A bit of excitement to start the day when our 8:15 pickup to join the Ghan showed up at 7:50am, still thanks to the Orgainised One we were all packed and ready to roll. The station is a fair way out of town and the bus first dropped us at the engine for some photo opportunities then back on the bus to transport us down to our carriage.
Around 10am we pulled out and shortly after finishing a rather nice lunch we pulled into Katherine for our trip to see the famous gorges. Katherine is a few degrees hotter than Darwin and the weather was rather oppressive.
We arrived at Nitmiluk National Park and boarded a large punt-like craft for our trip down the first gorge. At the end of this we walked some 450 metres across a large rock bar to pick up another punt and explored the second gorge.
On the cliffs overlooking the rock bar were some amazing ancient rock paintings. The views in both of the gorges were spectacular and I can highly recommend a visit here. We were fortunate to have a very knowledgeable guide.
We noticed on the way in signs saying the gorges were currently closed to swimming and canoeing. Apparently during the wet season the floodwaters cover the rock bars separating the various gorges and salt water crocodiles can move up and take residence in the gorges. At the start of the dry seasons, the authorities conduct a six week survey period (they were currently in week four) where they apply various techniques including traps to see if any salties have taken up residence. If they have not found any trace after six weeks, they open the gorges to swimming etc. Our guide told us that then, after at least 200 tourists have gone swiming, the locals start using it.
We headed back to the train to cool off, have a beautiful dinner and start heading down the track to Alice.
Hardys’ Travels 