Day 109 – Monday 22nd April 2024

Once again, I was awake before the alarm this morning; not by a lot but enough to be noticed. I made use of a shower that can only be described as primitive but did it’s job before heading into breakfast for a full fry up, and very nice it was too!

Today I had the two gorges boat trip arranged for 09:00, so I left the cabin at 08:00, and was at the car park at 08:30. I joined the queue for the trip and waited whilst chatting to some of my fellow passengers. I was speaking to an Aussie couple who had let their house and decided to explore their home nation, leaving in September last year. It made my leaving in January seem very recent, and they are planning to be exploring for 18 months in total.

Originally I had wanted to do the three gorges trip, but that’s not running at the moment as the water levels are still too high following the wet season. They are planning to start on 1^st May, which happens to be the day that I drive from Katherine to Kununurra, but I cannot justify starting the long drive after midday!

We were checked onto the boat and set sail on the Katherine River at 09:00 as planned, and made our way up the first gorge. The scenery was stunning as we entered the gorge as we were given a commentary about the legends about the formation of this place, and also the geology that underlies it.

The rock is a sandstone, but unlike other sandstones this is really hard. It was formed a long time ago, and has no fossils …. mainly because there was little life around at the time to have fallen into the sand as it was deposited.

The first gorge wasn’t that deep, and after a half hour we pulled into a beach and had a 400 metre walk to the next boat above the rapids that were coming down. When we get to the dry season these rapids will have dried up, and the individual bodies of water will be isolated pools.

With the water so high, we were told that the way was open for the saltwater crocodiles to make their way up the river; the saltwater ones are the ones that eat people, as opposed to the freshwater crocodiles which don’t. As the river is still open to the ocean there are no swimming or kayaking activities happening until the river is isolated and the rangers have had the chance to capture any animals that are this far up. The guide said that we wouldn’t see a saltwater crocodile; the only people who see tham are those who have just been attacked by which time it’s too late!

At the far end of the walk was another boat, and a narrower and deeper section of the gorge; this was far more impressive as the walls disappeared vertically to the sky as we sailed beneath them. We were told that in the wet season the level of the river can increase by 7 metres overnight; the increases tend to happen overnight as that’s how long it takes the water that’s fallen as rain further north in the afternoon to reach the canyon.

Another half an hour bought us to the top of this navigable section, so with the water levels as high as they are we couldn’t go any further, so we turned back and made our way back downstream. The ten minute walk back to the original boat for the lower gorge, and we were back at the jetty by just after 11:00.

While we were on the river, we’d had a viewing platform pointed out to us, so while the rest of the passengers headed for the car park, I found the trail upwards and headed for the viewpoint. A quarter of an hour later and the inevitable steps saw me to the viewpoint, and it was definitely worth the effort. The day was hot, so I had some water and captured the views before descending by the same path to the air conditioned relief of the car; the temperature just before midday was 32 degrees.

I nipped into town on the way back for a visit to the supermarket; I’m almost out of ‘Snakes’ which have been keeping me energised on the long drives so needed to replenish the stock, along with some Bundaberg Ginger Beer …. one of my favourite discoveries in Australia!

Then back to the air conditioned comfort of my cabin to escape the afternoon heat and catch up with some jobs that needed doing …. I was running out of storage on the computer again so had to transfer some files to my portable hard drives. I also had to figure out the header for this week’s video, but that was scuppered by the poor internet connection here ….. I went to the bar when it opened to do what I need to!

Apparently the internet had been down here for two days, but nobody had mentioned it before I did; it should be back in order now ..... it's working by the bar anyway, which has it's benefits!

That's about it for today. Tomorrow I have only 160 odd miles to drive, so I should have the opportunity to visit a few places on my way to Litchfield National Park. I'm now hopefully in the part of the country where the waterfalls will be in full flow at the end of the wet season.