You may know my mother Mara which
coincidentally is how I ended up on this walk. See my mother loves the
monoliths and is determined to have her ashes spread there (not sure how that
will go down with parks but hopefully that’s not something I have to deal with
any time soon ) so I figure if my mother wants her ashes spread in this spot
then there must be something amazing about it and my complete inexperience in
bushwalking put aside I was determined to see this natural wonder.
We left Darwin about 4:30pm there was six of us in total.
Mike, Sue, Marj, Sophia, Erik & Me! Erik and I being the newbies to the
circle sitting in the back of Mikes troopy we were enthralled by past tales of
bushwalking adventures from the veterans which made the four hour journey seem
to fly by in no time. Arriving at Jim Jim around 8/830 (I didn’t realise I was
doing a write up till this morning so my times may be a little out) we talked for a short while before the crowd
dispersed to get a good night’s rest. This was to be thwarted however by an
incredibly loud drunk female who couldn’t seem to find Simon.
The next morning was difficult, we were up at first light
and packed up quickly to make our way down to jim Jim. Grumbling about our
noisy neighbours I sipped my coffee with pursed lips and slitted eyelids. The
journey was bumpy courtesy of the road or the driver Mike I’m not entirely
convinced one way or the other and one of our crew was quite ill with motion
sickness. No names will be mentioned.
The climb up was hard I was perhaps first to stop my body
not conditioned to such a steep climb with a large pack but everyone was
understanding and the pace was slow. I blinked through sweat stained eyes
focused on reaching the end, one foot in front of the other eager to surmount the
mountain. When we reached the top we dumped our packs and walked over to the summit
of Jim Jim for spectacular views of the gorge. We ran into the offending female
and Marj asked her how her head was commenting on her behaviour the night
before. It resulted in an apology a small but triumphant result.
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| top of jim jim falls |
After breathing in the spectacular beauty of the gorge we
began to make our way to the campsite. There were a few detours. We came across
some hidden gems of art sites perhaps 20,000+ years old. Marj decided to look
for Ludwig’s emblazoned tree which resulted in a two km sidetrack through brush
and creeks. Sadly it was a fruitless mission and the tree remained hidden.
We reached the campsite around 3:30pm. The five others
elected to set up on a rock looking at the water whilst I chose to put my tent
about 20 metres away on the sandy beach. It was nice and secluded and I was not
kept up by a certain bushwalkers snoring later in the night like the others. Once
again no names will be mentioned. We relaxed into the evening with everyone but
me climbing one of the monoliths to watch the sunset. The conversation went
till about 9pm a variety of subjects from scuba diving to politics was
discussed.
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| monoliths |
On Saturday Mike, Sue, Erik & Sophia climbed the
monolith early to watch the sunrise. I was in heaven in my little sandy cove
and elected to remain in bed hoping to get a sleep in till 7am, at least. This
was supposed to be a relaxing weekend right???? But I was soon up and awake
brewing my instant coffee and discussing the day ahead.
Mike was to lead us on a walk that day. Erik had injured his
knee and almost stayed behind but last minute decided to join us. The walk was
long 10-12km in total spread over some very rough terrain. We left at 8:30am
and returned at 4:30pm. We saw an incredible high point with glorious view over
the back country the monoliths poking out between the trees and we were also
able to see the gorge of Jim Jim realising just how far we were from
civilisation. It really felt like being on top of the world. We found a cave which
had housed indigenous people many years ago signs of their habitation evident
in the rocks. We also discovered a very dead Kookaburra which had quite a few
people enthralled collecting the coloured feathers to adorn hats and hair with
pride.. Heading back we took a dip in a billabong on the jim jim creek the
water was clear and fresh a perfect way to cool down before hiking the final
few KM back to camp. In the last two hours my legs burning I wished I had never
gone on the walk but now sitting behind my computer desk at work I can only
think fondly about the day.
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| we found a cool cave!! |
That night I made the climb for sunset with Erik and was
treated to a plethora of colours thanks to a few bushfires and cloud cover. After
dinner we once again we lay on the rocks chatting into the night. As I made my
way to the water to refill my water bottle I noticed a red eye in my torch.
Getting closer I was shocked to see a tiny freshwater crocodile maybe only a
few months old lying on the bank less than two metres from our position. It jumped
at my approach and fled into the water where I frantically tried to call
everyone over to watch it swim. Nobody believed me thinking it was merely a
lizard but a quick scout and the crocodile was located floating in the water scarily
close to my tent. I guess I wasn’t sleeping alone this night!
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| watching the sunset from the top of the monolith |
In the morning Mike woke me up to watch the sunrise from the
top of the monolith Sue & Marj joining us. Again we were treated to a
vibrant colourful event before climbing back down to get ready to make the trip
home. It was a fairly quick hike back with a short swim stop and lunch at the
bottom before we left the falls about 2:30pm. Mike made great progress and we
were back home by about 7pm.
Things I learnt
Hiking shoes & long pants are a requirement especially
when Mike leads!
If an old-timer bushwalker says there won’t be any serious
climbing on an unmapped day walk they are lying
A guidance technique uses a compass to monitor which
direction the creek is flowing which can help by telling you if you are following
the right waterway as long as you know the original direction.
And last but not least?
The monoliths is worth every second & every ounce of
pain it took to get there.
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