Blogs from Katherine Gorge, Katherine, Northern Territory, Australia, Oceania - page 2

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

This morning we got up and hired canoes to head up Katherine Gorge. It was quite hard work, but the views were amazing. Heather and I were in one canoe, and Max and Jannick were in the other. The others did the hike instead of canoeing. We finally arrived at the little inlet where we could get out of the canoes (all the earlier spots were taken by crocodiles who had nests on the beaches) and went swimming. It was really nice to cool off after the hard work it took to get there. From there it was back to camp for lunch, then pack up and head further north to Darwin. We stopped at Edith Falls on the way for a swim, where there were fish that nibbled all the dead skin off your feet. ... read more

Friday 1st October - Katherine Long drive today from Litchfield to Katherine via Pine Creek. Encountered loads of road trains (Dave's heard that in some parts of the country they get up to quarter of a mile long). You would think by now we'd had enough of waterfalls, but a quick detour to Edith Falls proves that you can never have too many waterfalls in this region. Bearing in mind my usual level of physical activity, I thought it was very spirited of us to attempt to swim across the whole lake. Indeed, I thought we were doing an excellent job until we were overtaken by 83 year old George and his 2 young grandchildren who do this twice a day. Ok - so we don't want to have waterfall overkill here, so next stop is ... read more

We arrived at our first stop in the Northern Territory, the city of Katherine, and headed to Springvale Homestead which claims to be oldest cattle station in the Northern Territory. It’s situated in the outskirts of the town, was quiet, very green and full of wallabies, just hundreds of them everywhere you looked. On our arrival we signed up to do a night time croc spotting boat trip later that evening then took some time to chill out and enjoy our surroundings. It was pitch dark by the time headed to the meeting point, torches in hand. We waited and waited, no sign of anyone, not a soul! After waiting for 45mins we headed to the site restaurant/bar to enquire what had happened, they told us that the boat had waited as long as they could ... read more

Katherine is another one of those towns with very strict drinking laws. Like the rest of Australia you cannot buy alcohol in the supermarkets - you have to go to a liquor store or bottle shop, they are only open between 2-6pm and you are limited to what you can buy e.g one bottle of wine per person per day!! As we approach Katherine we stop at the Hot Springs, a lovely shaded spring fed creek that has crystal clear thermal waters at constant temperature of 32º. Its a lovely way to wake up, wallowing in the waters and getting to feel really refreshed and kick starting the day. One of the first weird things that strikes us as we drive into Katherine is that for the first time in what seems like absolute ages we ... read more