Hawk Dreaming

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24th June we went to Mindil markets with Richard and Maureen, Maruta had her prawn fix, satay king prawns on skewers yum!! Afterwards we sat on the beach and watched the sunset, as you do at Mindil. During the rest of the week we relaxed and interspersed that with a walk on the beach at Dripstone rocks and a visit to Fishermans Wharf. There are some beautiful yachts in the harbour, one in particular, a three masted schooner. We could have spent some time on that as it is totally luxurious -at half a million rent a week!!!
We checked out the tour situation and opted for a three day tour from Darwin which meant I did not have to drive. The Hawk Dreaming tour with Aussie Adventure tours looked good. We departed from Hidden Valley at 7.15 on Friday in a Toyota Land Cruiser as there were only two couples and the guide, Andy. The other couple Mark and Mary were from Essendon (AFL supporters ) in their mid 50's and we got on well with them which made the tour more enjoyable.
We made our way via Mamaluka Wet Lands and Ubirr rock where we viewed the paintings and had a 360 view from the top of the escarpment, before arriving at Hawk Dreaming camp for lunch. The camp caters for a maximum of 16 people in very up market tented accommodation. The facilities we excellent with plenty of hot water and flush toilets. The camp is run by two people Mike from Mudgee (our chef) and Aleesha so in all there were only 7 bodies.
After lunch we toured Gagadju Land and saw rock art not normally viewable by the public at large. Being just the five of us made the area seem more special or spiritual as Andy explained the meaning of what we were seeing. Again the views were stunning and it was so quiet you could at times hear a pin drop.
Watching the sunset over the wetlands of the South Alligator River was magnificent. A lone crocodile swam past us making no noise and with barely a ripple. As darkness fell the bird noises deminished until it was totally silent as we watched the changing colours on the escarpment.
A difficult spot to leave.
Dinner that night consisted of a mixed grill of Kangaroo, Scotch fillet, Chicken and Buffalo sausage accompanied by seven vegetables, it would have fed an army.
Saturday saw us tackle Jim Jim falls. From the highway we had 30km of gravel followed by 5km of severe 4wd track, followed by a 900metres scramble over boulders which took 1.1/4 hours. We almost didnt make it as we thought our knees were going to give up, however we persevered! The plunge pool at the base of the falls was about 12C so swimming was not an option for us even though some hardy souls did go in. The 250m drop falls themselves were drying up but there was still water flowing as per the photo.
Barramundi was on the menu at dinner that evening and it was delicious.
Sunday saw us on the 9am cruise on Yellow Waters. Bird life was prolific, the weather was perfect and crocodiles galore, biggest was three and a half metres. We have some excellent bird photos from Jabirus to Kingfishers. From there we made our way to Barramundi Gorge, this walk was much less strenuous and the water much warmer, we did get our feet wet.
The route home was via the old Jim Jim road where we came across a buffalo with an attitude and a couple of Dingos. We arrived back at 6.45 tired but very exhilerated with the experience