16-23/07/2017 - photos

Participants: Tom Brennan, Rachel Grindlay, David Rostron, Peter Love, Grace Love, Mary Liu, Patsy Quealy, Julie-Anne Murphy, Kim Bailey, Alex Alperovich, Robert Betos

  • Day 1-4 - From Darwin we were driven to Barramundi Gorge (Maguk) and we walked in for a short distance to a campsite. (1.5km) The next day we walked upstream to Jade Pool for lunch, and then on a short distance to Picaninny Pools, camping nearby. (11km) From there it was across the tops for a couple of hours to Gronophyllum Creek, which we followed downstream. David had a couple of nasty falls, hitting his head, and we stopped to camp early. (10km) He was evacuated the next morning, and the rest of the party headed downstream, and then across the floodplain to the bottom of Cascade Creek. We had a couple of hours frolicking in the pools at the bottom of Cascade Creek, and then headed up the narrow gorge. It was getting late and we were still some way short of our intended camp when we found a lovely pool and falls, and serviceable camp, so we stopped for the night. (10km)
  • Day 5-8 - We started the day by first getting to the previous night's intended camp. Rachel, Patsy and I continued up the lovely gorge while the rest of the party headed across country. From there, it was a long flat walk to the watershed, and then a rough descent into our creek system, with an unknown camp awaiting us. Even though we had covered most of the distance by lunchtime, the last 4km took us over 3 hours, and through some quite unpleasant scrub. While the falls marked on the map were dry, there was thankfully a large pool at the bottom for swimming, and a small sandy camp. (19km) We followed the creek for a while, then cut across country to Koolpin Creek for morning tea. After lunch we decided to backtrack a short way to a good campsite we had seen, and have a short day of it after several long days. I continued on and explored downstream for a bit, noting an easy track on one bank. (9km/14km for me) A mostly easy walk following the track got us to the head of Koolpin Gorge. Some chose to walk the gorge, while others swam. As we climbed out at the end of the gorge, I slipped on a rock and took a fall, injuring my wrist in what turned out later to be a fracture. We camped on a sandy beach past the official campsite. (9km) The final day had us needing to cover a few hours' walking to catch our bus. The walking was pretty easy, and we were there with a bit of time to spare before the bus arrived to take us back to Darwin. (7km).