TWENTYEIGHTH DAY – THURSDAY 5TH AUGUST
After having porridge for breakfast we left Edith Falls at 8.05 am. When we arrived in Katherine we had a few things to do. While Graeme went and did some shopping for supplies I got onto the internet and transferred my diary into my blog. I also sent messages to the kids while I had reception and a couple of friends. We filled the tanks with water and filled one of the gas bottles which by the way has lasted us over two weeks on one bottle – we do have two though. Once we had finished doing everything we needed to do off we went to Katherine Gorge or should I say Nitmiluk. When we arrived at Nitmiluk we went to the info centre and booked our camp site and also a couple of tours then went and picked our unpowered campsite out – set up camp and then had some quick lunch before getting on our bikes for a ride to our first tour – a helicopter ride over the thirteen gorges. This was Graeme’s birthday present from me. I was a bit nervous as some of you know I’m not real good with heights! However, once we had flown up in the air – I was holding onto the seat pretty tightly at first, I became more relaxed and was able to enjoy the ride. I was sitting in the front seat as I had the camera and I clicked away as much as I could as you go pretty fast. Everything looked so small from up there. You could see the tourist boats and the kayaks on the river – they looked like little ants. Apparently we were about 1,000 feet up in the air according to Graeme who was actually listening to the pilot as he made regular calls back to base as to where we were. We also saw wild buffalo and the pilot said he could see a crocodile on a sandbank but we couldn’t see it – he must have telescopic eyes or something to see that! Before we knew it we were back on the ground after about a 20 min flight. We jumped on our bikes and rode back to camp. We had another snack before heading down to our next tour of a ride down the river through two gorges on a boat. This was a lovely relaxing way to spend the rest of the afternoon. It was also great to see it from a different perspective. We saw it from way up high which made it look really small and now we were down inside the gorge it was actually pretty big. The boat meandered along while the skipper told us about various aspects of the gorge. He also told us about some of the plants growing there and what the indigenous people used them for – very interesting. One plant they use to make the fish in a waterhole go to sleep and they float to the surface, then grab how many fish they need then get the kids to splash the water around to put back oxygen in the water and the rest of the sleeping fish all come to and go back to swimming around in the pond – now that’s my kind of fishing! We had to get out of the boat at the end of the first gorge and walk about 400 m to the next gorge as there are natural rock spots in between each gorge. We viewed some rock art which has been there for hundreds of years painted by the Jawoyn people. The second gorge was prettier than the first and it had taller rock faces and closer together. Along the way we saw several fresh water crocodiles just lazing around in the sun on the backs. The cruise took two hours and we were back at camp by 4.30 pm. We then relaxed and sat around discussing the day and also what we’ll be doing for the next couple of days. We then made dinner of lamb chops and salad. In the middle of the camping ground is a pool and we could hear music playing so we went to investigate. We discovered there was a two person band playing some of the good old classics and there was also a very nice licensed bistro. They had lots of food on offer but we had just eaten so I bought a pine-lime splice and Graeme had a bundy & coke. We sat by the very lovely looking billabong pool and listened to the music and also watching a very cleaver blue winged kookaburra swooping down on the bugs that were attracted to the big flood lights. He was having a great time and he was fun to watch. After finishing off our yummies we headed back to the van to relax after a pretty nice hot cloudless day.