Blogs from Katherine, Northern Territory, Australia, Oceania - page 20

So after three days doing the Red Rock, we headed on towards Darwin. 1500 km to go! We stopped in Devil's Marbles and Mary Ann Dam before reaching our first camp at Banka Banka, 600 km later. Huge mistake sleeping with the tent door open at night. Woke up with moskito bites all over my legs, looked like I had some sort of deadly disease! From the dry, lovely heat of Uluru to stickier and stickier tropical humidity ... Well, at least the flies were gone. Luckily, on the second day we stopped by the Mataranka Hot Springs and we were able to take a nice, cooling bath in the amazingly clear water, with bats hanging over our heads in the palm trees. We had to be dragged out of the water! Our second camp offered ... read more

When I was in Sydney my local friend Susan made me a list of “must see attractions” in Australia. By now I have covered almost all, only 2 left - Great Barrier Reef (arguably the Ningaloo is better but anyway I didn’t really see it) and Katherine gorge. So today I visited Katherine gorge. You can either canoe there or join a cruise - I think I had enough canoe experience in NZ so I joined the relaxed cruise. In the wet season the river is high and you can’t cruise it at all. In the dry season the water level is down to break it to 13 sections (called the 13 gorges), separated by rocky parts. We had to move from one boat another between gorges, sometime also walking for up to 40 minutes over ... read more

elo all The more days of adventure have passed in the outback. This segment was mainly a transport type trip from the middle of australia to the top end. Being that it was a long trip we were put into a big comfortable bus with lots of people from all over the world. The most interesting combination of people we had were some israeli soldiers and some u.s. navy and air force men. At one point in the trip the usa boys were cleaning dishes and the israeli soldiers were drying....meanwhile swapping stories and war talk. very interesting ease-dropping. our tour guide was also quite interesting, his name was cheif. he is a massive man that very closely resembles shrek. He plays blues, so we jammed. Quite a little hoot...if only i rocked more at blues. ... read more

After all the early mornings and nights trying to sleep on buses, I was well asleep when the bus arrived at Katherine. If the driver had not tried to find the owner of the lone backpack that was left on the roadside, I would probably have woken up several hundred miles away in Alice Springs or Townsville. The main attraction in Katherine was the gorge and, if you had the energy, the best way to experience it was by canoe. You could spend several days going the full length of the gorge, but due to a lack of camping gear and my general laziness meant that I opted for just one day. That was hard enough on the arms and they were stiff for several days afterwards. The guy who hired out the canoes cheerfully informed ... read more

June 5, Friday. Did the Katherine Gorge boat trip and was pleased I made the effort. It is such a popular tourist destination, which for me was spilt by too many people. The next time I do this area I will do the walks. Up to this point I hadn’t seen any kangaroos in the “top end” but two appeared in front of me this morning. Had some tough water buffalo meat for dinner tonight. My petrol cap wouldn’t come off when I stopped for fuel; a new one fixed the problem. Spent time drinking at the Larrimah Pub, very interesting owners, we talked for ages. Got to Daley Waters Pub had tea, pitched the tent and had the first hot shower for some time. A good meal at the pub then retired to the bar ... read more