Blogs from Katherine Gorge, Katherine, Northern Territory, Australia, Oceania

Ihr Lieben, nachdem wir also den Weg von Sydney nach Cairns geschafft hatten, die Loecher im Dach unseres Campervans repariert und das Regenwetter hinter uns lag, wir viele wunderschoene Dinge gesehen und erlebt hatten, war es Zeit, in das grosse Abenteuer zu starten: 4500 km von Cairns nach Broome, und der Grossteil davon durch Australiens wunderschoenes Outback! Am 21. Maerz haben wir uns auf den Weg gemacht: verabschiedet wurden wir von Queenslands Kueste bei grauen Regen und Wolken. Sagte ich gerade noch, dass das Regenwetter hinter uns lag? Naja, eigentlich schon, aber Queensland war halt traurig, dass es uns an das Outback verlieren wuerde. Vormittags haben wir uns noch Townsville angeschaut, das in starker Konkurrenz mit Cairns ist. Mein Fazit: Townsvilles "The Strand", der Gegenentwurf zu Cairns "The Strand" ist auf jeden Fall die schoenere Strandpromenade, ... read more

Day 12 – Wednesday July 11th – Katherine Gorge to Kakadu National Park We woke up to find a wallaby eating one of our tourist magazines as it couldn’t find the rubbish bag we had cunningly hidden inside one of our plastic containers. After breakfast we decided we should see the Katherine Gorge while we were there, without paying lots of money for a cruise. So we loaded up with snacks and water and headed off on the Butterfly Gorge walk, which is where we would be able to have a swim. It took 1½ hours of steady walking up and down sandy and rocky tracks, one wipe out from Meg (skin off elbow and bang to head L) before we reached the secluded second gorge. We were all on our own in the ... read more

....well hi there happy bloggers.....we have finally hit the wall with the heat....never get's below 30 so the fridge just keeps running and running and running....so we either had to sit with the solar panels all day to keep the in the sun (yes there are many trees here so getting clear sun on the panels is a challenge) or buy a power supply....so we now have a Waeco fridge power unit....runs a treat. So today we packed away the panels and zipped over to Katherine Gorge for a 3 gorge tour, excellent. We had already done our helicopter flight yesterday. Tomorrow we are off to Kakadu and Gunlom falls. (probably stop there for the night). Our itinerary is pretty fluid from here.... Love us xxxxx ... read more

Howdy blog readers...we we hit the road on Tuesday morning after 5 lively days (not) at Tennant Creek. We won't need to return there. Zipped up the Stuart hwy and stopped at Daly Waters...what a fantastic old pub. Reminded us of the pub we stopped at in Corner country...NT/SA/Qld intersection. After a night there we got away to Mataranka. We had the best time floating away in the hot spring, called "Bitter Springs", it was truly a great experience. The water was crystal clear and warm..... Today we have arrived at Katherine after a stop at Cutta Cutta caves. Really interesting cave system that floods every wet season. Have settled into our camp in Katherine now and have dusted our whole area with ant killer powder and talcum powder...the ants up here are a real problem, ... read more

We have covered more than 4,700 kms since I last wrote, driving through some of Australia’s vast, dry terrain in temperatures generally exceeding 35 degrees (and the nights often don’t feel much cooler!)! The car drives have been long, at times a bit challenging, but, as a reward, we find ourselves today - by default, but more about that later - at a beautiful oasis, complete with pool and electricity (which means aircon), and have decided not to step into our car for two days - bliss. Having said that, the country we have been travelling through has been very interesting, with bright red earth in many parts; a landscape which, at first glance, looks bleak, but on closer inspection is interspersed with brightly coloured plants, trees with bark that is almost iridescent and variously textured, ... read more

I spent another day in Kununurra relaxing in the sunshine before hopping on a bus in the morning to Katherine. I got to Katherine in the early evening. I lugged all my stuff to my hostel. There are a lot more aboriginals up in this area. They hang around in groups all over the town. Katherine is an interesting town. It's not very big and there isn't much to do besides go to the gorge out of town. I was up early the next morning and on a bus out to Katherine gorge which they call nitmiluk in aboriginal. I walked around the information center before making my way down to the boat launch. I decided to do a 3 gorge tour. There isn't much walking involved except 400m between the gorges. We all piled onto ... read more

Kakadu to Darwin then Katherine Okay, so there is quite a bit of travel to be covered here. We would have blogged earlier, however we were BUSY in Darwin and there is no OPTUS coverage from Katherine to Broome. Maybe TELSTRA for then next outback trip .... So our last day in Kakadu we left our van set up at Jabiru and headed off to the East Alligator River. We checked out Cahill's Crossing which is the only access to Arnhem Land via road. The river was about 50cm deep, pretty easy for any 4WD, however we would have to get a permit to go into the brother's land. So we drove to the jetty to board the Guluyambi Boat Cruise. It was excellent, our guide, Neville, from Arnhem Land, took us down stream to Cahill's ... read more