Australia day 32 – Katherine NT

Katherine Gorge is situated in the Nitmiluk National Park 29km from Katherine. It is defined as a series of 13 gorges and there is a visitors centre and a commercial operation offering a huge range of different tours and cruises from a two-hour cruise taking in two of the gorges at $56pp to helicopter adventure trips through all 13 gorges with gourmet picnic and swimming in your own private rock pool at $300pp. There are also several walks of varying lengths from two hours to three days or more depending on how far up the series of gorges you want to trek. We opt for the two hour loop walk which takes us up the escarpment to a lookout which from where there is a good view of the first gorge and the surrounding countryside before looping back through the empty (of people) savannah. It’s not a particularly difficult walk and fortunately it’s cloudy so we are spared the direct sun and the temperature doesn’t reach the predicted 40 degrees. But we still feel exhausted by the time we get back to the van! The secret is do everything slowly, slowly; drink plenty of water and have frequent stops.

Frogs are everywhere on the campsite but particularly in the toilet block often sitting in the toilet bowl or under the toilet seat. Always a wise move to check before sitting down! There are also numerous wallabies which hop around the vans after everyone has gone to bed, which can be a bit of a shock when caught short in the middle of the night – as Andy discovered. Apparently, a 12 foot ’saltie’ has been removed from the billabong today, although it’s probably not a good idea to camp by the water’s edge even so.

Had a dip in the pool again which we discovered today is fed from a natural ‘hot’ spring although the water isn’t hot, just luke warm. We get talking to an older Australian couple who often drive up from Wollongong to holiday around the Daly River. She is originally from New Zealand and we get chatting about travelling and taking vitamin B1 to stop mozzie bites. We’ve been taking 2 x 100mg of B1 since we arrived in Darwin on the recommendation of the pharmacist friend of Helen and Adrian but it hasn’t stopped us getting bitten. We been advised variously to take 20 tablets a day which seems a bit over the top, by an Ozzie from Darwin, to 125mg, by the Kiwi today. We’ve upped our dose to 200 mg twice a day to see if that is more effective.

Andy met someone tonight who used to live in Sydenham and swim in Forest Hill Pools before he moved out here to live. Small world, eh?