Katherine

We farewelled Western Australia and crossed over into the Northern Territory on our way to Katherine, where we found ourselves a great little Farmstay, complete with not just classic farm animals (cows with a 2 week old calf, chickens, bunnies, a giant 260kg pig and 18 cute little piglets), but also saltwater and freshwater crocs, lizards, snakes, buffalos, emus and a gorgeous 4-month-old camel named Toey. In the afternoons, the kids loved wandering the farm with Mickie, the Farmstay owner, feeding and petting the animals, with Toey being the clear favourite.

Despite being quite happy to hang at the campground, we did venture out to Nitmiluk National Park, on Jawoyn land, taking a cruise up Katherine Gorge, with its beautiful sandstone rock walls. We would have loved to canoe further up the gorge, but that wasn’t to be after a 4m saltwater croc had been found in the gorge just two weeks earlier.

We also enjoyed soaking in the warm waters of the natural Katherine Springs, however the highlight of our stay was hiking out to and swimming at Leliyn (Edith Falls), where there was still so much water that we were able to float around and through the rocks in an exciting kind of whirlpool!

On our way our of town, we stopped off for a tour of Cutta Cutta caves, taking in the beautiful glittering rock formations and learning about some of the Jawoyn and European history of the area.Read more