Next
port of call on our adventures was Katherine.
The Shady Lane Tourist Park, a few kilometres out of town on Gorge Road
had been recommended to us by several travelers and friends, so as John and
Barb were going ahead of us a day earlier they decided to stay there and book
us in for the couple of days we planned on being in Katherine. We were very impressed with the caravan
park, which has great amenities and are kept spotlessly clean. It really was like staying in a 5 star resort
after some of the places we have just come from. The shower/toilet blocks were completely
tiled throughout with toilet paper, soap, hand driers, good lighting and plenty
of hooks in the shower. Complete luxury
after we have had this past couple of weeks…
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| Laundry and toilet locks |
The
campsites here are shaded by lovely palm trees but are a bit tricky to
manoeuvre into, and both John and Barb, and Steve and I had words with each
other over directing them into backing into the sites. It is just that we speak totally different
languages to men, I am sure…
We
were finally in and all unpacked, it really is a great park… The sites are
indeed shady with lovely tall palms all around providing some relief from the
hot sun.
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| Our campsites were nice and shady with tall palms all around. |
My laundry basket was full and
over flowing with washing so, we girls leapt at the opportunity to do our laundry
and get our washing hung out in full sun away from the dust of the
driveway.
Once
our laundry was hung out, Kathy and I made a quick trip into town with Steve to
do a grocery shop, as we were out of many of our daily basics, like bread,
milk, cheese, so it was good to stock up our cupboards again…
It was a warm afternoon, so in the late afternoon we went to Katherine Springs,
which are natural hot springs just out of town on the Victoria Highway. When we
got there, we discovered that they were doing a lot of work on constructing a
precinct at the springs and there was a lot of dust and rockwork in
progress. We also had to find an
alternate route down to the springs.
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| Steep walk down to the springs. |
The
hill was very steep, so we were really ready for the water by the time we got
to the bottom…
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| Ian and Kathy going in for a dip... |
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| It was nice and warm |
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| It was a popular swimming hole with the townsfolk |
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| Barb hoping in... |
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| Barb and I enjoying the lovely warm water |
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| four good size crocs caught in Katherine Springs |
There were also many school-aged kids
at these springs. Being after school hours it's a favourite place for the
locals to cool off too. The springs weren't as warm as Bitter Springs. Neither
did they carry you downstream, but a bit further upstream towards the source of
the springs there was a much deeper pool and a small rapids area gushing into
it.
Some foolish young men started bomb
diving into the pool (right beside the sign that said not to) and as I saw one
guy climb a tree to dive in, I knew it was time to leave before someone broke
their neck or back. I did not want to
be around and have to perform CPR on them.
When we got back to the campground, Ian, Kathy, Steve, and I booked in to do
the Two Gorge boat cruise the following day. John and Barb had done a Three
Gorge cruise on a previous visit, so decided to this time do a bushwalk to see
the gorges from the cliff-tops instead.
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| Heading up to the first lookout |
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| The views of the first gorge were amazing.. |
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| Baruwei Lookout. |
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| Stunning views |
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| Baruwei Lookout |
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They
then decided to go on to the Windolf walk to
see the Southern Rockhole and Pat's Lookout. The waterfall shown
on the board looked so inviting. Steve had gone on ahead and he told them, as
he came back up from the pool that the waterfall and pool were dry, so instead of
continuing to go down,
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| Heading down to the Southern Rockhold |
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| Mostly dried up and no water full running |
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| Southern Rockpool |
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| Made it down to the Gorge floor at Southern Rockpool. |
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| Had no trouble convincing Barb and John not to walk down... |
John and Barb walked with him to Pat's Lookout. The views from this
lookout were even more sensational, so they pressed on to Jedda's Rock to see views of the
second gorge. This too was outstanding, but by now, it was nearing midday and
getting very hot. They had brought what
they thought was plenty of water and some muesli bars, had appropriate clothing
and shoes etc, but they were all starting to feel the effects of heat and
dehydration.
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| Stunning views |
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| They mad it to the top... |
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| Amazing views from Jedda's Lookout |
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| Steve up on Jedda's Lookout |
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| Barb made it to Jedda'sLookout |
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| Views from Jedda's Rock |
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| Views from Jedda's Lookout. |
The gorge from Jedda's Rock
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| Amazing gorges |
They also
didn't realise that parts of the path on the way back were graded difficulty
level five! (parts of the Waleka Walk) They
also had a bit of trouble following the marked path, too. The arrows along the
way were hard to spot and they had to do a lot of backtracking to go back to
the last arrow they’d seen and try again. Steve went on ahead as he needed to
get back for the cruise. John and Barb pressed on at a slower pace.
Steve
finally reached a point where he got a phone signal and he phoned me to tell
her he was running late and to travel with Ian and Kathy to the Gorge and meet
him there. He then went back to check on John and Barb. Lucky that he did
because Barb chose just then to take a nasty tumble, losing her footing on
loose rocks. She fell hard onto her left side and almost rolled down an
embankment, but luckily the spinifex grass broke her fall and John was able to
grab her leg to stop her falling further. Steve and John helped Barb to her
feet. She was very shaken and in pain. Luckily, nothing
appeared broken and she could still walk, so just bruising they thought.
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| It was really rough walking |
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| The track was really rough in places and no good on your joints... |
On Barb and
John trudged, getting hotter and tireder and eking out our water. It was
hard going to get back to the next water tank (almost two kilometres
of very rough terrain). Steve went on ahead when he knew we'd been able to
refill our empty water bottles and as soon as he could contact me again and
asked me to call the Rangers to ask for help. Barb and John struggled on for
the next two kilometres to another water tank and by this time, Barb was
crying with the pain and could barely walk. They were both suffering heat
exhaustion too. We found out later its ten degrees warmer on the cliffs!
Thankfully they were still at the water point when Di the Ranger turned up in a
big, high clearance, four wheel drive Land Cruiser. I am sure that Barb had never seen a more
welcome sight, and honestly, Di was that angel in disguise. Two men helped Barb
into the vehicle with John sandwiched into the front bench seat too. Di had brought
lots of cold water, which they greedily drank while she negotiated her way in
low range down the boulder-strewn track. Steve knew that when he walked that
part of the track himself, there was no way Barb was going to be able to do it
in the state she was in. It was another 1.9 kilometres of terrible terrain.
They
were driven back to their car, so John could pick it up and follow
the Ranger and Barb back to the Ranger station where Di competently applied
first aid to Barb's injuries and gave her pain relief. With a bruised and
swollen left knee and left little finger, and pain in several other places (
left shoulder, left elbow and right knee) she advised a visit to the Emergency
Department to be properly checked over. John filled out the accident report for
the Rangers.
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| Barb's badly bruised finger |
Several hours later after x-ray of her hand, fingers buddy-strapped and
pandannus palm splinters removed from her hand Barb was allowed home. What
a day! We were all exhausted. All of us had a restless night. John with cramps
in his legs. Barb with pain and Steve feeling weak and fatigued.
The cruise
however was great. Initially we thought
it sounded a little expensive at $80 a head, but we enjoyed it immensely and it
really is the only way to see the gorges, which are absolutely magnificent. You are kind of in awe as you travel through
them, with their straight sides reaching high into the heavens.
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| Our first croc sighted |
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| Our second croc sighted |
We did see our first crocodiles on this
cruise, three in fact, two sunning themselves
on the sand, and a third on a rock half submerged in water. They were fresh water crocodiles and whilst
they could give you a nasty nip, they are rather docile in comparison to the
larger salt-water crocs found around this area who are more vicious and can
manage to eat cattle, pigs buffalo and even humans if they come in contact with
them. Personally, I wouldn’t like to
come across either of them.
The gorge
tour lasted two hours and we visited two gorges. We learnt that there are actually 16 gorges
in Nitmiluk Gorge, 13 of them accessible, and the
other three can only be seen from the air.
The first gorge we went into was pretty wide and it was where we saw the
most wildlife, crocs, birds, turtles.
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| The fresh water Crocs bury their eggs in this sand |
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| The flow of the water through here in the wet seasons is enough to push these trees that they grow on their sides. |
To
get into the second gorge we had to hop out of our boat and then walk about
half a kilometre around rock faces and over rocks to board our second boat,
which was moored in the second gorge. On
our walk, we had some aboriginal art pointed out to us that had been painted
onto one of the cliff faces.
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| Transferring across to the second boat for the second gorge |
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| Heading up to see the Aboriginal art on the cliff face... |
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| Kapok Flower |
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| Aboriginal art on the cliff face. |
The second gorge was more spectacular in scenery as it was quite a bit narrower but the
gorge walls were much higher and straighter.
This gorge was also about 2 kilometres long. We cruised around Jedda Rock, which was one
of the lookouts that Steve had walked to in his morning walk, and where he took
some very scenic photos of the gorge we were in from the lookout above…
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| Jedda's Rock |
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| Jedda's Rock face on... |
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| sheer cliff faces |
We saw evidence of where and how the water
gushes through this gorge in the wet season, and in a couple of places the
trees were almost growing horizontal to the ground because of the force of the
water as it travels down the gorge.
We also
cruised up close to “Dripping Rock”, which is a place in the gorge where water
constantly feeds down through the limestone from above and drips into the
gorge. This water is very clean and
fresh as it is filtered through the limestone.
It is also a permanent source of fresh water in the gorge….
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| Dripping rock |
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| Dripping rock |
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| Fig roots reaching down into the gorge |
In
another part of the gorge, we saw fig trees growing on the rock faces and
sending their roots down into the water.
Our guide was keen to show us the volume of water that can flow through this gorge in a wet season, and told us that when they have a good wet season, the water flows through and covers both of these caves in the rock face
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| In the wet season, there can be so much water in this gorge that it is above the two holes in the wall |
We also saw
a cave, where swallows nest. Their nests
get flooded out in the wet season but they still return each year to build new
ones.
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| swallows nest in here very year |
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| The floods will wash them out but they return again the following year... |
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| Capturing the beauty of the gorges all around us.. |
The bats
were prolific this year also; we were advised that these are the biggest
colonies they have seen here for years. The
red nose bats are quite small, and really quite active even during the day, and
we managed to get a couple of good photos of them flying overhead..
We got home
from our cruise just after 5pm, and John and Barb were still not home from the
hospital. Kathy and I decided to cook
dinner and have it ready by the time John and Barb returned. I am sure it was much appreciated by them,
but Barb was still not in a good way, so they didn’t stay long after dinner…
We had
planned to head to Edith Falls the following day, but have put that on hold and
will possible do that on our way back to Katherine after we have been to
Darwin. I don’t really think anyone is
up for a long hot walk tomorrow after their ordeal today.
Tomorrow we
part ways with John and Barb for a month.
As we head north, they are heading west to meet up with Barb’s daughter
Jess in Broome. We are really going to
miss these guys, we have spent a wonderful 5 weeks with them exploring the
centre of Australia. Looking forward to
meeting up with them in a months’ time somewhere around Broome and heading down
the west coast with them again.
For us, it
is off to explore Kakadu and the heat of
the north.
When we got back to the campground, Ian, Kathy, Steve, and I booked in to do
the Two Gorge boat cruise the following day. John and Barb had done a Three
Gorge cruise on a previous visit, so decided to this time do a bushwalk to see
the gorges from the cliff-tops instead.
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