grasslands, with some trees interspersed.

We reached the upper falls without too much difficulty, and were rewarded with very nice views of the rocks and pools, with only a few other people around to share it with.

We then continued along the loop, eventually reaching a lookout that allowed us to see the upper falls from a greater distance.

Continuing along the route, we slowly made our way down to the lower falls. At this point, the sun was getting lower in the sky. One of the nice things about coming here in the winter is that the sunset lights up the lower falls, which makes it quite attractive.

Unfortunately, we still had about a 45 minute drive to get to our hotel that night, so we didn’t stay until the real sunset – kangaroos and wallabies on the road are a real hazard in the area after dark! I would have also liked to have some more time to appreciate the birdlife, as there were many honeyeaters in the trees, and bee-eaters swooping around.

[Zubbie15]

The next day – Katherine Gorge

The main reason to come down to Katherine lies not too far outside of town, in the form of Katherine Gorge. We had the morning to relax around town, so we slept in and then walked around the small main area. One of the things we usually do when traveling is to buy a local piece of art to hang on our walls, and I had the names of a couple of galleries in Katherine that were rated well. However, these definitely did not have the type of art we wanted, so we passed without buying.

We headed toward Katherine Gorge around midday, and had a quick lunch at the visitor center. To go along the gorge, there were two main options – to hire a canoe/kayak and paddle yourself, or to take a boat cruise. I decided to go with the boat cruise, as I assumed the photography would be easier in a bigger boat, and it appeared that you would be able to see somewhat more of the gorge, as our tour went up to the third gorge (

The light was a little harsh at this time of day, and they do offer a dawn cruise if one is interested, which probably would give some more of the golden light to work with, but I was still satisfied with our day out.

[Zubbie15]

Wildlife at Katherine Gorge

There were a lot of people at Katherine Gorge, so I was somewhat surprised that there was a pretty good variety of animals that were visible during our time there. A sampling follows:

Sulphur-Crested Cockatoo

Black Flying Foxes

White-faced Heron

Freshwater Crocodiles

Peregrine Falcon

The falcons had three chicks on a ledge nearby, although one was rather shy and never gave us a good look.

[Geoff]

@@Zubbie15 Bringing back some memories for me. I've seen all those places in the Northern Territory but it has been years since i was in that part of the Top End.

 

Your mention of the art work made me smile. At Devils Marbles an aboriginal artist was painting under one of the shelters. I asked how much for a painting and was told $50 (this was in 2001). So I bought two pieces of her work. She also explained that she sold her work to the galleries in Katherine & Darwin. Later in Darwin I found her work in one of the galleries and similar paintings were selling for $700.

[xelas]

@@Zubbie15

More great photos, bringing more great memories also my way!

 

@@Geoff

We have been to that part of the world (Northern Territory) end of June 2001 !! Any chance we might share the same road?

[Geoff]

@@Zubbie15

More great photos, bringing more great memories also my way!

 

@@Geoff

We have been to that part of the world (Northern Territory) end of June 2001 !! Any chance we might share the same road?

@@xelas Yeah, possibly. I spent two years living out of the back of a landcruiser travelling around Oz.

[Zubbie15]

Thanks @@Geoff and @@xelas. I'll describe our actual buying experience when I get to Alice Springs, but I had a feeling that the mark-up on the paintings was quite substantial.

[Zubbie15]

Helicopter Ride over Katherine Gorge

Similar to Litchfield, the part of Nitmiluk Park that one sees at Katherine Gorge and Edith Falls is only a small part of the whole park. Because of this, I was interested in taking a helicopter flight over the gorge, to get a greater appreciation of the area. Because we had signed up for the longer cruise though, I wasn’t sure that we would be able to do a helicopter ride as well, as the cruise ending and the official close of the helicopter flights were at essentially the same time. I contacted the company that runs the tours to see if the timing would work, and they told me that it wouldn’t, but that one of their pilots had agreed to stay late for us. Not only was this really nice of them (as an aside, I was really impressed at how friendly and helpful all the people in the tourism industry were while contacting them to plan this trip), but it meant we had a quasi-sunset helicopter tour, which most people do not get. The tour was really quite something, to see how far the gorges continue back in the park, and all of it bathed in a nice golden glow. Some photos:

After the helicopter ride, we made our way back to our hotel in Katherine. It was amazing to see the difference in the ride – at midday when we went out, it was as if there was no wildlife in the area at all, while now at dusk there were tonnes of kangaroos and wallabies in the fields along the road. We could definitely see why it’s not recommended to drive between dusk and dawn if one can avoid it.

[Atdahl]

Awesome report @@Zubbie15. Love the variety of quality pictures too. This one is getting bookmarked as well for future planning. Nice to have two excellent Aussie reports lately.

[Zubbie15]

Thanks @@Atdahl, I definitely enjoyed our time there and recommend a trip to anyone (and the flight wasn't that bad!).

[Zubbie15]

Onward to Kakadu

The next morning, we left after breakfast, to make our way to Kakadu National Park. This park was made famous by the Crocodile Dundee movies. It’s extremely large (at 19 804 square kilometers, about half the size of the entire country of Switzerland). We stopped on our way at Pine Creek in order to buy our park pass and to get some snacks for the road. In particular, I’d earlier seen some people eating chicken-flavoured potato chips, and wanted to try those (in the end, not bad – they taste a lot like chicken noodle soup to me). There were a lot of birds in the parking lot, but we didn’t spend too long before wanting to hit the road, just grabbing a photo of this Rainbow Lorikeet.

Being so big, getting around Kakadu involves a fair amount of driving. After going 90 km from Katherine to Pine Creek, we headed toward Cooinda, a further 165 km. Because we had a small 2WD sedan, we decided to skip the southern attractions (such as Gunlom Falls), which are on unsealed roads that may or may not be passable in a non-4WD (different internet sources say different things). We stopped at one parking area to stretch our legs, as our guidebook said it had a nice lookout over the park, but it was midday at this point and so hot that we only went a few hundred meters before turning around.

It was very dry, but there were signs warning of crocodiles, so it must be quite different during the Wet. Shortly after this, I noticed movement off to the side of the road, and we were able to observe a couple of Emus traveling through the bush.

They continued along for a while, with us following them, before disappearing away from the road. Also on this drive, as well as all other drives in the Top End, we noted a lot of Black Kites and Whistling Kites in the air. These birds congregate in the area during the winter, and soar along the roads looking for easy meals. There is a lot of controlled burning in Kakadu, restoring what the Aborigines used to do for millennia, and apparently these birds have learned to take sticks that are burning on one end and start their own fires in distant areas. This flushes the small rodents and mammals that they eat. Very ingenious, but it makes the controlled burns not as controlled!

We arrived in Cooinda, our stop for the night, mid-afternoon. This area is essentially lodging and a visitor center, but is well known as the launching point of the Yellow Waters cruises. Having made good time, we strolled through the visitor center, which was actually much more interesting than I had expected. In fact, while planning this trip I had not put in many activities to learn about the culture of the native people, but I found it to be quite fascinating.

After checking into our room, we got settled and then headed for the sunset cruise. This is the second most popular time to take the cruise (the other being the sunrise one), because, as all of us on this site know, the animals are generally more active. However, they have multiple boats that go out (on this night 3) so there wasn’t any issue with getting spaces.

[elefromoz]

@@Zubbie15, really enjoying all the places we visited probably 12 or so years ago. The "top-end" of NT really has a wild feel to it, I remember thinking that if you strayed off the paths just a metre, you would be in dense tropical jungle. Not a place to be wandering off on your own. Some fantastic swimming holes, Florence Falls was gorgeous on a hot day. Love the little Peregrine chicks, hard to believe they grow up to be such ferocious predators.

[Zubbie15]

Thanks @@elefromoz, I agree I was amazed at how remote the Top End (and our next step, the Red Centre) felt. We were surprised in Tanzania that no matter where we went, we always had cell phone reception - that certainly wasn't the case in the Northern Territory, once you got out of the towns you were really on your own.

[Zubbie15]

Yellow Waters Cruise

The bird watching on the cruise was quite impressive, beginning essentially at the launch. There were three boats heading out, as well as a fourth photography tour (if I'd known this was available ahead of time I probably would have booked it: https://paularnold.com.au/blog/2014/05/21/paul-arnold-2014-photographic-safari-dates/). Our first site was this Great Egret, looking for food near our boat.

We then had an Australasian Darter pop up beside use - he'd had more luck.

Heading out, we soon came across a nice looking Black-necked stork also hunting for some food.

Followed by another Australasian Darter drying off.

From there, we then had our first view of a saltwater crocodile, trying to stay inconspicuous.

Little Pied Cormorant.

Saltwater Crocodile.

White-bellied Sea-Eagle. There were several nests and territories in the area, so these birds were quite easy to appreciate.

Another Salty posing for us.

And one of the White-bellied Sea-Eagles in the next territory.

As we reached our turnaround point, we got to a wider part of the river, there was a large congregation of birds, including these Australian Pelicans.

We slowly started making our way back, and where previously there'd be no birds, the Nankeen Night Herons started to appear - this is a juvenile.

We caught up with a Great Egret, that had caught it's last meal before the night.

And then we finished our wildlife watching for the evening by passing by an area known to be frequented by several Azure Kingfishers. These are very small birds (about 18cm/7 inches), but they are quite used to the boats so we were able to slowly get very close to them.

From there, we slowly made our way back to the launch point, stopping to enjoy the sunset.

[Geoff]

 

Yellow Waters Cruise

The bird watching on the cruise was quite impressive, beginning essentially at the launch. There were three boats heading out, as well as a fourth photography tour (if I'd known this was available ahead of time I probably would have booked it: https://paularnold.com.au/blog/2014/05/21/paul-arnold-2014-photographic-safari-dates/). Our first site was this Great Egret, looking for food near our boat.

 

 

Some of the fishermen are keen birders and will also take you out on their boats at prices cheaper than the photographic safari tours.

[Zubbie15]

Thanks @@Geoff for the info, I wasn't aware of that.

[Zubbie15]

The sunset was truly spectacular, with fairly calm waters allowing for nice reflections, the smoke from the controlled fires lending an extra red tint to the sky, enough clouds to make for an interesting sky, and the songs of the birds as night fell. Some pictures...

[Soukous]

terrific TR @@Zubbie15

Edited September 25, 2015 by Soukous

[Atdahl]

@@Zubbie15, I agree. This report is great and the photos are fantastic!

[Earthian]

@@Zubbie15

 

beautiful composition. pure class.

[Zubbie15]

Thanks @@Soukous, @@Atdahl and @@Earthian, I appreciate the kind words.

[michael-ibk]

Then some more. Have greatly enjoyed your report so far, the pics are simply stunning. The last post with the sunsets is incredible!

[Zubbie15]

Thanks @@michael-ibk.

 

Yellow Waters Cruise, take 2

Because we really enjoyed the evening cruise, and they offered a discount for taking a second one, we had decided to book the sunrise cruise for the next morning. We rose bright and early, definitely feeling like we were on safari, as the second cruise we were taking was the sunrise one. This time we had a different guide, an older gentleman. I enjoyed him, as he was almost completely focused on the birdlife we were seeing. Having been out the night before, we’d seen sufficient Saltwater crocodiles that we didn’t necessarily need to stop this morning. There weren’t any great crocodile sightings on this morning, but everytime we saw one the guide would state that is wasn’t a good opportunity and continue on. Each time he said that, some people in the group would get increasingly agitated. It was somewhat amusing for us, but I can imagine that it would be frustrating if it had been our only boat trip out.

In any case, the sunrise this morning was very peaceful, but perhaps not as rewarding as hoped, so I settled on taking some silhouettes of magpie geese flying in the pre-dawn light.

We had a fairly quiet morning of sightings, and my digestive tract wasn’t particularly happy, so I don’t have too many photos. But there were some nice opportunities for bird photos in the golden hour light.

Royal Spoonbill

Intermediate Egret

Nankeen Night Heron, juvenile

This water lily caught my eye, given the light falling on it seemed to highlight it compared to the darker background.

We also saw some adult Nankeen Night Herons.

And there were a lot of Wandering Whistling-Ducks in the area.

This tree had a group of cormorants and darters roosting in it.

We also paid another visit to the White-bellied Sea-Eagles, this time both of one of the pairs was present.

We also saw a feral Water Buffalo, as well as a small group of feral horses.

In addition, in the far distance I was able to see a pair of Brolgas, but no pictures. The morning was actually rather quiet, we spent a lot of time going through little channels like this one, and just appreciating the calm, early morning beauty.

Before long, the cruise was done, and we headed back to the hotel.

[elefromoz]

What a gorgeous pair of Sea Eagles, did you se a nest? The Wandering Whistling Ducks are great, only seen them at the zoo, lovely feather patterns.

[Zubbie15]

Thanks @@elefromoz, we did see several nests, but no visible chicks unfortunately.