Day 20 – Sunday 8 August 2021 – 316km

Today when we head out we refuel & top up with oil in the car before heading to Nourlangie. This area has a few impressive things to see. We stop first at Nawurlandja and walk up the large sloping rock to the lookouts, the views are spectacular, with Anbangbang Billabong in the foreground. The very large and ruggedly impressive Burrungkuy rock is a standout in the landscape, dominating all around. This walk, both up & down give Tereza’s knees a good workout.

The Anbangbang Billabong is a large waterhole with lots of water lilies in flower, grasses and all manner of waterbirds, we walk most of the length of the billabong admiring the beauty of it all with Burrungkuy rock as a magnificent backdrop. There are hundreds of plumed whistling ducks, corellas and a few magpie geese, whistling kites, a jabiru and countless other species. It is truly delightful.

We then drive down to Burrungkuy and admire the myriad of aboriginal art galleries, some of it takes our breath away. The jumble of huge rocks that have tumbled down from the top & sides of Burrungkuy are truly impressive. The shelters that they provided for the aboriginals over thousands of years is easy to understand and protection for the art works is n ongoing process. The explanation provided with the signage is very interesting and gives a great insight into the culture of the artists. This is an impressive art gallery.

On the road again and we stop next for lunch at Gungurul campground. Glad we are not camping here tonight, it looks fairly average, plus you have to pay for the privilege.

Our final destination is Edith falls, a fair drive away & we arrive there around 4.30pm, the campground is full, so no stopping here tonight. The pool below the falls is really large, the falls themselves are dropping a fair bit of water, but more of a small cascade than a fall. We go for a swim and chat to a few people, these pool noodles make life a lot easier in big pools like this. The water is a bit colder than we have been used to up here so we don’t stay all that long in the water. We head back out towards the highway and pull in off the road to camp for the night. This place we drive in very deep fine dust – some places it is a foot deep, we try to drive on a bit harder ground before setting up camp .Tereza again cooks a superb dinner. We are interrupted by an aboriginal ranger telling us that we should not be camping here. He allows us to stay plus one other couple with a small child, the other four campers are told to move on. We are not sure why he allowed us to stay, maybe he felt sorry for us oldies.  Another great day.