Katherine Gorge

The most iconic "landmark" in Katherine would have to be the infamous Katherine Gorge. This is a place I have always thought about visiting and I have always been absolutely blown away by the images of it. We decided that we must do a cruise along the Katherine Gorge while there so we booked in for a "two gorge cultural tour". The tour was on a fantastic big boat full of plastic chairs. The boat was guided by two wonderfully informative aboriginal men (whom also had us all in stiches of laughter with their stories and jokes).

We got in the boat and began our trip through the gorge, the sight was absolutely amazing. The walls of the gorge went up so high and there was alot og wildlife. We seen little freshwater crocs hanging out lazily on tree branches on the side of the river. At the end of the first gorge we got out of the boat and walked up to an enormous rock wall which had aboriginal artwork painted on them in red adn white ochre. The artwork was believed to have been there for over ten thousand years and there were a variety of stories about how it got there and what it signified.

We then got on the second boat and continued on through the second, and twice as spectacular, gorge. We learnt alot about the local tribe the "Jaowyn" people and their history and culture. We noticed that all throughout the gorge there are small sandy banks with signs on them saying "Do not walk on this bank" (or somthing similar) we were informed that all of these sandy banks are crocodile nesting ares and if you walk on them you wont nessecerily be attached by a freshwater crocodile (you would by a salty) but you will break/damage their eggs and possibly debilitate their breeding process. We also learnt that one of the banks was the spot where the Australian "crocodile movie" Rogue was filmed.

The gorge was breathtakingly beautiful and exceeded our expectations. The walk down to the gorge was beautiful and Zac had alot of fun pointing out the fruit bats in the trees along the way.

Whilst at Katherine we met up with some friends we made at Mataranka springs, Barbara and Matt and their little girl Yohana . We had a wonderful evening with them drinking beer and rum, eating nibblies and watching the kids play. It was fantastic. The next day Brent helped Matt do a service on his car and in return Barbara cooked us the most delicious dinner. I dont usually eat fish at all but I ate it all up that night and absolutely thoroughly enjoyed it, aswell as the beautiful salad she made. I definately cant wait to start experimenting with cooking fish now that I know I like it again. We ended up spending alot of time with Barbara, Matt and Yohana and discovered that they are wonderful, relaxed and alot of fun. It was great to make some friends along the way and it was great to all go to Cutta Cutta caves together, just South of Katherine, for a day trip.

Crocodile breeding sand patch in the Katherine Gorge

Katherine Gorge

Katherine Gorge

Brent in the pool with ac and Johana