Page 31 - Our Favourite Walks by Brian Everingham

The Monoliths stayed in my heart, while I hoped for another trip. A seriously crook ankle and 4 lots
of ankle surgery, grounded me for years, but the spirit remained with me. In 2006, with my son
working in Darwin, I undertook an epic trip in my Prado and off-road camper trailer, met friends
from WA at Mt Isa and did the Savannah Way, the Coburg Peninsular (after Cyclone Monica) and
many other parts of the NT.

Finally, whilst still on that 2006 trip, with the daughter-in-law off on naval manoeuvres, my son and I
set off for Kakadu and The Monoliths. It’s around 350 kms and a good 5 hr drive to Jim Jim Falls and
requires a 4WD as the track in is either badly corrugated, rocky or sandy in equal measure. The site
was strictly controlled, one party a month to camp. That party could be one person or a dozen, but
it was ‘one’ party and that was that. What with little use in the wet, and that kind of regulation the
area remained in its remarkably unblemished state even with the incursions of non-Aboriginal
people.
The start of the walk was not auspicious. My memory failed me, and we wasted valuable time and
much energy rock hopping up Jim Jim Creek to the plunge pool below the falls, before I backtracked
and found the route much closer to the car park. So in the late afternoon we toiled up the 330
metre high escarpment on a rough track, trekked across the confusing rocky top and finally hit Jim
Jim Creek and unofficially camped exhausted a bit of a way along it.
The following day was comparatively easy and often followed feral buffalo or a foot pads. There
was plenty of time to explore rock overhangs for Aboriginal rock art, and to enjoy the sheer beauty
of the water-way before being blown away with a grand arrival vista, by the majesty of The
Monoliths.

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