Chasing Waterfalls at Nitmiluk (Katherine Gorge) NP and Litchfield NP

We had four nights left to make it the rest of the way to Darwin, and we decided to split those up between two National Parks along the way: Nitmiluk and Litchfield. Nitmiluk was our first stop (better known to most Aussies as Katherine, but I’m trying to put the Traditional Owner names first as much as possible).

Here’s a map of our route previous to this post (in red), and what’ll be covered in the post that follows (in green). We travelled this way between the 12th to the 16th of September.

You can always find our current location at our Garmin MapShare, which is pinged frequently by our InReach.

Nitmiluk National Park covers an area of around 3,000 square km, with two entrances/exits at the west and south ends of the park. At the south, the major attraction is Katherine Gorge, and at the west, it’s Leliyn (Edith Falls). Travelling between the two areas is not possible by private vehicle, but you can embark on a multi-night hike on the 62km (one way) Jatbula Trail.

With two major destinations in the park, it was easy enough for us to decide how to spend our two nights! We opted for a river cruise down Katherine Gorge on our first day as a way to see the river (you can also kayak/canoe, which in hindsight would have been a better and cheaper option for us) and multiple gorge system, and on our second day head over to Leliyn.

The boat cruise takes you up three gorges, stopping between each one to clamber over some rocks (not as intense as it sounds) over to the next gorge and into the next waiting boat. Along the way you see some Aboriginal rock art, have some complimentary lunch/snacks (they provide banana bread, cookies, a piece of fruit etc), and stop for a swim. Pretty relaxed way to spend a day!

The guide also told us if we were lucky we might see some freshwater crocodiles (not dangerous – it’s the salties to watch for) along the way, and sure enough he managed to spot a baby one on a branch over the water (no idea how he saw this little guy but we were happy he did!!)

It’s starting to get pretty warm out here and Katherine was no exception to the trend, now basically the only time that we’ll go on a hike is if there’s a swim at the end, and we aren’t using any blankets in the tent at night because it’s just too hot, especially when there’s no breeze. It’ll only get hotter and more humid as we head further north and get closer to the time of year of the wet season (referred to up north as “the build-up”). It’s a pretty big change from the beginning of the trip when it was frequently -5C overnight and we were always layered up in front of the campfire and under a ton of blankets at night!

After our boat cruise we were off on the short drive up the road to our next camp site at Leliyn (Edith Falls). I’ll interject here and say that Nitmiluk/Katherine and Kakadu (post forthcoming) haven’t been our favourite National Park experiences in Australia. They are quite commercialised, and instead of campsites in the bush for $7/pp like we enjoy at most National Parks, the campgrounds are caravan parks where people are packed in a bit tighter, there are far more amenities (Nitmiluk for example has the pool above and a restaurant/bar), but the cost is also far greater at $35 or $40 a night. I understand these two places in particular are very popular but it does seem a bit rich…at any rate, they’re two places that should be checked off any Aussie’s list, we’ve done that, and now it’s on to exploring more remote pastures!!

All of that aside, Leliyn/Edith Falls was absolutely beautiful and amazing, and little did we know, the beginning of the “waterfall chasing” part of our Northern Territory trip!

Also at Leliyn you can hike up to the upper pools of the waterfall, which is only 2km return, but in the heat you’ll still want to start early and the swim halfway is very welcome!!

From here it was a quick jaunt 280km northwest over to Litchfield, our next National Park and our last stop before Darwin! Litchfield is smaller than Nitmiluk at about 1500km squared, but it’s absolutely packed with sights to see and things to do: waterfalls, swimming holes, 4wd tracks, old homesteads, and lookouts. Litchfield’s campgrounds are more of the National Park style that we’re used to, at about $7 per person per night (vs the $35 per night in Nitmiluk), and big bonus, they’re pretty much all within an easy walk to amazing, swimmable waterfalls.

Here’s a map of Litchfield – there’s so much more to see and do than at Nitmiluk!!

We had two nights to spend in Litchfield, and most of two days, so we made the most of our time by staying at two different campgrounds. The first one, Wangi Falls was an epic waterfall with a large, deep swimming pool and plenty of native fish who loved to nibble the dead skin off your feet (feels super weird at first but then it’s like a fishy pedicure!).

The next day we were off to tackle the Reynolds River track, a 4wd track that links Litchfield with the towns to the south. There’s a number of waterfalls, swimming holes, and history along the track, as well as numerous creek crossings, two of which can be rather serious when water levels are high as the track is 4wd only with a snorkel recommended!

 

The first stop on the track is another one of those massive termite mounds – they are enormous and never cease to amaze us!

And shortly afterwards is a tin shack used by the children of the Blyth family, who were some European settlers/pastoralists in this area. There’s a marvellous book in the shack with lots of photos, stories, and history of the family, including a story about one of the 14 children adopting a crocodile as a pet…!

Next up is Tjaynera Falls (Sandy Creek), one of our favourite waterfalls we’ve found so far (ok, to be honest, there are a lot of waterfalls on our favourites list by now). After a short 4wd and a 2km hike, there’s a peaceful waterfall with a large, crystal-clear deep plunge pool, and only a few other tourists (combo of 4wd and hike seems to deter most people).

After swimming and snorkeling a while at Tjaynera Falls, we moseyed on back to the Jeep as there was still more to see and do along the Reynolds River Track! The next stop was Surprise Creek, and another 2km hike.

The reward at the end was a series of these private rock pools, at least six of them that we found, all on separate levels of the hilltop and secluded from view of the others.

We opted not to swim here (as we’re total waterfall snobs now), and headed back to set up camp at Florence Falls, where Nick proceeded to completely kick my butt at cribbage. I’m really not sure what’s been happening, because normally this is the only game I can win at, but he’s been trouncing me thoroughly for about the last month 🙁 🙁 🙁

At Florence Falls we had a little fun with the GoPro, check it out!

The rest of our last day at Litchfield was spent exploring another 4wd track and checking out Buley’s Rockpools for a swim.

Today’s 4wd track was just a short one, out to a rock formation called the Lost City:

After exploring these unique rock formations it was off to the gorgeous (and popular) Buley Rockpools to cool off before finally heading to Darwin!

These Rockpools are on separate levels of rock, similar to Surprise Creek falls, but there are many more of them, there are small waterfalls between them, and they’re nestled in a rainforest making them super-duper popular with locals and tourists alike. This was the only place where we didn’t have the pools all to ourselves and I can see why!

And with that, we had thoroughly explored Litchfield, and happily packed ourselves into the Jeep for the drive to Darwin, where we’d booked ourselves into a hotel for the night, and the Jeep into a week-long servicing/spa appointment to get all her fluids topped up, filters changed, various creeks and groans checked out, etc. Meanwhile, we’d be jetting off to Bali for a few days of vacation-from-vacation! While we love roughing it on the road, we were both looking forward to a little taste of luxury…