OurTripDreaming: Day 3 Crystal Falls to 17 Mile Falls via the Amphitheatre

Day 3 – Monday 19 August

Crystal Falls to 17 Mile Falls via the Amphitheatre

https://nt.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0016/200590/jatbula-trail-maps-booklet.pdf

https://nt.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0020/200594/jatbula-trail-information-sheet.pdf

https://northernterritory.com/katherine-and-surrounds/see-and-do/crystal-falls

https://northernterritory.com/katherine-and-surrounds/see-and-do/17-mile-falls

This morning, we set the alarm to 5:45am. Again, we were ready by 6:30am and waited until 6:40am to have enough light for crossing the water safely. The first kilometre of today took over 45 minutes, as there were lots of lumpy rocks to traverse, as well as the water crossing. There were some great views back to Crystal Falls, followed by a beautiful walk through relatively open country with light breezes when we were near the escarpment. It was much cooler walking today than yesterday.

We saw some old signage today, presumably from when the walk took a different route. The sign we saw said 5.25km to Amphitheatre, when we were less than 4km from it by the current track route. There was minimal recent patch burning between Crystal Falls and the Amphitheatre. As a result, we saw more evidence of wildlife than on the previous two days. We saw two lizards that were each about 20cm long and scurried madly for cover at our approach, and scat, but no actual sightings, from macropods.

Mid-morning we came to an open area of cool and swampy grassland -it almost felt airconditioned after being on open stone country. It was even complete with a large log to sit on and rest. This area would probably be quite muddy early in the season as it was still slightly damp around the edges this late in the season.

The Amphitheatre was completely different to the surrounding country above. It is not surprising that the indigenous inhabitants retreated to this cool oasis and have left a legacy of art on the rock walls. Parks have thoughtfully added explanatory signage for visitors.

https://northernterritory.com/katherine-and-surrounds/see-and-do/the-amphitheatre

Packs are not taken down into the Amphitheatre and we had been warned to make sure our packs had zippers facing toward the ground as the crows have learnt to unzip packs – when we arrived at the Amphitheatre, we saw crows attempting to gain entry to our fellow campers’ bags, and when we returned from our side trip we saw them trying to get into ours. Glad we had been warned and placed our bags accordingly.

From the Amphitheatre it was about one hours walk to the 17 Miles Fall campground. View of 17 Mile Falls were seen from the trail before we went past and then looped back to camp above the falls. The last 500m or so was over big rocks and then a small boggy patch.

The main camp area was quite small and was bare rock with no shade. Once again, we decided to swim fully clothed and cool off before setting up camp. We were very grateful for this decision, as when we went for our dip to cool off, we discovered another small, but shaded and pretty, campsite on the opposite side of the water (i.e. back on the original side of the creek, but you had to cross in two different spots to get there). We had arrived in camp about 10:45am and were fully set up prior to midday.

The afternoon was spent swimming and exploring. This was probably my favourite campsite. The water was amazingly clear, and the views were so large. There were several small waterfalls and plunge pools above the main waterfall. Upstream was a long section of calm water to swim up. We saw small yabbies in the water, and they nibbled at Drew’s toes when he was filtering water for drinking.

Before dinner we took one final swim for the day at the top of the falls. Again, we ended the day with a beautiful sunset.