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Published: October 1st 2008
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An early start to the day as we headed out to Katherine Gorge for a dawn breakfast cruise to gorges 1 and 2 (there are 13 in total of course!). we drove out to Nitmiluk National Park and boarded the boat at 7am. Yummy breakfast of bacon, scrambled eggs, tomatoes, mushies, sausages and beans. You could have cereal or bread too and some of the kids had something of everything. Our guide was a big,bearded guy called Taffy and, although he looked Aboriginal, he spoke with an English accent, so who knows where he was from. He knew an awful lot about Katherine Gorge and has been driving boats along there for 13 years (of course!). It's hard to describe the magnificence of Katherine Gorge. God given wonder. The walls of the gorge are so high, the colours of the rock faces so beautiful, reflections in the water crystal clear, little beaches created by the erosion of the sand stone (freshwater crocs lay their eggs in the sand and we were able to see 'croc tracks' from when they had visited their egg stashes), ancient trees surviving on water stored in the rocks and many interesting side gorges and caves. We
were lucky enough to see a crocodile cruising before returning down to the deeper water.
Back to camp to pack up and move on. Incredibly hot. We saved our bathers from the packing though and, after all was zipped up, we had one last swim in the lovely Katherine pool.
Heading into Kakadu is quite surreal, mainly because it is such an icon of our culture and country and I can't really believe that we are here. The landscape changes once again. It is treed, green trees and cycads, and then spindly trees and termite mounds. There are rivers with water actually in them. And dry riverbeds as well. We stopped for lunch at the Mary River rangers stop and tried to stand in the shade. The table and chairs there were too hot to touch, so we couldn't sit down.
Morning all, Bron here. Katheine Gorge was not at all what i had expected. I thought it was one long river, not divided into 13 gorges that you had to walk between. It was truly amazing. Next time we come (yes we will definately return), Rob and i are going to kayak up the first and
second gorges. Something to look forward to . We left the Stuart Highway and turned onto the Kakadu Highway, just outside Pine Creek, the termite mounds that we have seen so often changed into MONSTER termite mounds. They ranged up to almost 3 metres in height and about one one and a half metres in width. They also changed color from that red we have been so used to, to a sand stone-like color. Here's a bit of trivia I have learnt about termite mounds. Apparently termites build their mounds aligned north and south to minimise exposure to the sun and maximise temperature control. WOW!
Anyway, the landscape has changed to almost Jurassic like. I had been expecting a big T-Rex to appear from behind a mountain of grey boulders but alas, the closest I got to a dinosaur was a massive water-buffalo having that long, long sleep on the side of the road. I did pinch Rob on the drive, just checking that we were finally in Kakadu. We've been planning this for so long and now we are finally here.
HOT.That's what it is. Very hot. We arrived at our destination Gagudju Lodge Cooinda. The campground
is quite treed, has two pools (a priority) and is quite spread out. As soon as the cars were backed into the sites Rob ushered Jac and I and the kids off to the pool. And he and Ro were very noble and set up camp while we swam and swam and swam. It is officially the last day of the dry today and the humidity is high. A yummy bbq dinner, kids for a final swim and then they off to bed. Rob and I sat up for a bit and had a visitor to our camp, a dingo. Very quiet and sneaky it was but left as soon as it noticed us. It is certainly much quieter here than Katherine, no noisy bats bothering us here.
All well, not happy that we are past the half way point but thats life, holidays can't go on foreverer......or can they?
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Ken
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Where's Wally
Bron! Loving your stories, and also from the other bloggers, but am noticing that the only photos of you seem to have you at some distance, under a hat, behind the kids, or otherwise disguised. Are you camera shy? Are you really there? Today's example, out of all the lovely phots, there is only one with someone looking a bit like you, with their back turned, sitting in a deck chair at the camp. Where are you, Wally!