Kakadu Bush Camping
25th September – 4th October 2025
After six days exploring Jabiru, we headed south into the Kakadu National Park. Wanting to make the most of our Kakadu experience we picked three different campgrounds from which to explore Kakadu, the first of these was Gungurul.
Even though it was classed as a campground, it really was little more than a carpark. There were a few marked spots around the circular road, big enough for a motor home. Nevertheless, it was a popular spot and several other travellers also camped here.
We found a space off the road, big enough for Chunky Bum, and it wasn’t a bad camp. This was our first bush camp, so there was no air conditioning, and the average temperature was 38 degrees.
Though the campground wasn’t much to write home about, there were a couple of nice walks; one down to the river and the other (longer and steeper) up to an impressive outlook. We could see our camp way down below.
We were close to the East Alligator River, and that’s where the river walk took us. The river was, for the most part, a dry sandy bed. But it made for a lovely walk, cool in the riverbed, some birds and an overall really nice feel.
We stayed there a couple of nights, mainly because there was a pair of Blue-winged Kookaburras in the area, and family of Crimson Finches. I’ve seen the finches three times since we’ve been in the NT but have had a lot of difficulty getting a good shot of them, but here, I finally managed a half decent shot of a male.
Next stop was the Maguk Campground. Wow! What a great spot. We had plenty of room to hang our hammocks and there was a big colony of Sand Wasps to keep me occupied.
We loved it here even though the average temp was 40 degrees and to get to the swimming hole we had to drive 1.5km to the carpark, then embark on 2km walk, along a track, over rocks, sand, creeks and more rocks in order to get to the falls and swimming hole.
We did this twice a day. 😊
Was it worth it? We think it was… Just beautiful! And there were natural rock ledges all around the gorge and under the waterfall, so you could have a rest while you enjoyed the serenity.
It was a challenging walk, and we were melting by the time we got to the swimming hole. Of course, the same could be said of the walk back so we made the most of the smaller swimming holes on the return journey. We weren’t supposed to, there were croc warnings for the lower pools, but the water was so clear we figured that we’d see a croc coming from a mile away.
On our way back one afternoon we came across this Nankeen Night Herron. He struck a striking pose that I couldn’t resist.
I also saw a little waterfall that caught my attention, the best angle was from the water so, in I went…boots and all.
Our last camp was Gunlom, yet another little gem. The waterfall had only recently been reopened after being closed for over six years. Be warned though, the road in is or was, very heavily corrugated.
The photos don’t show the level of corrugations, but the damage did.
The joys of corrugated roads.
It was so rough that we even lost a bolt out of a camp chair. Now that’s a rough road! Peter had no choice; he had to bind it up with wire if he wanted to sit
It was well worth the damage to get here, the campground was huge, and as with the others, there were very few people there. We could see the waterhole from our campsite. It was… pretty high. There was a lower swimming hole but that one was closed because a crocodile had moved in. It was a little disconcerting that the croc trap was relatively close to where we had parked.
Now, to the swimming hole at Gunlom. OMG! A big walk up for even bigger views. This is the NT that we loved! Even Hugo made the effort to make the climb.
From the start of the track, it’s only 0.5 km but…it’s up all the way with an elevation of 90mts. There were three swimming holes to enjoy, but one of them clearly outshone the others as it went up to the edge of the cliff like an infinity pool. From where we could pick out our campsite below, and enjoy the wide views of Kakadu.
The swimming holes towards the back of the drop-off were, perhaps, more pleasant to swim in as there were less rocks to navigate around. But really, wherever you took your dip, you couldn’t go wrong.
Back on ground level, there was a lot of water lying around the perimeter of the campground, this created homes for dragonflies, lizards… .
…and birds
The average temperature was 39 degrees, and we were beginning to feel it, as was the fridge. So, we put the generator on to run the aircon for a little bit and help the batteries keep up with the load. It didn’t work out. The batteries hit their minimum and shut down so we had to cut the aircon and put all the effort into the batteries, but by 9:30pm we had run out of fuel and were left with no power, no refrigerator, and the overnight temperature wasn’t much cooler; we had a problem.
The campground caretakers came back from their day out and called past. They were kind enough to sell us some fuel, and we continued on through the whole night running the generator just to keep the fridge going. The next day, the caretakers told us that our neighbours, a couple of hundred metres away, complained about the noise, but the caretakers covered for us; after all, we were in an area that said, ‘Generator Zone’. Actually, I’m glad it was the campers who complained and not the crocodile, he was the closest, and he might have really ‘had a piece of us’! The heat, and the inability of the batteries to keep up with the load was our catalyst to leave the next day.
And that brought us to the end of our Kakadu adventure. Pine creek is our next stop and I can guarantee you; we will be running our air-con 24/7.
See you out there somewhere
On tow and on the go!
