Leichardt’s Grasshopper

Our afternoon Gubara Adventure
Guest – Lisa Gambling

We set off early afternoon from Cooinda Lodge, heading towards Gubara in search of the famous Leichhardt’s grasshopper that we had heard so much about!

A beautiful little insect with its bright orange-coloured body, marked with blue and bright red, and was named after explorer Ludwig Leichhardt.

The grasshopper is quite hard to find as it only eats a certain kind of plant called pityrodia, and is usually only found during the wet season.

Amazingly, we ended up finding a whole group of them just near the carpark, never thought it would be that easy! The sneaky little insects kept moving behind the leaves and hiding thinking we couldn’t see them!

We then set off on the 3k trek towards Gubara pools. Walking along the escarpment is breathtaking. We heard thunder in the distance and then the heavy tropical rain started – which made it look even more like a beautiful rainforest. We were in Paradise!

All the pools were flowing and there are lots of rocks and caves to explore.

Well worth visiting Kakadu in the wet season – a very different experience to the dry season!