Jatbula Trail

The Track
The Jatbula Trail is a five day, four night hike from Katherine Gorge to Edith Falls in the Northern Territory, through the Nitmiluk National Park. It's an Aboriginal Song Trail, which means that the indigenous people of the area would follow this trail and as they went, would sing about the next landmark coming up - like a singing map. J and I had heard about it and during my last trip home, braved up by liquor, we decided to lock it in. So a week and a half ago found us in Darwin, dusting off our hiking boots (scarily not donned for me since the 6 Foot!) and getting ready to walk!

The prep was a bit challenging - no good maps are to be had. The trail is really well marked so this didn't bother us too much, and J had a newly acquired compass watch which we assumed we'd be adept at using! There were 2 maps available - we had both - and they both have different kilometre distances between sites, and the topography on one of them was clearly inaccurate. But it didn't matter - we chose to believe that we walked 66k rather than 58 and that we are superheroes who can battle majorly steep uphill sections!

We'd also never walked just the two of us before - we'd always been in groups. Although confident about our sisterly cameraderie, we figured there were bound to be a few tantrums thrown along the way, particularly with the heat. So in order to prevent these as much as possible we devised a rule - if one of us chucked a tanty, the other was to go straight in there and take a photo of it in all the surly glory, so the tanty thrower could be mocked upon return! True it was a risky business...but we're risky ladies!

The night before the big hike we stayed in Katherine, assembled our food and packed our bags for the next 5 days. We then sat down and drank some of our hiking whiskey, in preparation you understand. The next morning, keen as mustard, we headed to Katherine Gorge and jumped a ferry across to the start of the walk. There were only two other hikers starting the walk - and would you believe it, the girl in the couple was wearing the EXACT same outfit as me! Like, what the hell are the odds of that! Identical t-shirt (pink, with a tree on it, wicks away sweat allegedly) and brown shorts. I would like to think it was clearly because we both had a keen sense of hiking fashion...but it was a total fashion faux pas!

Day 1 - Katherine Gorge to Biddlescombe Cascade (maybe 5k?)
After hopping off the ferry, we started the walk up to Biddlescombe. It started out well - gentle incline through bushland, stretching out forever as far as the eye could see. After a good solid tramp we arrived at the Northern Rockhole, which had water for swimming but no waterfall as we were at the end of the dry season. We chose to push on - we'd started late due to ferry times and already the heat was getting intense. We found that by about 11.30 each day the heat was too much to walk in - so we aimed to be done by then most days. We carried on up the escarpment, and although the walk itself was easy the heat and the reflection off the rocks made it challenging - we had to take many breaks in the shade to cool down and water up. It was worth it though - the top of the escarpment led to a shady campground where we threw our bags down and inhaled lunch. Brief exploring - about 2 mins away - found the river. This ran, as the site's name implies, in cascades down the rocks and formed a beautiful crystal clear pool, before waterfalling down and joining the river again. We had the most refreshing swim ever and marvelled at how the water seemed to appear from nowhere and was almost too idyllic to be true. The couple caught up with us at this stage and Twinnie (her name due to her matching outfit!) washed some clothes in the river, losing her bra to the mercies of the rapids gods!
We then killed some time during the heat of the afternoon, lazing in our tents and avoiding the march flies which pack a nasty bite. Late afternoon we headed down for another lovely swim before watching the sun set over the river. It was then time for cocktail hour - we'd brought along vodka and some powdered Tang, thinking it would make a delicious vodka orange delight. I didn't mind it but Jen hated, so we only had a couple of them before ditching that option.
While we were camped here, a few truckloads of people rocked up - the rangers and the traditional landowners, the Jaowyn, were doing a week's tour of the park. They were there to map some of the traditional sites, talk ab out traditional stories and to pass this information on to the rangers as well as their own younger people. J and I were too shy to go over and chat; I totally regret not doing so. We found out later that one of the Elders there was the granddaughter of the man the trail had been named for and I can only imagine the wealth of knowledge there was that night.
Instead we cooked up dinner, and then had a beautiful night's sleep under the starts - it was so lovely and warm we didn't need the fly on the tents, so we could lie and watch the brilliant moon and millions of shimmering stars. We're both cold sleepers so woke at about 3am a bit chilly - but once we knew this was going to happen we prepared for it and were AOK.

Day 2 - Biddlescombe Cascades to Crystal Falls (allegedly 12k)
We both woke up around 3 in the morning - we had decided against bringing sleeping bags as it was so warm, but we're both cold sleepers so got a little chilly around this time. But it didn't matter - we'd slept without the fly on our tents and were able to gaze up at the beautiful stars until it was a reasonable time to get up and kick on.
The walk was again quite easy although the heat played a major role (and being a dirty ginga J has to watch her skin even more in the sun). The landscape was flat and dry, and the horizon just stretched out in front of you for miles. The trail was easy to follow, but if you wandered too far away you'd get totally lost, miles from anywhere. 'hey were never seen again' became our catch cry for any track deviation for the rest of the hike.
Along the way was some amazing Indigenous art, painted on towering rocks that formed an incredible natural gallery. We later found out that one of the paintings (of a human-like figure with wild hair and hands doing 'spirit fingers') was actually a god that women would sing to. All the women in the tribe would go, alone, and sing to this paining in order to be given a husband. If any woman were able to sing to it all day, they would be able to choose their partner. J and I were disappointed we found out about this after being there - we could have used some burly husbands to carry out hiking packs!
The day's walk took us to Crystal Falls, which was my favourite camping spot. Set against a river, it was shady and green and the river was a series of rock pools and waterfalls - and covered in blossoming water lilies. We swam, relaxed, named our new best fork/knife/spoon combo ('Spike') and then watched the sunset sitting on rocks in the river and drinking Camp Whiskey. We also spent some time trying to work out how to cross the river - the next morning we had to get across to continue the walk and neither us nor the couple could work out a way across without at least some foot wetness. We figured it was our best puzzle and the answer would come to us in the morning, hopefully.

Day Three - Crystal Falls to 17 Mile Falls vis The Amphitheatre (11.5k)
Over our morning coffee and condy (condensed milk, mmm!) we fretted a little about the puzzle. But being brave intrepid hikers, we strapped our packs on (making sure everything was waterproofed, just in case of a fall) and started rock hopping. We made it across - there was one section where our feet had to go in and although the current was fairly strong there were no embarrassing falls! A bit of foot repair later and we were on our merry way!
The early morning took up past the Crystal Falls after which the camp site was named. These were spectacular although a little far from the track to get a really good look. Once again, the day's walk was quite easy and a lot quicker than expected. We were aiming to get to the Amphitheatre - a cave with lots of rock paintings and butterflies - around lunch but it barely seemed a few hours and we were there. J has a (rather amusing) fear of moths and we were wondering how the Amphitheatre would be - it was supposed to have butterflies of all sizes and colours flying around. We descended and found loads of amazing rock art - some really worn but some still looking fresh and clear. Lots of animal figures, and again some of the human like god figures. The butterflies, it turns out, were not at all scary - there were lots of them, mainly black, gently fluttering around (but fortunately staying out of my sister's hair and general personal space!).
There was only another 3k to camp and it was mainly along a hot rocky ridge. Nearing the camp, we spied the 17 mile falls, which were breathtaking. We walked around the rocks towards camp to find that the camp itself was basically an empty space on the rock. It was getting to the middle of the day and the heat was getting nasty, so we threw our bags down and tried to go and find some shade. The campsite and general area was really exposed and it was quite hard to find anywhere out of the sun. We swam across the rock pool to an 'island' in the middle of the water that had a few scraggly trees on it and basically spent the afternoon following the shade like hobos! We regularly wet our shirts and German Tourist headbands to keep cool, and amazingly the afternoon wasn't so bad.
That night we settled in to camp and made our way over to our neighbours (in a shared solidarity about how difficult the heat-avoiding had been). We got chatting and decided to instigate cocktail hour - our vodka tangs weren't working, but they had some berocca - so The Vodka Rocca was born! 1/4 of a tropical berocca, add vodka, and then water to taste. I know heat stroke and desperation may be talking, but they were mighty fine!

Day Four - 17 Mile Falls to Sandy Camp Pool (16.5k)
We woke up in time to watch the sun rise as we ate our breakfast - we'd aimed to get an early start as the walk was a big 'un. The walk, although long, was again flat and easy, and we got a good stride going and made Edith Falls Crossing in good time (Edith Falls Crossing is another camp site, but it was horrid - the water was stagnant and it was nowhere near as lovely as the places we'd stayed).
The second leg of the trip was difficult - we'd thought it was going to be much shorted than it was, having confused our distances. There was lots of shoulder-high grass to walk through which was a little scary (I kept thinking 'snake in the grass, snake in the grass'!). Again it was easy walking, but the heat had set in and our energy was waning - we were waiting til camp to eat which on reflection wasn't the smartest idea!
Luckily, Sandy Camp Pool was lovely and shady - it was set on a lagoon like pool (with a tiny waterfall going in to it - we were so spoiled over the last few days that it was a little inadequate!). The lagoon again had waterlilies over it and was totally a Crocodile Dundee-esque setting (apparently there are actually fresh water crocs in the pool - we didn't see them but we did hear movement at night that we pretended was crocs...I think it was really cane toads!). It was deep as well - the first swimming pool that I could dive into. We set up our tents in the shade and snoozed the afternoon away. Although lovely, this site had the worst march flies we'd experienced all trip - they were brutal. Again we had cocktail hour with the neighbours (primarily spent bitching about the flies and talking about how great Vodka Roccas were!) before having a really early night. We'd planned to get up before dawn to start the walk as it was another long one and we had to be at Edith Falls by 3 in time to get our bus back.

Day Five - Sandy Camp Pool to Edith Falls (14.6k)
We had a 5am start, so it was still dark as we ate breakfast and refilled our water packs. We had to walk with head torches in the dark, which was a little scary. We'd find one post, I'd keep sentry while J scouted ahead to find the next. Because of this we went quite slowly and I'm not sure our early start made up any good time!
The walk was long and hot, and after the large walk the day previously we were both tired. The track was really marshy at places and this made it quite difficult to navigate. We were basically focused on walking out, although we did stop briefly at Sweetwater Pool which was lovely. There was another camp ground there which would have been nice for a day walk from Edith Falls, but we were more than happy with the stops we'd made.
After a slight incline (which on our crap map looked like we were about to hit Everest!) we walked down into Edith Falls, and straight to the kiosk where we demanded some ice cold beers. My biggest disappointment of the whole trip was that the kiosk was not licensed, but we made up for it drinking 'three drinks immediately' (as a cranky blogger had written!) and eating ice creams, chips and other good things that are the opposite of camping food! We had hoped to make it out in time for our bus by three - a time check revealed that it was 9 in the morning! We spent the day sitting in the shade, drinking sugar and went on a brief stroll to Edith Falls to see the large pool and falls at the end of our walk (incidentally - the couple saw a snake at Edith Falls - the only one on our whole trip!).
We were picked up by a ranger who gave us a lot of amazing information about the trail and almost made me wish I'd done it in a group so I could have heard about it as we'd walked (but I hate the rigidity of group walking, and as Kel says, I don't mix well with strangers!). We were taken back to Katherine where we visited the supermarket pronto and bought a range of scrubbing and exfoliating products and had the best showers ever. We enjoyed a platter, some bubbles and then hit the town in celebration for the night, telling everyone who would listen about our fabulous Jatbula Trail walk (and how awesome we were for doing it!).

There were too many highlights of the trip to even rank them - but ultimately I guess it was seeing such an amazing remote part of Australia, on foot, with one of my favourite people in the world (and the photo rule worked - there was not even a hint of a tanty from either of us!). We've got ten gazillion photos and many a tale, but even without these it's a trip that I'll be remembering for many years to come.