We got up well before sunrise. The kids kept complaining all through breakfast. Apparently they hadn’t slept well as the tents on the camp site were very close to each other and they had heard people talk and snore all night. F and I, who are accustomed to putting in ear plugs in in such cases were well rested. But nonetheless getting up at  5 o’clock is harsh because it’s still dark and all light we can use to pack up are flash lights. But the plus side of being up this early was that we had breakfast under a blanket of stars. Not that two grumpy kids noticed.

The place we were headed towards was Jim Jim Falls. To get there we had to take a dirt road that was so bad that I was afraid we’d be loosing car parts. But at least we got a good massage! No need to buy these fancy Shiatsu chairs- just travel on a road like this for half an hour.

Once we thought we had left all civilization behind tour guide Stevo switched the bus to four wheel drive (didn’t even know you could do that with a bus) and we continued on a road I would have only taken on with a beach buggy.

Finally the last part we had to go on foot climbing like goats across blocks of rock.

We came along an idyllic billabong where we stopped for a few minutes to catch our breath. And off we were again.

Reaching our destination all sweaty and exhausted we were rewarded with the most beautiful of places. A series of billabongs separated by rocks and surrounded by mountains. The water fall was but a trickle as we were in dry season while in wet season the area gets flooded so you can only see Jim Jim Falls from a helicopter.

[Jim Jim Falls]

We jumped right into the clear water to cool off and went from pool to pool swimming. Apart from our fear of being attacked by a freshy this tour was the most awesome thing we’d done so far!

Unfortunately we couldn’t stay too long. So after some sunbathing on the fine white sand we had to return to the camp for lunch and already a wonderful three day trip was coming to an end with our return to Darwin.