{"id":6820,"date":"2025-08-19T18:55:19","date_gmt":"2025-08-19T08:55:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cuppa500.com\/Blog\/?p=6820"},"modified":"2025-08-19T21:23:40","modified_gmt":"2025-08-19T11:23:40","slug":"from-the-northern-territory-heading-west","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cuppa500.com\/Blog\/from-the-northern-territory-heading-west\/","title":{"rendered":"From the Northern Territory – Heading West"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Almost 6 weeks has passed since our last post & our \u2018blogging office\u2019 is now located at the end of a remote sandy track in the east Kimberley, next to a large, & we think deep, un-named waterhole (which we are calling \u2018Big Croc Waterhole\u2019 on account of having seen what we think is our biggest croc to date (& we\u2019ve seen quite a few since we left Dundee Beach)!  We are sheltered on one side by the vegetation growing alongside the waterhole & by a grass & boab covered hill on our other side. Behind us rock slabs with boulders & grass rise away from us, & hide a little grassy grotto alongside the waterhole. A short walk  to the top of the hill reveals that we are in a far larger valley, with extensive grass savannah populated by more boabs, Kapok & other trees. It\u2019s a view which tells us we are where we want to be, surrounded by country as it has always been. No sign of human intrusion whatsoever!  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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View from the small hill adjacent to our camp<\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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‘Big Croc Waterhole’ <\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

At the end of our last post we were on the north west coast of the Northern Territory, at Dundee Beach, waiting to hear from a company in Darwin in regard to having a modification made to our automatic transmission. The week we waited was enjoyable thanks to our surroundings, but I don’t do living with the unknown & waiting for others especially well. Unfortunately they did not have the required Allison software to \u2018enable\u2019 the modification once fitted, so it is a job which will have to wait until we are near a major city on either the east or south coast where there are \u2018proper\u2019 Allison services.  Not what we wanted to hear, but to be honest there was a sense of relief & an end to a week of ‘being in limbo’ once we knew where we stood. For now we will manage with what we have & get the mod done when we can. We won’t be heading south just to get that done, so the likely timeframe is years rather than months. We were ready to move on and now that we had no need to return to Darwin we could think about \u2018where to?\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The late wet season was still impacting upon access to most of the places we would have liked to visit in Kakadu National Park and we could see little value in returning to locations we had already explored once or twice before in the past, & only one place of current interest to us was open. Luckily it was at the southern end of Kakadu, not far from the park boundary when going in from the town of Pine Creek. So relatively convenient without lots of extra kilometres from our overall plan of heading west to the Kimberley. The other areas in the north of Kakadu that we haven\u2019t explored previously will wait until we return that way in 2026 when we hope to be visiting Arnhem Land. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The spot (actually two spots) are generally lesser known & lesser visited than most, but nonetheless sounded very appealing.  Ikoymarwarr upper & lower falls (aka Moline Falls).  These both on the same watercourse, but accessed from two different places about 1 or 2 kms apart along the road. Both had minimal signage, an easily missed low level sign at the upper falls, & no sign at all from the road for the lower falls. For the upper falls parking was a narrow roadside strip with a walk in from there. For the lower falls an unmarked track, the last part very rocky & requiring high clearance 4wd, had a sign close to the small picnic\/camping area where we spent the night having visited the upper falls first. I hope the photos below will demonstrate that our approx 120 kms detour from Pine Creek was worthwhile. We thought so.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Upper Ikoymawarr Falls<\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Lower Ikoymarwarr falls – we didn’t swim here as it felt a bit ‘croccy’.<\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Our journey back to Pine Creek (& thence to southern Kakadu) from Dundee Beach was a roundabout one, with us first returning to the Reynolds River 4wd track in Litchfield National Park, as we had previously (in our last post) been unable to complete it, as it\u2019s southern section was still closed whilst water crossings were deemed too deep & post wet season crocodile surveys yet to be completed. However with time passed in Darwin & Dundee Beach, that southern section was now open, so we returned – taking the \u2018long way\u2019 back to Pine Creek . (If our zig zagging confuses you, or you are not familiar with the locations referred to please have a look at our map – it may help to clarify   https:\/\/cuppa500.com\/Blog\/current-map\/<\/a> below the map is a list of each location in the order we visited on the map you can scroll through. Click the small bar below the map & then clicking any location on the list will locate the place on the map for you. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The southern section of the Reynolds River Track was very interesting taking us through some wide open plains dotted with thousands of \u2018magnetic\u2019 termite mounds. Unlike those elsewhere in Litchfield NP, these were not seen from a viewing platform looking over a fence. Here the track wound through them for kilometres. A very different experience. \u2018Magnetic\u2019 is a tad misleading, the name comes from the tall \u2018blade-like mounds\u2019 all facing north\/south, a means of reducing  temperature in the mounds, under the hot sun. Smart little critters<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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