Just Cruisin’

A quiet day today. The weather has taken advantage of the fact that we have had three nights in the one place to catch up on us. The cold weather we had down south came roaring through today, preceded by enough of a shower last night to cause us to run around closing things up.

I ran up to the lookout for dawn this morning (don’t get excited, sunrise is about 7:20). Not fantastic, but ok, for a few brief moments. The heavy overcast didn’t help. After a walk to the swimming area in the river and chasing a few birds, by the time I got back, Louis had emerged and had cooked me some breakfast. It would be a year or more since someone cooked me breakfast. Yay!

After a bit if time catching up on some camp chores, it was down to the visitor centre for a comprehensive look. Some detailed information on the geological history, the dreaming stories, animals and birds, the pastoral meeting of black and white cultures and the culmination of the Jarwoyn land rights campaign which resulted in the current management arrangement for Nitmiluk National Park. All of this before back for an early lunch to prepare for our three-gorge tour this afternoon.

Katherine Gorge is a series of around 13 gorges separated by rapids in the dry season. In the wet the entire system is a raging torrent, and during heavy floods can be 15m higher than the dry season flow. Our tour was to the first three gorges, and at the two intervening rapids we got out and walked to a similar boat waiting in the next gorge. Each gorge is carved into a fracture line in the rock, which, when viewed from above, forms a criss-cross pattern resembling a bar of chocolate, and this results in a the gorges undergoing a series of right-angle bends. Our tour guide suggested that google earth is a much better way of viewing this pattern than spending the enormous amount of money wanted by the joyflight operators!

The extra money we spent on the longer tour bought us an extra gorge (but 3 was much less spectacular than 2), an afternoon tea of a muesli bar, apple and a LeSnak, and an opportunity for a swim. Since the weather had turned cold, inviting as the river was, the thought of warming up again didn’t appeal, so my feet enjoyed it alone. Izzy and Elliot got wet, but perhaps Louis is showing some maturity by declining. No good view of any crocs, but one was pointed out to us, but I couldn’t tell which was the croc and which was the stick. Apparently they are usually sunning themselves on the bank, but even they decided it was too cold I think.