Katherine Gorge Trekking

Today was one of the days where we didn’t do any driving. We didn’t even turn the car engine on at all. Instead we walked the whole way. We went on a long walk which was nearly too long even though it won’t be the longest or the last of these walks. We went on nearly the shortest walk possible but even that was really long. The longest walks on that half were 2-3 days long but we definitely won’t be doing walks that long this trip.

First we went about halfway round a circuit which everyone had to to get to the rest of the walks. That was probably the hardest kind of track even though the rest of them were longer. The reason for this was because all the other tracks were at the top of the gorge only going up and down a little bit. The circuit was either literally diagonally up or down. We turned onto a separate track for the other half of the walk. The first place that we came to along that track was Pat’s lookout. It was basically just an out crop on top of the gorge as it had no safety barriers, but it was still really pretty as it looked out onto the area of the gorge that we spent our day in.

We then walked back to the turnoff and then down to the Southern Waterhole. It was a steep incline across a lot of rocks and such obstacles. We didn’t spend too much time there as it was the Dry  Season and there wasn’t very much water in the waterhole at the time so it wasn’t that pretty. We found out also on our walk that the Northern Territory Doesn’t have Four Seasons like the rest of the civilized world. It is sort of like the Poles but opposite. Instead of the seasons they have the Wet,when it buckets down and the Dry when it doesn’t at all. It’s also hot the whole time.

We walked on to the river which was past where we were meant to go but it was pretty and so that’s where we had our lunch, by the side of the river we had been following a lot higher up.

Because we had been so low where we had lunch and so high all the rest of the time it was exhausting work getting to the top of the gorge again. By the time we got back we were so tired we had to stop again. We got back to the main junction after a while- I swear I fell asleep on my feet a few times during that- and this time we went the other way. Elliot insisted it was way too long-it was longer- and threw a tantrum.

Izzy.

Statistics. Somewhat less than 10km. Fuel economy – 2 chicken breasts, three carrots, an onion, four tomatoes, a small amount of lettuce, cheese, 5 tortillas, noodles, a tin of fruit salad, some custard, some fruit cake, a tin of tuna, one loaf of bread, two tangellos, two mandarins, a loaf of bread and sundry toppings, cereal and milk. I think it is cheaper feeding the car!

We are camped next to two friendly groups tonight. One is headed to W.A. tomorrow and had to offload some firewood, so we accepted their kind offer and cooked some roast chicken pieces with vegies ready for tomorrow. I think I heard him say that he was told by his wife to not be home for three months, so I think he is off travelling with his brother. Apparently the West Australians are so paranoid of cane toad infiltration that just about anything that may have been anywhere near something living is confiscated at the border. The other group kindly donated us a beer and a near three year old to play with to give us our Loch-equivalent fix. There is also a cross-pacific couple – she from Maryland, Baltimore and Boston, and he from Sydney, so we kind of got a Graf fix as well.

Tomorrow we are booked into a Gorge cruise half day from 1pm. Ridiculously expensive, but in the scheme of things, little more than hiring canoes for a half day, and we get to see three of the gorges rather than one. And after the exertion of today, gives us a break.