We had expected to have an early start for our day as we had booked a 7am Breakfast Cruise on Nitmiluk Gorge (aka Katherine Gorge). We didn’t take into consideration a little night time disturbance at the caravan park.
Around 10:45 last night we could hear some rumblings outside in front of our van. Then someone started exclaiming that they were being flooded. Now, this got Deb’s attention. 😛 A quick look outside and it became clear that a tap adjacent to a van over the road from us was broken and there was a healthy stream of water flowing down the road between us. This continued for about ½ an hour and then things calmed down. I figured they must have got a plumber out, as the pipe was sealed off in the morning when we got up.
We left for Nitmiluk at 6am, travellers in hand for the 30 to 45min drive out to the gorge. We were warned that the police liked the road out to the gorge as it had about 5 different speed limits on it. So I took it easy and stuck to the limit all the way, frustrating at times and we never saw a cop anywhere!! We still arrived in about 30 minutes.
There were about 30 people on the cruise and we set off right on time at 7am. (Did you see that – bats??? – More on that later). 😛 We were the first cruise out for the day and the waters of the gorge were very still considering that the water flows down the gorge at a good rate.
The sun had risen at about 6:30, and by the time we got going it was just starting to shine on the walls within the gorge. The light was amazing and we got a few great photos. Breakfast was scrambled eggs, sausage, bacon, mushrooms, tomato and wedges, with tea, coffee and juice, followed by English Muffins and croissants with butter and jam. No, we didn’t eat it all, but we gave it a good nudge. 🙂
The cruise took in both the lower gorges ( the other 11 can be done by canoe, or there are cruises that do the lower 3 gorges. The scenery is amazing, particularly in the early morning light as all the colours of the sheer cliff faces light up and change with the different angles of the sun. At one point we saw the moon setting over the top of one of the cliff tops, it was very special.
At the halfway point, between gorges, you have to get out and walk about 600m to the next gorge and boat. On the way you pass some old aboriginal rock art on the walls of the gorge. Apparently the works are so old that the colours have been absorbed into the rock and then over time, the weather and water and silicone in the rock have sealed the images into the rock. That is why, apparently, we can still see the images today.
At the very end of the cruise we saw some wildlife. We saw three freshwater crocodiles (we had seen the trails of them and where they had laid eggs further up the gorge a bit earlier), a sea eagle and hundreds (if not 1000’s) of bats. The bats were roosting in the trees above the gathering point for the cruise. We did see them or hear them when we arrived, who knows how we missed them!!! They are very noisy!!
On the way back we tried to call in and have a look at the “Jurassic Cycad Garden”, but it was closed and we couldn’t see when it would open.
We made lunch and went down to the Low Level Crossing Nature Reserve on the Katherine River to have it. We parked alongside the river and walked down to the banks and sat on the horizontal branch of a paperbark tree to have our lunch. It was so peaceful watching the water flow by, only interrupted by the presence of hundreds of bats in the trees across the river. After lunch we walked downstream a bit then upstream to the Low Level Bridge. Deb did a bit of practicing with her camera while we looked around, and got a few good pics while doing so. 🙂
On the way back to the caravan park we drove down to the Springvale Homestead for a bit of a look and a look at the rail line (the Ghan Line) over the river.
Today was classified as a “Catastrophic Fire Danger ” day, and so all afternoon there has been a steady stream of caravans into the caravan park. We think it might be a whole lot of people who were out free camping coming in to safer areas.
The whole time we have been in the NT we have noticed that they have been doing a lot of back-burning for fire hazard reduction around all the main road ways. It has been a late dry season this year so they have had a chance to get more back-burning done than normal. It has created a very hazy look to the skies, but at the same time has helped to accentuate the brilliant red orange sunsets we have seen.
Maybe tomorrow we will go to the Katherine Hot Springs for a laze in the crystal clear pools of 32 C waters and maybe have a bit of a poke around in town.
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