Saturday - June 21
Ben, our driver, got us to Kununurra with enough time to spare (so we thought) for a quick lunch at the Pumphouse - he dropped us off there at about 1:30pm; we had a 3:00pm flight. We had a quick lunch then got a taxi to the airport - we checked-in around 2:15pm thinking we had lots of time but the flight left early - 2:30pm so in fact we just made it by the skin of our teeth. We speculated on whether or not they would have waited for us if we had been any later - the official departure time on the board never changed so it wasn’t a schedule change.
We arrived at our hotel, the Novotel, in Darwin just before 6:00pm due to the 1.5 hour time difference. We had a bit of a walk around then dinner at the hotel - which to our surprise was very good - we both had NT (i.e. wild) barramundi - all very cheap as we get half-price food at the Novotel due to Dieter having an Accor Advantage Plus (or some such thing) courtesy of his AmEx card.
Sunday - June 22
We were up and ready to go early - Dieter walked over to the Hertz office at 8:00am to pick up our 4WD only to find it was not “ready” yet - in fact it was not even in the lot. To make a long and frustrating story short - it was not ready until 10:00am due to “not enough staff to clean incoming vehicles”. So we set off for Katherine Gorge somewhat later than planned in a stressed frame of mind - at least I was. The traffic was pretty heavy - lots of caravans and road trains and only a few sections with passing lanes, and several sections under construction with stop/go’s.
We turned off towards the gorge in Katherine - still 30 k’s to go at around 1:15pm - I called our resort (Cicada) to make sure we were on the right road as we had not seen any signs (to Cicada) - I also inquired about having lunch when we arrived as we were getting hungry. They told me that they did not do lunch, in spite of the fact their web site said they served breakfast, lunch and dinner. Well my level of frustration and stress (henceforth referred to as F&S) increased a few notches. About 35 minutes later we arrived at the gate to the resort which is right at the gorge visitor centre. We pressed the buzzer which, after several rings, went to voice mail - we tried this a number of times as well as blasting our car horn and finally someone arrived at the gate and said “oh sorry - the gate is not working” - cripes my level of F&S sky-rocketed. Now it was about 2:00pm and they gave us a glass of Champagne to ease the check-in process. It turned out our room was not quite ready so they used a few delaying tactics before revealing this fact. (It turned out they had been fully booked the previous evening with a wedding and the departing guests had only left at 1:00pm so they were struggling a little). We finally got to our room some 15 minutes later and decided to relax on the deck with a cooling drink and few left-over chips for lunch. I also tried the internet which did not work. The final straw was the mini-bar did not seem to be properly stocked and the price list did not match the contents. I took my MacBook to reception to try and get the internet sorted and inquire about the mini-bar - well of course they could not understand why the internet did not work (as it was working for them) and the mini-bar issue was due to the previous evening’s wedding depleteing their stocks. Nikki (the GM) did confirm that the piccolo of Jantz was indeed correctly priced at $22 - which seemed totally crazy to me as other prices were sort of reasonable and in fact VERY reasonable when I saw the prices in the Visitor Center.
We took a bit of a walk around then it was time to get ready for our sunset gorge cruise followed by dinner on the gorge (i.e. on board a boat) - departing at 4:30pm with dinner from 6:00pm - 8:00pm. This was included in our resort package but the retail prices was $150pp. We were the only resort guests on the cruise - others (it was full) were from the nearly by caravan park or other hotels around Katherine. The cruise and dinner were very good - the wild barramundi was excellent - prepared by the young on-board German chef.
Monday - June 23
After an excellent breakfast we went for a medium scale bush walk (1.5 hours) along the gorge with a circuit back to the visitor centre. We returned in plenty of time for our 1:00pm heli-tour of the gorge with a stop at a wonderful rock pool oasis complete with aboriginal art work. We had a picnic lunch and swim - returning around 3:06pm (an extra 6 minutes) - very good value at $900 as a similar trip at El Questro would have been $1500. Back at Cicada we walked around and I bought a second (identical) croc t-shirt - with dancing crocs the same as my favicon - happiness is 2 new croc t-shirts. The F&S of yesterday had definitely lifted. We kicked back with a cooling G&T and beer before hitting the showers.
Dinner started with a complimentary cocktail hour from 6-7 PM - we had a few drinks (even French Champagne) and a few canapés. A fixed menu dinner followed - Dieter had to return his appetiser (as it had cold seafood) - after a bit of delay they replaced it with duck; the main was Kangaroo Island filet of beef and the desert was sorbet and dried fruit - all excellent. Our overall impression of Cicada had gone from a bit cool on arrival to excellent.
Tuesday - June 24
After a bit of a restless night due to the cold (we were too lazy to put on an extra blanket) we got up around 7:00am for a pre-brekkie coffee (the room had a Nespresso-style coffee maker) then another excellent breakfast. We set out right afterwards (around (9:30am) - first stop was Katherine where we bought 2 bananas for lunch - we had planned to buy some grog but the bottle shops don’t open until 2:00pm. Our next stop was Edith Falls - a nice area near Pine Creek - we did a 1+ hour hike. From here we headed towards Kakadu planning to stop at Gunlum Falls - a 37K dirt road off the sealed Kakadu Highway - we were running late and by the time we got to the falls so we had a quick look (there was much less water than when we were here some 25 years ago) then turned around heading for our destination of Cooinda - about 2 hours from the Falls - we arrived just before 5:00pm. Our “hotel” is pretty much a basic cabin (but with aircon and an en-suite), part of the main camp ground. We dropped our luggage and headed off to the Bistro/Bar for five’es and a few nuts as we getting pretty hungry after only having a banana for lunch.
Our cabin set a “new" standard as far as hotel accommodation goes - think 50’s style motel - what a contrast after El Questro and even Cicada - but no bargain $260 p.n. with no meals, not even brekkie. The good news was that both Jim Jim and Twin Falls were open.
We had dinner in their fine dining room (Mini) which was quite good (barra for Dieter and gnocchi for me).
Wednesday - June 25
After brekkie we set out for Jim Jim and Twin Falls - first stop was the ranger station and camp ground (some 57 k’s off the highway on a very good gravel road. We bought a ferry ticket from the ranger for the Twin Falls crossing but had second thoughts about Twin Falls when the ranger mentioned there was a water crossing still at 700mm and Dieter then remembered that our hire car was only permitted as far as the Jim Jim car-park So we 4-wheeled onto Jim Jim - a very rough 10K trip. At Jim Jim we did the 1K walk to the base of the falls - it was quite a challenging route - mainly rock hopping - took about nearly 1 hour each way. At the falls I had a refreshing dip - very refreshing indeed. When we returned to the car-park it had filled up to our surprise. Then it was back to Cooinda just in time for the sunset cruise on the Yellow Waters where we saw many birds and crocs and a stunning sunset. Clearly we would not have had time to do both Jim Jim and Twin Falls as Twin Falls is still another 10K along a very rough track. We had dinner Mimi’s again.
Thursday - June 26
We had brekkie then checked out of Cooinda - farewell to a 1-star hotel/cabin. First stop was Nourlangie Rock and surrounding area, famous for its rock art galleries and the big ancient living shelter. The rock formations were stunning - we walked around the site taking photos and enjoying the views.
Next stop was Anbangbang Billabong - where we saw a large, 5m, croc very close the nature walk and picnic tables. Our final stop was the Mirrai Lookout where a steep rocky climb is rewarded with a stunning 360oº view. We then drove to the Mercure Crocodile Hotel, checked-in and had a late lunch of a mouth-watering humongous burger. The Mercure turned out to be a pleasant surprise as it has had its ups and downs over the years - but was fresh and clean and well maintained. After a bit of a rest we drove to Ubirr, one of main rock art sites in all of Kakadu. Again the rock formations were amazing as was the view from the top - a bit of steep rocky climb.
We went back to the Croc hotel for sundowners, showers and dinner - grilled barra for 2. Again all food at the Mercure was half-price due to Dieter’s Accor Advantage card.
Friday - June 27
We left the Crocodile hotel and headed for the Mary River National Park and the Point Stewart Lodge, some 50k’s off the Kakadu highway on a partly sealed and partly gravel road - in excellent condition - nice to see taxpayers money at work! We stopped for a couple of walks along the way and arrived around 2:00pm - we checked-in to our room / cabin which was daggy - in fact the whole place seemed to be in somewhat of a sorry state. The bar opened at 3:00pm so after doing a bit of settling in, we had some refreshments with a few chips to augment our lunch which had consisted of a small apple and an ice cream bar.
Around 4:00PM we drove Shady Camp, another 40 K’s away on dirt road, on the banks of of the Mary River. There was a crocodile lookout shelter where we saw a couple of big salties on the other side of the river. We also saw 2 Jabirus. There is a camp ground there and we had a friendly chat with some fellow Sydneysiders from the Northern Beaches who had driven all the way from Sydney, camping along the way. Shady Camp is also a big spot for fishing - mainly barramundi. We headed back to the Point Stewart Lodge with just enough time for a quick shower before a pre-dinner drink at the “Saloon” / bistro and dinner - we were the only guests so it all felt a bit lonely, creepy in fact. From an extremely limited menu we both selected grilled barra which was very good; the barra was the old redeeming feature of the Point Stewart Lodge. We were back in our motel room by 7:45pm with absolutely nothing to do - so I fired up some music on our Bose speaker and we went off to sleep pretty early.
Saturday - June 28
We got up around 7am for our scheduled 7:30 brekkie - which was a pretty basic continental spread with instant coffee, cereal, yoghurt and toast. We debated whether or not we should just cut our losses and head for Darwin after doing our scheduled 9:30am Mary River Wetlands cruise. In the end, we decided to tough it out for another night.
The 2-hour 9:30am wetlands cruise started at 10:00am due to the late arrival of a tour group. The boat was totally full with 22 guests - seems we were lucky to get a spot as there were no cruises scheduled for the following day (due to insufficient bookings). The cruise turned out to be a real highlight - we saw at least 20 crocs (mainly salties but some freshies as well) and many birds - the highlight being some jabirus - up close and personal. Everything is really spread out here - the start of this cruise was some 30 k’s from the lodge. After the cruise we headed to the Bark Hut Inn for lunch (another 40 K’s away, along the Kakadu Highway) - it turned out to be a real country pub with loads of atmosphere; unfortunately the food was terrible; we shared a burger which would easily qualify for “the worst burger in the world award” - we were glad we had decided to share one instaed of ordering one each. We had planned to visit another close-by billabong but it was closed (for some reason related to the lease being renegotiated).
We headed back to the lodge making a few short stops of no real interest or value. We got back around 3pm - dagged about cleaning hiking boots etc then showered before getting ready for dinner. Dinner was a 100% repeat of the previous night; again we were the only guests.
Sunday - June 29
Up early for breakfast, pack-up and checkout. On paying we found out that H&G had not been refunded any money for their cancelled booking and the paltry continental breakfast was $18 pp - our attitude towards the Lodge hit a new low in rock bottoms. We drove to the Sky City with a couple of short stops along the way and arrived at 11:30am to find that our room was not ready - more or less as expected. So we headed to town and had a nice lunch at the waterfront area near the convention centre which was considerably more developed than when we stayed here 4 years earlier. There were several new apartment complexes and many boutiques, cafes, and restaurants. We choose Il Lido as it was the busiest. We returned to SkyCity about 1:45pm and checked-in to our room which to our most pleasant surprise turned out to be a newly renovated room - very tastefully done - our previous stay had seen us in an un-renovated room which was pretty tired indeed.
After lounging at the pool and sundowners, we had dinner at the Cove - the seafood restaurant at the ‘resort’ area of Sky City. It was a 10 out of 10 dinner - scallops for me and beef cheeks ravioli for Dieter for starters then we both had an entree size main course of spatchcock - with a grilled veggie salad as a side. It was then off to bed early - while Sky City has TV there was no Foxtel so we could not tune into the tennis as hoped.
Monday - June 30
Time to go home, after breakfast Dieter return our car - a Toyota FJ Cruiser - a great “little” 4WD once you became familiar with all it’s features, like the rear door which only opened from the inside and opened in the opposite direction to normal. Checkout time was 11am so we spent a little time lounging at the pool before heading to the airport for our 3pm QF flight back to Sydney. A nice flight home with a light meal (excellent duck curry) and few glasses of vino.