Leliyn Falls (Edith Falls): 18^th – 19^th of July

The much awaited stop at the Northern part of Nitmiluk National Park is Leliyn or Edith Falls.  It lived up to all reports.  It was beautiful and the water was warm (ish).  The camping here was just devine…..I could have stayed here for days if Kakadu wasn’t calling.  We are now down to under two weeks to go in the trip so every day counts in our adventures. 

This was one of my proudest moments with Toli.  Bells and I quickly decided to swim out to the waterfall.  I saw him eyeing off the distance and I knew he felt fear at how far and how deep the water looked.  I told him  I would help him if he wanted me to.  So without much more talk on the matter we just got in and started swimming.  It was quite a distance for Tols, who panics in open water generally. But this time he took control of himself and kept swimming.  He swam most of it on his back with the occasional look up and redirection but he made it! He rejected the offer of help and wanted to do it on his own.  I was so proud of him and you could see the satisfied smile plastered all over his face.  After a few swims in and around the waterfall we all swam back to shore.  Within a few metres of the shore a little wave got Toli in the nose and he started to splutter and panic asking for help – but when I showed him how close he was he pulled himself together and swam full steam ahead.  He did it.  Swam all the way on his own. Good on you Mr T.

We had scouted the area and determined it was ok for Mum to traverse so after lunch prepared to head back down but Mum decided her book was too good to leave so opted to stay at camp.  It was hot enough for the kids to swim…not so for me.  I sat at the edge and chatted to another lady.  After the mention of Arabella’s name and then Bells yelling out Toli’s, she asked me to repeat his name..so I did.  She put her head down and laughed.  She is Shelley Mattocks sister and had seen both the kids play in their basketball grand finals as Toli plays against Shelley’s son Zane and Max, one of Shelley’s other sons, is in Bella’s team.  This world keeps getting smaller!

The next day the kids and I left camp by 8am to do the 9km walk to Sweetwater pool.  On the way we walked past the Upper Pool and so stopped and checked out the sights.  Still a bit early and chilly for me but the kids hopped in.  So glad they did.  They found this perfect circle made in the rock by years of water pressure.  It was beautiful.  The whole pool area was sublime.

Freezing with teeth chattering we continued on our walk to Sweetwater Pool.  My snake antenna was on high alert as the temperature had risen dramatically and the skinny little path was taking us through waist high, dry grass.  SO we stomped our way along most of the way.  At one point we lost track of the markers but some incredible team work and we found the little orange ribbon tied to a branch again.

 

I had to go in at the end of the walk, as our motto of the trip - ‘it’s a once in a life time opportunity’, was thrown at me by both kids.  Refreshing is how I would describe the swim. I was glad I went in but after ten minutes was ready to hope out….the wind made things very nipply.  We began our walk (stomp) back through the grass and very soon began visualizing our cool camper and the sprinkler on the solitary green patch of grass in front of Big Betty. 

 It had turned into a stinker of a day – I was glad we were prepared.  We had passed an elderly couple who were kilometers away from finishing their 66km walk (5 night camp out) from Katherine Gorge.  Our moaning at how hot and tired we were soon vanished! We were greeted by a cool and refreshed Mama who had enjoyed a lovely stroll down to the Leliyn Falls and was gracefully reading her book.  Oh the joys of freezers and Zooper Doopers.