An enjoyable way to make your arms ache
Trip Start
Jul 27, 2009
1
22
48
Trip End
Nov 07, 2009
Where I stayed
Katherine, Northern Territory, Australia
Sunday, August 30, 2009
On our first day we started at the swimming platform not far from the visitors’ centre. Alec writes: We swam in a gorge. I kept jumping in and out.
Alec is a master of understatement; he jumped in and out like there was no tomorrow. After a couple of idyllic hours we completed the short Barrawei Loop walk, which in the heat felt rather longer than its advertised 3.7km. This lead us to cliff-top lookout with magnificent views over the river and up the first gorge*. Our path back was seemingly littered with wildlife: endless lizards, insects and birds, along with kangaroos and flying foxes. Sharp-eyed Hilary could barely take a step without spotting something else for us to cluster around and examine.
( * So what’s this "first gorge" business? Nitmiluk (a.k.a. Katherine Gorge) is made up of 13 gorges separated by rapids or rock bars. Starting at the downstream end - where the deep Katherine River runs between the sandstone bluffs - we have Gorge 1. At its top, water gushes down over some 150m of rocks from Gorge 2, and so on until Gorge 13, which is 13 kilometres upstream. We only got to the top of the second gorge.)
After another brief splash in the river, we escaped the heat in the Nitmiluk Centre, which was filled with fascinating detail about both the natural and cultural history of the park. The history of Nitmiluk again includes dispossession of the local indigenous people (the Jawoyn), and a subsequent successful native title claim leading to joint management between local custodians and the Northern Territory Government. While Carrie was a little sad that such wild beautiful places have become mass tourism experiences, we were grateful for the ease with which we could also access them, and that they were so well managed. Gone are the days when you could have the gorges to yourselves, but so too is the need to carry your kayak on the top of your car from Melbourne! Other parts of the park remain only accessible to the determined adventurer.
Of our second day Hilary writes:
Next we went to Katherine Gorge. It was the highlight of our holidays because we went canoeing. We hired two two-seater canoes and went paddling up the gorge. We did a lot of swimming in the gorge. The water was cool and refreshing. The sides of the gorge were absolutely stunning. I also went snorkelling in the gorge. I saw six types of fish but I can only name two of them: the tadpoles and the crayfish.
Alec writes: In Katherine Gorge we went canoeing. It was great fun. I had lots of breaks while paddling.
Alec, actually, was a real trooper - he soon established a system of paddling 20 strokes and then resting for 10, all the time keeping up the steady chant of "left, right" that was necessary to keep both paddlers synchronised. (Hilary - fed on a reading-diet rich in Arthur Ransome - was instead chanting "port, starboard", although as the going got a little tougher the extra syllable began to seem more effort than it was worth.)
Our day was as delightful as you could possibly imagine. It was immensly charming to glide alongside precipitous cliffs, exploring flooded 'caves’ in the walls, watching the fish gliding beneath the canoe, and silently creeping up on nesting birds. The water was fresh and clear; to drink we dipped a mug alongside the canoe. The day was hot, but before long we were damp and cool from splashed water, and at rest stops it was easy to slide into the water for a swim. Indeed in most places swimming from side to side was far easier than clambering over rocks, so we’d find ourselves inspecting the Jawoyn rock-art galleries in the opposite wall still dripping onto the warm stone.
The children were captivated; so too were the adults. Alec was rhapsodic with the wonder of it all; this was “the best day ever”. Hilary felt she was living out a Swallows and Amazons adventure, and spent the day exploring, prospecting for alluvial silver, and naming islands. In all, it was a day the memories of which we will long treasure.
We didn't camp in the National Park, but instead stayed at the Springvale Homestead Tourist Park, which was a half-empty sprawling camp-ground under massive tropical trees. To Simon it felt like an antebellum plantation. It seemed to Carrie more like a decaying 1950s pleasure-ground, with its free-form, fresh-water swimming pool apparently fed directly from the river, complete with overhanging palms and ferns, and a water-slide tucked into a rocky-grotto.
The wildlife kept the mosquitoes at bay, despite the large billabong: fresh water crocodiles (apparently they do eat mosquito larvae); scores of turtles(!) who poked their heads from the swampy water expecting a feed when the children approached; herds of geckos in the toilet block (sorry, not sure of collective nouns for reptiles) and, alas, cane toads who tripped us up on the way to the loo (yetch!). Also wallabies, though we don't think they ate many mosquito larvae. The kids also befriended the charming boys of a family who have moved from near Sea Lake in Victoria and intend to camp out the wet season and find work. They are made of sterner stuff than us.
Comments
Hello from Gladstone Ave
From Luisa:Really enjoying reading your travel logs. Katherine Gorge sounds fantastic. Did you know that the house next to yours has been demolished. It looks quite strange. Will leave Greta to write now:
from Greta:hi Hilary and Alec, I like the travel log especially the pics. I cant wait till you get back.
ps: Do you go to School there?
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