Katherine@Katherine Gorge

We had a lovely day exploring Katherine Gorge from the water yesterday. We joined a Nitmiluk tour on the Katherine river which took us to see 4 of the 9 gorges in the park. The rocky cliffs were certainly impressive and it was hard to imagine it 3/4 full in the wet season. Apparently in the wet there is enough water flowing down to river to fill Sydney harbour every 9 minutes.

At the end of the first gorge we saw some Aboriginal rock art which had been carbon dated to 13000 years old and we found the rainbow serpent painted among them- can you spot it in the photo? The kids were very excited to hear and recognise the Aboriginal legend told by our guide as we brought the rainbow serpent story book with us.

The boat took us through the first gorge and then we walked 900m through to the second gorge and similarly through to the third gorge.
At the end of the 3rd gorge we got out of the boat and climbed some large and very hot rocks to look into the fourth gorge. Spectacular!! The rocks had perfectly round holes worn in them and they were about a metre deep- another photo opportunity.

We retraced out steps to the first gorge where we stopped for almost an hour to swim and eat. The water was a beautiful temperature. You will see from the photo that Abigail has gained so much confidence in her swimming this holiday that she swam without a noodle (and it was deep).
Today we don't plan to do much, maybe a short walk, but it feels too hot for much other than swimming and drinking lots of water.