Jim Jim Falls

View over Twin Falls in one direction

and in the other direction

And the river up the top

Croc trap at start of Jim Jim Falls walk

Almost at Jim Jim Falls swimming pool

Saltwater crocodile at Yellow Waters

Yellow Waters sunset

A big day today. We got out and about as early as we could (which was admittedly not particularly early) and drove the 2 hours to Twin Falls first. It’s not a far distance, just a slow road, with probably our deepest river crossing yet – it showed 60cm on the markers. We launched into it pretty much just crossing fingers and toes, but knowing that lots of people had already done it (including the Ralhs about 10 days ago) - although I was still asking myself, what would we do if we got stuck, or if someone else got stuck? There’s all sorts of signs saying don’t get out of your vehicle and don’t swim etc because of crocodiles, but I’m not sure how we’d unhitch our winch or get out our recovery gear without getting in the water…. Anyway it wasn’t a problem (concrete bottom) and we got there at about 10.30am to do the walk over the top of Twin Falls. We decided to do the longer walk there (it was either a long walk at Twin Falls or Jim Jim Falls) in order to do it as early in the day as possible, to avoid the heat – although you can’t really avoid the heat here, just minimise it I guess. Anyway it was a nice walk up the hill and through forest (but hot!), before coming out on top of the (at the moment small) falls and then walking along what’s left of the river for a bit.

After that we drove back to Jim Jim Falls for lunch and then the shorter walk to the plunge pool, which, although not long, wasn’t particularly easy because of lots of boulders to climb over, so we really were hot by the time we got into the gorge. There’s a little trickle of water coming down the falls at the moment, but the plunge pool at the bottom was still a lovely relief to have a dip in to cool down. It was slightly unnerving to see a crocodile trap set up on the way in but hard to believe that they would be able to get in there over all of those boulders. Anyway we didn’t hang around terribly long because we wanted to get back to Yellow Water for ice creams and the sunset over the wetlands (yes the Ralhs, we followed your itinerary almost to the letter). We made it in plenty of time, saw our first saltie in the wild (probably the same ones the Ralhs saw since there was only one) and watched a beautiful sunset. We decided not to do the sunset boat cruise even though it would have been really cool, largely because it’s so extortionately expensive. Apparently they’re wondering why they haven’t had many tourists this year…. There’s loads of birdlife there and beautiful scenery, and now it’s back to the tent for a late dinner – I’m still hot!