Saturday 11 August – A decent drive today to a lovely spot.  We left here at a bit after nine, drove the 29 km into Katherine, then the 62 km to Edith Falls – off the Stuart Highway north of Katherine, sussed out the walks, the different pools, etc, then set off on the walk to the lookout and the main pool.  Today’s lookout walk fit the normal pattern – steep, rocky, hot and  hard on the knees, but the view of the lower pool was lovely.  We then decided to continue on and do the 2.6km loop walk, from where you actually get to see the main pool and the main section of the falls which was really beautiful.  Quite a few people were swimming here, but scary was a group of young men – group mentality egging one another on to jump into the pool from a very high point on the cliff face.  They eventually all had at least one go, but all the walkers we came across agreed that they were really doing something very risky.

You actually cross from one side of the pools to the other during this walk, over mesh sort of walkways, and return to the lower pool on the other side of the escarpment.  The whole walk took us two hours, which of course includes lots of rests (for me), drink stops, chats (again usually for me), photo stops, and any other distraction that can break up the walk and give a bit of breather time.

 You can see how high up we climbed  - almost a view from an aeroplane!!

Once back at the bottom we had lunch, then made our way to the lower pool where we spent a good two and a half hours relaxing and again talking to people.  We did go in for a dip – Grant lied to me, telling me it wasn’t cold which it was!  However once I found a sunny spot in the water it was not so bad for about ten minutes, after which I got cold so got out, found a nice big rock in the sun and did my lizard impression – lolling around on the rock for the next hour and a half warming up and drying off.

While we were relaxing there, a group of people came in (about a dozen of them – all ages, shapes and sizes), and they had apparently been on a five day walk from what I overheard, and just needed to get into the water and cool off, freshen up – whatever.   So they set about stripping off – a couple of the ladies went into the water in their undies and tank tops, one stripping right down to the bare skin before pulling a singlet over her head and jumping in, and one bloke went in with only his undies on – not a pretty sight!!  You certainly see some interesting sights, that’s for sure.

Back at camp by about 5.15, and after tea we were again entertained by last nights practising performer who we could hear loud and clear from our van.  Also our yesterday friends told us when we got back that there is a pancake breakfast on here at the kiosk tomorrow morning for $5 a head, so that sounds like a nice change from the cereal we normally have.  So we’ll indulge in that then pack up and head to our next location – about 35 km away, so that will no doubt be our shortest travel day!

Today’s interesting wildlife specimen was either a small snake or a legless lizard (one lady, who admitted knowing no more about it than we did was sure it was a legless lizard), on the path as we walked back to the carpark after basking in the sun. It was only about 20cm long, a lightish bronzy colour with a black end of tail.  We think it was a snake, because when Grant touched it with his sneaker, it raised it’s head and sat like that till we left.