Hope We Don't Start the Next Pandemic

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As we noticed when we arrived, they seem very concerned about security and breakages here at our motel. It seems that if we’d arrived back after 9pm last night we would have needed to use a code to get into the car park “compound”. Breakfast is a buffet. Well a sort of buffet. I have to stand behind a long table and tell one of the staff members what I want her to put on my plate. The selection is on another long table behind her and well beyond the reach of any prospective diners. I s'pose it wouldn't do to have anyone overindulge on the scrambled eggs... I’m certainly not brave enough to go back for seconds. None of this seems to worry the twenty something girl who's eating her breakfast at the table next to me in her pink pyjamas. I hope she’s wearing them on purpose.

We head off to Nitmiluk (used to be Katherine) Gorge. There are thousands of bats hanging upside down in trees next to the car park, all flapping their wings, presumably in a vain attempt to keep themselves cool. They look very cute. Issy says they mightn’t seem quite so cute if one of them bites one of us and sets off the next pandemic.

We set off to hike the five kilometre Baruwei Loop Walk. This starts with a climb up several hundred steep steps to Baruwei Lookout where we get spectacular views over the Gorge. Hopefully it’s all downhill from here. The sign posts at the many forks we pass are a bit confusing; they seem to be suggesting that we could go in either of the two directions on offer. I know it’s called a "loop walk", but I think the idea is that you eventually end up back at the car park. Even more perplexing are the occasional rectangular black bollards that look like they should have locations and arrows on them, but they don’t. Maybe the sign writers haven’t got around to working out what they should write on them yet. We hope this is the explanation because the only other one we can come up with is that they were planted here by aliens and they’re the only ones who can read them. I think walking around in the extreme heat might be interfering with our thought processes.

It’s very peaceful walking around out here, and we have very few fellow hikers for company. We get to another spectacular clifftop view point. The vista is being enjoyed by another couple, and we wait patiently for them to move out of the way so we can take our turn. It seems that it’s only him who is enjoying the vista. She’s busy chatting on the phone to one of her relatives. We listen in as the person on the other end of the line fills her in on the latest family gossip. It seems that a bitter argument broke out at a get together last night - something about an unwelcome new boyfriend. Ten minutes later and she’s still blocking the view. I briefly consider pushing her over the edge, but I suspect I’d then need to push him over too to get rid of any witnesses. Eventually he gets the hint and nudges her gently out of the way, although I can still see the end of her elbow in what would otherwise have been an award winning happy snap.

It’s a small world. We wander into the local Katherine supermarket and I think I recognise a classmate from Melbourne University. It was a long time ago and I’m not completely sure it’s him, so I do the usual trick of calling out his name while facing in a different direction. It is him! Maurice and his wife Pam have driven up here via South Australia, and like us arrived in the Territory only a few hours before the border was slammed shut. He promises to contact the class’s social secretary to organise another reunion.

We set off again for Nitmiluk Gorge where we’ve booked a sunset dinner cruise. We head off up the first leg of the trip through the spectacular sheer rock walls, which ends at a large rock bar which is blocking our path. So it’s off the boat for a short walk across the bar to a smaller boat on the other side. Along the way our entertaining indigenous guide “Brooksey“ points out some aboriginal rock art on the walls of the Gorge. He tells us that this is 20,000 years old. It seems that this is not really all that old; he quickly adds that some of the art in other parts of the Territory is more than twice that age. The second part of the Gorge is narrower and even more spectacular. We spy a couple of freshwater crocodiles sunning themselves on the bank. We come back to the first section where we get onto another boat which has been set up for our sit down three course dinner. We’re seated with two other couples. We swap travel stories with the very entertaining Andy, a first generation Russian Aussie, and his wife Di. If they’re to be believed we need to treat ourselves to a trip to Kangaroo Island where the proprietor of one of the major hotels runs it a la Basil Fawlty of Fawlty Towers fame. Andy says he wasn’t sure at first whether or not it was an act, but it seems it most definitely wasn’t. We move onto discussing the experiences of the early explorers, such as how they found out that there were crocodiles here, or how they discovered that getting bitten by a taipan probably wasn't going to do a lot to improve your day. The sunset over the Gorge is stunning. We agree that this evening has been a real highlight.

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Comments

[D MJ Binkley]

Fantastic photography
No telling what trouble they may cause.