Katherine Gorge

After Alice Springs, we all boarded the Ghan again. The next day, we had another stop, this time at the picturesque Katherine Gorge. 

Katherine Gorge is actually a series of gorges, which are located a couple of hours journey by road from the railway line. It must look spectacular from the air. In fact, many of the passengers elected to pay the extra to fly over the gorge rather than cruise along it, as we did. 

Nevertheless, the cruise was very worthwhile. I chose to cruise in three of the gorges; some chose to just cruise around the first gorge. To go to the second gorge you had to climb over rocky ground between the two gorges in the heat, and board a second boat. But the views were well worth the effort. And that was far less effort than the people who were hiking along the clifftops and those rowing canoes through the gorges were making. 

My photos can barely do justice to the rich colours of the very old rocks, the height of the cliffs, and the green vegetation. The stark contrast between light and shade at that time of day made it more difficult to capture some of the sights, but they were fascinating to see. Along the way there were sandy shores with signs warning you not to climb up them, because some were used by crocodiles to lay and bury their eggs. These were mostly freshwater crocodiles, which do not grow as large as saltwater crocodiles and are not as deadly.  That is not to say a saltwater crocodile could never be found there, because floods in the Wet Season can open up new accessible routes to them. In the third gorge, we saw people swimming in the lagoon. The Aboriginal man who was manning our boat, and had a great sense of humour, said “You know what we call those people?” . . . “Meat!” . . . 

That trip was my first sighting of crocodiles on my journey. Crocodiles are now a protected species in Australia, on the grounds they make an essential contribution to the river ecosystems, so there are thousands of them up north, not only in river systems but also in bays. Aboriginal people, however, are allowed to kill a limited number for their food. And some eggs can be harvested for the crocodile farm in Darwin - at great risk I would add. 

After we returned to the jetty at the first gorge, we went to a cafe for an afternoon tea. This whole park is owned and managed by Aboriginal people. The cafe had interesting architecture, rather like a boomerang if I recall correctly. There we had little dainty nibbles such as sausage rolls for us to try meat from emus and crocodiles. They were really tasty! If you did not know where the meat came from, you would have thought it was chicken or pork. 

Anyhow, I can highly recommend a trip to Katherine Gorge. On one trip I did there, we had a magnificent dinner on a boat at sunset.  It was a wonderful experience! I will talk more about that on a later occasion. 

On board our boat.

In the first gorge.

These were very old rocks. 

You can just make out the sandy parts of the shore where crocodiles could lay their eggs. 

Moving to the second gorge.

Along the walk to the second gorge. There were some great reflections in the water.

If I recall correctly, I took this photo in the third gorge where we saw people swimming. 

In the cafe.