Travelling from Cooinda to Darwin
 

Travel advice please,

The route Travelmate throws up for Cooinda to Darwin is via Jim Jim Road. I don't believe this is heading toward JimJim Falls. Is Jim Jim Road suitable for your average 2 wheel drive rental econobox? Could someone check a detailed map over there, please ?
Thanks
Andrew David

Andrew, here is an Australian government website that says Jim Jim Road is accessible only by 4 wheel drive vehicle:

http://www.deh.gov.au/parks/kakadu/g...ampground.html

Cooinda is the name for Yellow Waters in Kakadu and the road from Darwin is paved and a very good, in fact it is the Arnham Highway or Kakadu Highway. The accommodation is expensive and average because its at the back of beyond. To actually get to Jim Jim falls you need a 4 wheel drive but you can cruise Cooinda and go on the East Alligator River without getting off a good road.

The best way to see Jim Jim falls is to rent the Crocodile Dundee movie.

However it appears this year's wet is a return to normal after the dry summers of the past couple of years.So Kakadon't should beat at its peak at the end of the summer.

Dramatic satellite photos have been appearing in the local press of flood fronts moving down the outback rivers...the diamantina,paroo...coopers creek.Birdsville the "iconic outback town" is now flooded in.

This region should be at its peak with wildlife and wildflowers etc in a month or two.

I know this is confusing, but we aren't thinking of going to Jim Jim Falls in our rent a box. we are heading back to Darwin. I think we are travelling away from the falls, but the road is called out on travelmate as Jim Jim Road. It's the section from near Cooinda travelling NW back toward Arnhem Highway that I'm inquiring about!
Thanks for arranging for the return to normal weather. I wish we could get some of that precipitation here in dry dry Santa Fe.

best wishes to all,
AndrewDavid

A/D
Your "Jim Jim road" is the "old darwin road" in my motoring guide.
It is unsealed and has several river crossings.I believe it is commonly flooded at those crossings during the wet.

During the dry it is trafficable in 2wd rentals.

If it is still flooded when you are up there i guess you will have to back track on the arnhem hwy or go out to the south west on the (sealed) Kakadu hwy.

Andrew - too right the drought has broken up here - can't even get to the local Red Rooster for a bbq'd chook for dinner (or "tea" as they say in FNQ) as the bridge is under water. Suppose, will have to get some mince out of the freezer and make rissoles!

Please, Pat, don't stir up jj727 again - we've only just managed to rescue AndrewDavid from chook raffles in Robertson. Santa Fe is mercifully short of such events.(AD, you are getting around, aren't you?)

Dear penpals, Do you realize, much to our shame, New Mexico is one of only 2 states where cock fighting is still legal. Lock up your chooks!
AndrewDavid

And Santa Fe and Albuquerque seemed such peaceful places. Little did I realise the extremes of vice beneath their outwardly placid surfaces.

In Vietnam I had the misfortune to be fed a fighting chicken which had been killed in the line of duty, or perhaps died of extreme old age after retiring a champ. At least, that's my explanation for my inability to make any impression on its flesh with fang or claw. AD, I do believe similar nefarious events are held surreptitiously in Sin City to my north (aka Sydney), some of our newer citizens having trouble shaking the habit. Hopefully you won't be fed the results, with or without five-spice powder.