Katherine to Lake Argyle

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We took a breakfast sunrise cruise on Katherine Gorge and it’s no surprise that we thought it was fantastic like everyone else who’s ever seen it. We know you've been having a flood there but how's this for some water. During their flood in 1998 the amount of water that flowed through the gorge would have filled Sydney Harbour every 9 hours. We climbed up to the lookout then trekked back down the long track behind the gorge - boy was it hot.

In Katherine it’s really sad to see so many Aborigines hanging around aimlessly in the parks and street corners. There really wasn’t much for us in Katherine itself so we headed towards WA via Gregory National Park.

I love Gregory National Park Luckily for us, Joe Creek’s walk is poorly signposted which meant we could do that climb all on our own. It took us high up under one of the escarpments and we walked for ages underneath the overhanging massive rocks that looked ready to collapse on to us. Like kids we caught water droplets in our mouths as we watched each drop fall from way up. My mouth-eye coordination was way off and they were hitting me on my forehead but I eventually got it right. We climbed and clambered and couldn’t believe how beautiful and unexpected it all was. Not having to share it with anyone else made it extra special.

Beautiful escarpments go for miles and miles and even though I try to take photos I can only get one little section and the enormity of it is lost. You think each section is unreal and then you turn a corner and there is something else even better.

Next was a sunset cruise on Lake Argyle not far from the border into Western Australia. The Ord River dam flooded an enormous area that was originally Patsy Durack’s cattle station, creating a lake 70kms x 40kms…that’s huge! We sped along looking for freshwater crocodiles, fed fish that spat water at us, swam in the warm water (fresh water crocs don’t eat you they tell us) and sipped champagne as the sun sank and the scenery went from red to smoky blue, all mirrored in the water. Am I in a hurry to go back to work? I don’t think so !

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Photos

Gregory National Park
Joe Creek's Walk was steep and rocky to climb

Gregory National Park
Joe Creeks Walk

Lake Argyle WA
It was originallya very hilly place before they flooded it so the tops of the hill became the many islands

Lake Argyle WA
Euro Wallaby on one of the islands.They jump up the steep slopes

Lake Argyle WA
The water was unusually still

Lake Argyle WA
This gives a little bit of an idea of the colours and the stilllnes of the water

Ord River Dam
Looking down at the Ord River Dam. There is no concrete or steel reinforcement inside. Somehow it holds back enough water to fill Sydney Harbour 21 times

Lake Argyle WA
An early morning walk. There is only one place to get near the water and that's at the boat ramp down a steep dirt road. They spray the dirt with molasses to keep the dust down.

Comments

[Andrea]

Amazing
I'm so glad you went there so someone else can understand how eerie and amazing it is. Hope you enjoyed it as much as I did.