Blogs from Katherine, Northern Territory, Australia, Oceania - page 7

"Travelling in a fried out combie"…begins the song "From a Land Down Under" by Men at Work. That song has become our theme song. This morning we headed out on our wonderful Adventure Down Under. We plan to travel for just over five weeks through Australia, travelling south from Darwin, through the centre of the continent, stopping at several places including Uluru, one of the most famous landmarks in the world. We will head south all the way to Adelaide and then take the Great Ocean Road and head to Melbourne, Sydney and then Brisbane and the Great Barrier Reef, including all the little towns and beaches in between. Then we will go to New Zealand for three weeks, USA for one week, Hamilton Ontario for 3 days and then home sweet home for September! We ... read more

After a slow start to the morning we left Manbulloo Station and headed to Nitmiluk National Park which is situated about 30 kilometres out of Katherine. The National Park areas in the Northern Territory continue to amaze. There are plenty of ways to enjoy Nitmiluk including various walk trails, boat cruises and canoe adventures. Rachel and I decided the walking trails could wait and we hired a canoe for four hours and headed out along Katherine Gorge just after lunch. To say we are novices in a canoe is an understatement and to a seasoned campaigner we must have looked like a pair of 16 year olds behind the wheel of a car on their first driving lesson. It did not take too long to get ourselves paddling in unison and from there we paddled upstream ... read more

Pics from the past few days.... read more

We woke up and watched the view of the lake reveal its self from the campsite as we were on a cliff overlooking Lake Argyle. We had been told there was an infinity pool at the campsite but it was dark when we arrived at camp the previous evening so we decided to check it our at sunrise instead and we weren't disappointed as the water from the pool looked as though it was flowing into Lake Argyle and had incredible views. We had a long drive in the morning as we made our way to Katherine. We stopped just before lunchtime at Jo's Gorge where we did the Nawulbinbin walk which took up the side of the gorge. It was very humid today and so the climb up the gorge was tough at times. Along ... read more

Before JP and I left for the Northern Territory or Top End of Australia, we got field guides—guides to the birds, the mammals, and the plants. Looking through A Field Guide to the Mammals of Australia, there were many in the “Ooh, I’d like to see that” and “Ahh, what a wonderful animal” category. Not only were they physically appealing, but they have exotic and outlandish common names: Quoll, Numbat, Kowari, Mulgara, Ampurta, Dibbler, Kaluta, Kultarr, Dunnart, Bandicoot, Bilby, Wombat, Cuscus, Bettong, Woylie, and Potoroo. More mundane, but recognizable were the Kangaroos, Wallabies, Possums, and Bats, as well as an assortment of mice and rats. As it turns out, most of these are variously secretive, tiny, arboreal, nocturnal or some combination of all of the above and their distribution is very restricted. They show up as ... read more