Jatbula trail: a few days spent in paradise

This 60km long trail from Katherine Gorge to Leylin (Edith Falls) is a very famous hiking track but there are only 15 people allowed to enter it per day. We ended up on a very long waiting list. Thats why we were pretty lucky and surprised to get a call in the morning after sombody has cancelled his trip. Anyway we had to pack our equipment very fast in order to get on the trail the very same day by 1pm.

We hitchhiked to the place were the trail starts and rushed to a sightseeing boat which brang us to the other end of a river 

 

 

and suddenly we were captured by marvelous nature. Within minutes the civilisation was gone and we hiked in at a first sight very dry region towards our first camp. 

After a couple of kilometers dry but landscape that changed very often we all by a sudden aproached a huge waterhole and rested there for a while.

The next stop was already our first camp. The camp site was about two minutes away from beautiful cascades. The water was crystal clear and drinkable. Nice to swim in there and drink in the very same time some water.

Lovely cascades going all the way down

After enjoying the first night in the bush we started pretty early in the morning in order to omit the heat at the midday. The Savannah landscape with all grass types you can imagine awaited us. 

Coffee break

Peter almost disappearing in the gras

We were happy to find our first Aboriginal paintings on the wall of a rock formation near a creek.

At the lunch time we arrived in a lovely place for swimming and camping: the Crystal Falls. 

We swam in the upper pool

The water was so clear and inviting that we almost spent the whole afternoon in it! After swimming Peter played his didj:

The landscape changed within the next days many times. We better let pictures speak:

We had a chance to see more of the Aboriginal art and even have a tipp for women who want to find a men;-) An unreal place called The Amphitheatre led us through steep stairs towards an Oasis like 30m under the surface of the track. Water, shade, shelter from the rain: everything to live was there and the great paintings giving you hints what to eat in this region were all over the place:

All singles read carefully! :-)

We hiked 40km so far and finally got to the Edith River. Now we even have the feelig of hiking in the jungle.

Follow the blue triangle...

After quite exhausting last 3 kilometers of the day we got to a Sandy Camp and had a beautiful camp directly at a pool. Also here, like since the beginning of the track, we are swimming and drinking the water directly from the creek. Fantastic!

During the whole hiking we had a chance to see many birdlife. Some of them we were even lucky to take a photo. 

Blue-winged kookaburra

Rainbow bee eater

Cockatoos breeding in the tree

After 5 nights spent in the bush we ended our trip at a kiosk in Edith Falls a bought a muffin as a reward:-)

Alice Springs to Katherine

After we have reached Alice Springs the first thing we did, was finding a bakery where we had some proper sweeets.

We stayed in Alice Springs for almost three days mostly eating and relaxing. Fortunately we could stay with a nice couple Tim and Emily, an Australian couple and slept in a bed for the first time since last two months. Wasn`t that bad :)

Nevertheless after the third day we said good bye to Alice Springs but not without packing up our bikes with lots of food for the next stretch of 1200 km towards Katherine. This time we topped even the biggest shopping of Doro;-) It was quite a challenge to get all this items into the bike penniers...

But we managed! All inside!

Just outside of Alice Springs we bumped into two other German cyclists. They joined us from now on until Katherine. We had a great time cycling this long stretch together with them. Most of the time we cycled more then 100 km per day luckily the wind was comming from behind almost every day.

The overnight stays at rest areas enabled us to get enough water and we could wash ourselves almost every night :).

The first highlight we have reached was the Devils Marbles. These rock boulders appear out of the desert almost out of nowhere. Bang! here you are overviewing hundred and thousands of these rocks and soon after your have left the area and moved on along the desert.

The next bigger stop was Tennant Creek a small town alomost in the middle of the ride. There we spend a day resting and recovering from the last days cycling. We were lucky to be there at the „Territory Day“, a public holiday of the Nothern Territority commemorating founding day of this state back in the 1978. We watched the fire works at the local sport center. It was like a New Years night back home! We have heard about people buying fireworks for 500-600 dollars! And the whole night the sky was bright with the fire works.

North of Tennant Creek the weather got warmer. We were able to get rid of our hot bottle and wearing long jons during the night :)

The biggest surprise after Tennant Creek was not a landscape. It was people we met. Cyclists on bikes without breaks, pulling a dog trailer behind loaded with tuna cans.

Etiennes bike has no breaks but never mind

 On top of it, we met people walking the Stuart Highway with a trailer. One of them, Mike is 75 years old and started in Freemantle, close to Perth, which is thousands of kilometers away...

Roger from the UK

Mike from Freemantle Australia

Beside the cycling itself the roadhouses we have passed by need to be mentioned. Those places made it possible for us to get water supply and short but nice rests and always surprised us about people living and dealing with the outback day by day.

Aileron Roadhouse with its big sculptures

Find Peter in the picture :)

Barrow Creek Roadhouse inside

Barrow Creek Roadhouse inside

Wycliff Well Roadhouse the center of UFO landing in OZ

Wycliff Well Roadhouse the center of UFO landing in OZ

Larrimah Pink panther pub inside

Larrimah

Larrimah Pink panther pub

Larrimah Pink panther pub inside

Bus station in the outback about 30 km away from the next settlement

All by a sudden a Mango farm

Boat transport trough the continent at half way

Cows observing cyclists

Morning flair at camp spot

Some cars could not manage to survive the trip trough the outback

Road train with four trailers

Since we have left Port Augusta we have always took some photos of the road signs showing the distances to Darwin. Of course we keep that tradition and indicate these pics again well not without being proud to show the distance is getting less and less :)

In the meantime the landscape changed again and we can see huge termite mouds.

Just 90 km before Katherine we reached a very small town called Mataranka. A beautiful place with hot springs in the middle of nowhere. Well the hot springs are not real hot springs but the underground water comes out of the ground with constant 32 °C and flows down to a river. The swimming there is just stunning and the surrounding is like in a jungle.

Guess what they have first done after they have arrived in Katherine ? If you guess they most probably went to a bakery then you are pretty close :)

Katherine is the place Peter stayed on his first trip years ago picking mangos. Thats why he is very familiar with this place. We went to the Cocos Backpacker Peter knows ever since. Now,we are stying here for while.