After Twin Falls, we drove to Jim Jim Falls. Another long hike over rocks got us to a wonderful clear pool where we could swim, this time. The water was bloody freezing though (estimates ~55 degrees or so). There were some rocks on the other side of the initial pool, and then a massive plunge pool. It was roundish, probably a few hundred yards from land to rock wall directly under the fall. No one knows how deep it is either. Police divers got down to about 70 feet searching for a drowning victim once, and hadn't seen the bottom yet. A bunch of people swam the whole way out to stand under the falls. I went with one other person and we got about 3/4 the way there before she started tensing up and we went back. Truth be told, I was happy for the excuse... swimming in freezing water with no bottom was rather terrifying, if exhilirating at the same time.
After Jim Jim, we went over to Yellow Water Billabong for sunset. For those who don't know, a Billabong is an area formed where a river changes course over a long period and leaves a body of standing water, even when the river may get shallow or dry up during the dry season. They're home to tons of species, so great to see for an animal nerd like myself. We watched sunset over the water (beautiful) and saw some herons, egrets, and white bellied sea eagles with a massive nest. It was here that I learned that, for some reason, "billabong" is a really fun word to say... Go on, try it. You know you want to!.
We then headed back to camp for dinner.
At camp, we chowed down on kangaroo stirfry... it was, again, excellent. A boobok also came to hang out with us. That's the name given the local Barking Owl. It sat in a tree by our fire for a long time, ignoring all the flashlights pointed at it and people coming over to stare... Beautiful bird.
We then proceeded to take a night ride out to the Billabong to check out what went on with the nocturnal critters. We saw a wolf spider, eel-tailed catfish, salmon catfish, archer fish (they spit water and knock down bugs from the air to eat), a treefrog, bittern (bird), night-heron and our guide caught a small file snake. The snake was cool, not dangerous to people (only eats fish) but it's skin really lived up to the name, soo rough. We also heard a barking owl duet, as one went "woof-woof" in a deep tone, and a higher pitch answered. It sounded so much like a dog that I thought it was dingos at first, before realizing the call was too regular.
Speaking of dingos, we apparently had one hanging about our camp that no one saw except some of the cooks. They named him Ringo, and he slept in the woods behind the cooking area... We saw some running along the bus on the way out.
After the night trip to the billabong (hehe... billabong) we went home and fell asleep, totally beat from all the hiking and such.
We then proceeded to take a night ride out to the Billabong to check out what went on with the nocturnal critters. We saw a wolf spider, eel-tailed catfish, salmon catfish, archer fish (they spit water and knock down bugs from the air to eat), a treefrog, bittern (bird), night-heron and our guide caught a small file snake. The snake was cool, not dangerous to people (only eats fish) but it's skin really lived up to the name, soo rough. We also heard a barking owl duet, as one went "woof-woof" in a deep tone, and a higher pitch answered. It sounded so much like a dog that I thought it was dingos at first, before realizing the call was too regular.
Speaking of dingos, we apparently had one hanging about our camp that no one saw except some of the cooks. They named him Ringo, and he slept in the woods behind the cooking area... We saw some running along the bus on the way out.
After the night trip to the billabong (hehe... billabong) we went home and fell asleep, totally beat from all the hiking and such.