From Cooinda we headed out to the Bukbukluk Lookout, less than a kilometre of walking around to enjoy some views of the escarpment and ranges further southwest of Cooinda and looking back into Kakadu. I finally found the plant with fragrant flowers that I had been smelling from time to time but hadn’t found until today. Not sure what it is but enjoying a stem of it in the Clipper. smells better then me probably
From there we headed further out to Yukmikmik and onto a 16km dirt road to head to the Boulder Creek walk. Although the track advice was that it was a moderate 2km walk, there were a few creek crossings, one with tricky rocks to skip across the creek, and the next one had an old tree trunk that was slightly bouncy and narrowed. I over balanced and landed in the water rather hard but had saved myself from falling over. Matt made it look easy. We had another scramble up and over a few rocks to reach the upper pool of the creek, but worth the effort. There was a small waterfall and very clear waters in the pools of Boulder Creek. On our return trip, I just skipped trying to balance on the tree trunk and tried to step through the water, as my hiking boots are waterproof, but one of my steps the water was too deep and the waterproof boots got a little wet as the water went over the top and into my sock. This time Matt had trouble walking across the trunk and landed hard, so it wasn’t just me! Then we headed back to Bridget and down the dirt road back onto tarmac. A practice for our upcoming adventure on the Gibb River Road. We headed out of Kakadu and to Pine Creek for lunch by the historic railroad.
After lunch and back on the road, we headed to the Umbrawarra Gorge. This involved another 22km of dirt road and many creek crossings, but it was worth the effort. some of the creek crossings were steep in and out and sandy, so i was a little concerned about the tail of the bus bottoming on the way out, but only whacked the reversing light a 15th time ,so all good. more tape. it's mostly tape now that glows. went to book a site at the campground at the end of the road, and the type of vehicle selection usually has mototrhome for the site as an option. this one only had 4wd & campertrailer , high clearance 4wd or motorbike. I ticked high clearance 4wd as there are 4 drive wheels on the back. clearance is debatable, but it bounces fairly high. it was a rough road. We parked Bridget up and headed out onto the walk through the gorge by the creek and rock pools. The cliffs and colours of the rock were pretty amazing and although we had to clamber over the rocks to reach the pool that we soaked in, it was worth the effort. Matt had a soak while I just dipped my feet in to cool down, as I was connected up to my TPN. We lazed away the rest of the afternoon, mostly having the water hole to ourselves. We headed back and had dinner and a quiet night in, too many biting bugs outside if you stay still too long once the sun goes down.
