Nitmiluk to Biddlecombe Cascades, Jatbula Trail, Nitmiluk National Park - May 2004

Biddlecombe Cascades

The Jatbula Trail stretches from Nitmiluk to Leliyn in the Northern Territory and has grown into one of Australia's premier walks, but back in May 2004 it was still largely off the radar of most walkers. Now days it can be a little hard to get permits for this walk as commercial walking operators tend to snap them all up fairly early, but back then we had the whole track to ourselves, actually we were only the second party to go through since the track re-opened after the wet. With us having done this walk 13 years ago these Jatbula Trail posts will be a bit more anorexic than some of my usual verbose waffle, but that's probably a good thing, hey!

After paying our good behaviour bond, which we would get back when we arrived at Edith Falls in a few days time, we headed down to grab a spot on the first tourist cruise boat heading up into Katherine Gorge. We weren't actually going on a scenic trip into the gorge today though, we needed the boat to transport us across the still swollen Katherine River where we would pick up the trail, the usual crossing point still being under water. It's a little expensive to get across the river this way but the only other option is to swim the fifty metre wide river and while I have swum it before, I wouldn't go near it until the river goes down after the wet season and all the saltwater crocodiles are removed. 

Once Sam and I had safely scrambled up the muddy bank and waved good-bye to all the tourists on the boat we headed off in the direction of Northern Rockhole. Now back in the day this wet season track was a little hard to locate in the light open tropical savannah, although with the escarpment running in the same direction as the trail over our right shoulder it was just a matter of following the cliff line and eventually we'd pick up the overgrown pad. Arriving at Northern Rockhole was our first opportunity to strip off and go for a cooling swim, the waterfall here was still flowing strongly early in the dry season. 

The waterfall at the Northern Rockhole was flowing well on this visit.

The first of many swims, this time at the Northern Rockhole.

Leaving Northern Rockhole the track began it's climb up onto the escarpment, being early afternoon now we made use of the sparse shade provided by any trees that happened to be over shadowing the track and it wasn't long and we'd made it up to the higher ground. Being out of Seventeen Mile Valley and on the escarpment is fairly important as it means that the waterholes should be saltwater crocodile free from now on, always a good thing considering I generally like to sample anything resembling a swimming spot. Once up on top of the escarpment the country doesn't really change much, we were generally walking far enough away from the edge that we didn't get any long range views and the open tropical savannah forest was still the order of the day, although from (a somewhat hazy) memory I seem to remember passing through a few more sandstone outcrops once we were out of Seventeen Mile Valley.

Climbing up onto the escarpment was hot work this afternoon.

Arriving at Biddlecombe Cascades by mid afternoon signalled the end of todays walking. After setting up the tent, well the inner anyway as there wasn't really any need for the fly, we spent the rest of the day sampling the many and varied swimming spots before heading up to a high point near camp to enjoy a million star dinner after sunset. The good news was that even though the wet season had just finished the mosquitoes had largely gone so we were able to linger into the night without being eaten alive.

The gorge downstream from Biddlecombe Cascades.

Biddlecombe Cascades

The Dirt.

We walked around 8.3 kilometres today and I've got no idea how much we climbed - but it wasn't much! Today was an easy day although being very early in the walking season meant that we had to keep an eye out for the frequent track markers that were sometimes covered by the encroaching scrub. We didn't have walking notes for this walk back in 2004 but since then Lonely Planets Walking in Australia and John and Lyn Daly's Take a Walk in Northern Territory's National Parks have both covered the walk. 

Relevant Posts.

Day 2, Biddlecombe Cascades to Crystal Falls, Nitmiluk National Park, 2004.

Darwin, 2006.

Broome to Darwin, 1986.

Eighth Gorge, Nitmiluk National Park, 2004.

Darwin, 2010.

Luckily most of the mosquitoes had disappeared with the wet season.