Katherine Gorge

Early start this morning as we had to check in for our boat trip at 8:30am at the Gorge which is 30 mins from the camp. As we walked down to the boat jetty we were hit with a very unusual smell. Looking up we could see thousands of bats in the trees. They were all settling down to sleep for the day so lots of noise and wing flapping. They are quite abusive to each other as they jostle for hanging room.

Our trip covered the first 3 of the 13 gorges and was for 4 hours including a swim. There were close to 50 people in our group and we were given a bottle of water, muffin, a biscuit and an apple before we left. The tours are run by the local Jawoyn people who own the land and boats. Our skipper provided a running commentary about the people, their history, the gorge as well as the native flora and fauna. He was so knowledgeable and delivered it in a very interesting way.

We cruised up the first gorge and then had to change boats for the second gorge. The walk in between was about 600m with a large number of rock paintings to look at on the way. The second gorge was half the width of the first gorge with the towering cliffs on either side. Again a boat change which was much shorter then into the third gorge. We sat at the front of the boat so had fabulous views.. This gorge was much shorter so only 15 mins to the end. It ended with some seriously large rocks blocking the entrance to the 4th gorge.

We made our way back to the second gorge where we swam for about an hour. So good to be able to cool off in the water in the most amazing landscapes. The air temperature in the gorge was slightly cooler which gave us pleasant respite. We were back at the dock bang on 1pm. As we were arriving our guide told us that if we had visited last week we would have seen way more bats as 75% of them had already moved on.

As it was a public holiday in the NT (Picnic Day) there was nothing open so it was a quiet afternoon at the camp with a late afternoon swim at the spring. Ready to move on tomorrow to Darwin which is only a little over 300km away. Temperature should drop a few degrees and humidity will increase.Read more