Travel to Kakadu National Park - Jim Jam Falls

Arriving at Jim Jam Falls campground, we were greeted by a majestic escarpment and two friendly rangers. They kindly volunteered information about the area, and gave us the disappointing news that Twin Falls was closed due to unseasonal rains. Noticing I was perched on the picnic table (not the picnic table seats like a normal person) I asked if they had a campsite without ant nests everywhere you step. Their simple answer was no and a chuckle.

Give me spiders, creepy crawlies and mozzies any day and I'll cope. Many years earlier I learnt the painful truth that ants found me attractive! And I freak out every time I notice them! Having recently watched the Bachelor, I was happily using the phrase, "Take me back to the mansion" whenever something brushed up against me. I'm lucky to be a natural mozzie repellant, however the powerful talent of turning mozzies away, seemed to attract ants in their droves, and they bite!!!

With my Bodyguard and Princess laughing at me being perched on my throne I became a master Delegator. "Can you please bring me the stove, plates, sausages, wraps, cheese, tomato sauce, pencils, paper, a torch, insect repellent, water..." etc. etc. and while I waited for dinner to cook I sprayed insect repellant around the tent, picnic table, car and pretty much anything my feet went near.  One bottle was clearly not enough!

It started to get dark and my Bodyguard and Princess kindly offered to set up the tent. 5 min in and I heard shrieks! The words, "Spider, spider!" could have been heard by the man on the moon and I rushed to their aid. Ignoring the fact ants could have injected their teeth into me at any moment I stepped on the Huntsman. I usually catch Huntsman spiders and release them outside, however in this instance, we were outside already and my impending doom was evident as I was outside my Ant Safezone. At that moment in time, we all wanted to head back to the mansion!

The adrenaline subsided and the escarpment went from a hue of red, orange and black, to a beautiful shade of pink, amber and brown as the sun finally disappeared for the day. The escarpment would have been an artists dream. If I could paint I would have. Instead I helped Princess draw the landscape and in the eyes of a six year old, my stick trees were up there in the same category as DaVinci.

My bodyguard took the time to string up the LEDs under the awning, and the campsite went from almost dark to daylight in a matter of seconds. I was again grateful to see an ants projectory before it found it's way to my feet!

I survived the night with only one ant bite on the side of my foot. Wincing as I put my runners on, we packed up in search of Jim Jam Falls. On the way we detoured to Twin Falls Picnic Area and was greeted by a 1.4m deep surging stream  across the road. I guess the rangers weren't lying! Disappointed, we headed to Jim Jam Falls where we found we couldn't swim in the pools due to extreme crocodile risk, and could only walk to the viewing platform.

The short walk through the canopy of palms and stumbling over the quartz laden boulders allowed us to arrive at the spectacular drop of Jim Jam Falls. Despite the recent rain, the fall's flow was barely a trickle, yet still an amazing sight.

Despite the warnings we didn't see any crocodiles however, I was glad to be driving out of the ant paradise and reach the safety of bitumen on route to Darwin!

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