Umbrawarra Gorge

Umbrawarra Gorge is another lovely little place we found thanks to WikiCamps. After spending a couple of days in Katherine getting Liam fixed (sort of), we had planned to head up to Nhulunbuy in Arnhem Land. However, we found out that you can’t drive from Nhulunbuy out to Jabiru in Kakadu – the road is apparently completely closed to the public because it passes a number of sacred sites. That would have meant backtracking about 800km so we skipped Nhulunbuy.

So with a few spare days we turned to WikiCamps and found Umbrawarra Gorge. The campsite itself was nice, without being anything special. It was flat and a bit dusty with a toilet that desperately needed emptying but we actually had it to ourselves the first night (only the fourth time that has happened on the trip).

Unfortunately the campsite isn’t close to the river or the gorge, but it’s only a short walk. We walked into the gorge about 1km and found a couple of nice swimming holes – the first with a sandy beach and the second next to a sheer cliff that must have been 20m tall. The gorge keeps going and Lindy and I were keen to keep exploring but we were outvoted by the smaller members of the family.

There is also apparently some aboriginal rock art nearby and Lindy went looking (it’s in a women only area) but couldn’t find it.

By lunchtime back at camp another five groups had turned up so our solitude was short lived. After lunch Lindy and Izzy went for another swim while Matthew and I found a geocache that was a lot of fun as it involved a lot of rock scrambling up the side of the gorge – well, Matthew actually found it, I just kept him company.