Gunlom

Thirteen years ago Lindy and I visited Kakadu and I now can’t remember much of it, but I can remember visiting Gunlom. Back then we were in our Corolla, Stu, and I can remember rather nervously, and slowly, driving the 50km or so of corrugated dirt road in to Gunlom. I also remember climbing to the top of the falls and being blown away by the beauty, so I was keen to take the kids back to show them.

A fair bit has changed 13 years. This time we were in Liam with two kids and the road was fine. The campsite at Gunlom has been developed a lot, with large toilet and shower blocks etc, which we’re sure weren’t there last time, and there was a lot more people than we remember. But the view from the top is still beautiful.

There’s a nice plunge ool at the bottom of the falls which looked very inviting but we only had a quick look before heading up to the top pools. It’s a short, but very steep, walk basically up the side of the cliff to reach the top.

Gunlom is famous for the pool at the top which looks like it’s sitting right on the edge of the cliff so you can swim with views straight out over the Kakadu plains below – basically a natural infinity pool.

Izzy quickly found another girl of similar age to play with and they had a great time swimming together in the pool. Matthew didn’t swim but enjoyed exploring around on the rocks. In the end we had a lovely afternoon – much longer than we intended – up there swimming and exploring.

Most people seem to just spend their time swimming in the main pool but there are also lovely pools further upstream. We only went upstream a short way but a few other people came back from further up to tell us how great it was. Unfortunately we had to get going to our campground at Jarrangbarnmi so didn’t have time to go further. Oh well, something for our Second Trip, as Matthew has started saying.