From Kakadu we headed on to an old gold mining town called Pine Creek where we found a lovely cafe called Mayses Cafe & had one of the biggest & best steak sandwiches ever. Next, on to Edith Falls which is in the top part of Nitmiluk National Park where we set up camp for the night. Normally you can swim at the base of the falls where there's a really big pool which runs into the river but they're still getting over the floods from the wet season so that section was still closed.
We walked up to the top of the falls where there's quite a large area to swim in & a really good view down the river. After a dip we did the round trip to the other side of the falls where there's a stunning view then back down to the other side to the river. That walk was very worthwhile!
We headed into Katherine the next morning & set up camp for a few days at Springvale Homestead where we'd stayed on our way up. They have a little restaurant here so Phill thought it would be nice to have a night off cooking & go out to dinner. I had the most beautiful lamb rack with red wine jus & vegies; yum. We went home & to bed after that & about 4am the next morning I woke up suddenly & said to Phill that I felt sick. Well, put it this way; the next 10 hours or so weren't very nice. Put a bit of a damper on that lamb rack it did.
By that afternoon I felt well enough to go to the Katherine Hot Springs (which aren't really hot; just warmish). They're not in their natural state; they've made them into a sort of swimming pool with steps & rails but they're very nice. We'd been booked in for the Katherine Gorge cruise that day but had to postpone. We had originally thought about canoeing up it but they're still waiting for the water to go down another couple of metres before they're letting anyone canoe or swim in it. Besides, we're not very good at canoeing; we'd probably never have got anywhere!
We had to grab a few groceries this avo so in to town we went. The shopping centre consists of Target Country, a chemist, a bakery, a newsagent, a cafe & Woolies. I started to get hungry & felt pretty weak after being sick so I bought a custard tart then looked around to find somewhere to sit down. There was nowhere! They have 'No Loitering' signs everywhere. They don't have even one seat in the centre; they really don't want anyone staying. Get your shopping & get out of here is what they're saying! (Of course, it's because a lot of the 'locals' have nothing to do all day so just hang around). After we finished the shopping we headed for the car & next thing a woman & little girl (indigenous) came running up to us & the woman asked if the girl could have our trolley. I had trouble understanding her so I said 'pardon?'. She said "Yes, I understand you. Can she have your trolley?" so I said yes, I guess so. Then Phill pipes up that he'd had to pay $2 for it! Well, these guys had a scheme going. I gave them mine as I didn't think it worth arguing over $2 & next thing they go to the woman in the next car & get hers! They were making a mint on shopping trolleys! I thought it was so funny; I couldn't help but laugh!
We finally got to do our lovely Katherine Gorge cruise today & it was definitely worthwhile. The Katherine River winds it's way through 13 gorges for about 12 kilometres from the tablelands down to Katherine. We cruised up the first gorge which was lovely thengot off that boat, walked about 900 metres then got on another boat in the second gorge.
That was probably the nicest one we saw; the walls of the gorge getting up to about 70 metres high with such beautiful colours & contours lining each wall. The commentary our driver/guide gave along the way was really informative & interesting too. He knew a lot about the history & the plant & animal life in the gorge. When we came to the end of that gorge we walked up to the 3rd gorge & changed boats once again.
After a lovely cruise down the river we turned around & on the way back we pulled into the bank about half way along & jumped off the boat & went for a walk. We were very impressed with the lovely plunge pool we came across at the bottom of a waterfall. It was totally hidden from view, you would never know it was there when you're making your way down the river. Just beautiful.
Well, we've basically finished our tour of the top end of N.T. We've seen all we're gonna see & it's time to move on. We've phoned ahead to see what the roads are like along the Savannah Way as we'd like to go across to Lawn Hill National Park via Borroloola to Bourketown but we've been told they've had too much rain & it's impassable. So, it seems we have to head through Cloncurry once again. Lawn Hill is closed at the moment but as long as there's no more rain we should be right by the time we get there. As usual, we'll just take it one day at a time.
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