Blogs from Katherine, Northern Territory, Australia, Oceania - page 9

July 19TH The Gahn Train is named after the Afghan cameleers who once traveled this route. My travel from the Red Center of Australia will take me to the edge of the continent, at Darwin. This morning after a rocky night is a welcomed sight. I paid an extra 10.00 to use the lobby car. It have electrical plug access to charge my computer and free coffee and tea for the entire journey. I don't normally drink coffee but in order to stay awake this AM I am having espresso with milk and lots of sugar! The train stops in the town of Katherine just south of Darwin. There is a 5 hour layover and the option for many tours to see Katherine's Gorge. I decide not to take any. I have walked through so may ... read more

After packing up and heading toward Katherine this morning we got a text from David Blackmore to say he was able to show us around the Tyndal Airforce Base. We had a great tour around, seeing where David works and the big jets in their hangars. We were able to have a look inside the cockpit of a jet that was being repaired - not much room in there. After the tour we set up camp and had a walk down to the Hot Springs. As Lorae was riding at the Katherine Show we decided to head over and check it out. The show was huge with every side show, show bag stand and ride you could imagine. The boxing tent was a real eye opener, I had never seen one but David remembers one at ... read more

Monday 11th, was the day of our trip into the Nitmiluk National Park and more specifically to what used to be known as Katherine Gorge but is now Nitmiluk Gorge and we would be cruising through three of the thirteen gorges. Nitmiluk means 'place of the cicada dreaming' in the Jawoyn language (the Jawoyn people are the traditional owners of the land). The day had dawned with quite a bit of cloud about and a chill in the air. Undaunted and wrapped up, we set off very early for the Katherine Gorge Visitor Centre which was about 35 kilometers away. I thought we would be far too early but by the time we’d had a look around the centre, checked out the restaurant for later and then walked the 500 meters or so to the boats, ... 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

Nitmiluk National Park As the sun rises to the East, it was a late start the drive from Kununurra towards Nitmiluk (Katherine) National Park. We stayed 58km west of the township of Katherine at a freecamp – Vince Connoly Crossing, here we waited for the Triton’s oil to cool before doing an oil and filter change as the odometer now reads over 105,000km. The following morning we set off for Katherine, fuelling up at Caltex (25.2L @ 158.9c/L) – just enough to get us back from Nitmiluk gorge. The gorge seemed to span as far as the eye could see, as we hiked for what seemed like hours along the ridge and towards the Southern Rockhole. Here we found a nice waterfall and tranquil waters which were so inviting after our long walk. Lucky this ... read more