Katherine / Nitmiluk Gorge

Why do they keep changing the names of these places? Katherine Gorge is now called Nitmiluk Gorge…. Anyway, it’s hot up here! So far this trip my showers have been to help warm me up (as well as getting clean!), but not so here at Katherine Gorge! The aim of my shower this evening was to cool down!

We arrived Wed evening and caught up with Aunty Kathy as mentioned here. Great to catch up again! The plan was to do a walk Thurs (7/8), and I gave the others two options – a 12km return walk to Butterfly Gorge, or a 19.8km return walk to Lily Ponds. Being the softies they are they chose the shorter one to Butterfly Gorge. Early on in the trail we came across this sign…. I thought it was still winter!!!

Yikes!!!

Yikes!!!

We made good progress over to the Katherine River/Gorge, and had a lovely time there. The area at the end of the walk (ie. the gorge) was very small, almost just a shelf to stand on, so we ended up leaving our stuff there and going for a swim around the gorge. We went probably 500m or so downstream, part walking part swimming. The water was lovely – cool enough to be refreshing, but not freezing and not hot – just right! No photos as no waterproof camera to swim with! The boys did well swimming across the deep water sections. We spent some time there, keeping off the sand banks with ‘do not enter, crocodile nesting area’ signs (!!), went back to the packs and had some lunch, and then headed back along the path.

 the gorge!

the gorge!


walking there...

walking there…

some butterfly's, but not many!

some butterfly’s, but not many!

heading back

Whilst there we observed quite a number of cruise boats going up and down the river, also a number of canoes/kayaks. Some cruise boats were packed full, others were almost empty, but the one constant was that most people on them didn’t look particularly excited – in fact most looked rather bored!!

That reinforced our decision to see the rest of the gorge by canoe rather than cruise! We’d get longer out on the water, go where we want to go and get close to what we want to see, stop and go for a swim when you felt like it, and get some exercise! Only problem is that we were told the previous evening the canoes are all booked for several days ahead… so we were thinking of coming back after visiting Darwin/Kakadu.

The walk back to camp was harder – much hotter now in the arvo. The boys were complaining pretty heavily by the end, but they made it! It was a big day out for them and Nicole. This is the view from the lookout, closer in to camp.

I dropped by the canoe hire stand, and asked about canoe hire for the next day. Now this lady could actually think laterally, and though the ‘day canoes’ were all booked, she recognised that the ‘overnight canoes’ (2 days), for which there were no bookings tomorrow, were identical and could actually be used during the day! She was great – she had to make a few calls and push for it (both for us and for the fact that the canoes wouldn’t be sitting idle earning nothing), but in the end she got us a couple of canoes that we could use all day Friday! Yay!!

Friday (8/8) we had a lovely day out in the gorges, in the canoes. Aunty Kathy got to wave us off, as she was waiting to catch the boat across to start her 5 day walk to Edith Falls. It was pretty tiring work paddling upstream, not because of a current (there is none!), but a very brisk headwind! Took us over an hour to complete the first gorge (the longest), where we left the canoe and walked 100m around to the next gorge where another pile of canoes await. The second gorge is quite beautiful – it has the tallest straightest walls, with several 90 degree bends in the river! The third gorge was quite pretty, and the shortest. Full day canoe hirers are allowed to go as far as the 4th gorge (half day only the first gorge!), but between the 3rd and 4th it is around a km of carting the canoe over rocks and small ponds! We skipped that idea, as it was hard enough dragging them 10m between the 2nd and 3rd!

We had lunch up at the end of the 3rd gorge, and then slowly made our way back – with the wind helping us this time! We had time to pull over and go for swims in several different places – at least once in each of the gorges! As per yesterday, beautiful and refreshing swims

canoe changeover...

canoe changeover…

Under a cave/ledge!

 lunch time!

lunch time!

from 3rd to 4th….

Watch your head Daniel, though you are in the steering position….

We all agree we had a lovely day out on the water, but it was also another big day. Everyone is feeling a little worn out from all the exercise, but in a good way!!

We didn’t stay Friday night, but moved on to Edith falls. Katherine Gorge isn’t the cheapest place to be a tourist. Unpowered camping sites were $48 for us, and it was $96 per double canoe per day (ie. $192 for us for the day)! Don’t get too excited if you have your own – they then slug you with a $50/day watercraft fee…!!! I don’t even remember the cruise fees – as you can imagine they were over the top.

If you look at just one section/view of Katherine gorge, it is not quite as impressive – as big, tall, brightly coloured – as some of the other places we have visited (eg. Kings Canyon). But what makes it great is the water – being able to go up it by watercraft – and the length of it – cutting its way through the landscape. I’m sure being able to view the gorge itself at sunset would really show up its colours too, but that is difficult given the time it takes to get to the nicest areas (by foot or canoe). A helicopter would help in that!!!

We had a great family time together, and are so glad we got those canoes for the day!!!

One thought on “Katherine / Nitmiluk Gorge

  1. Katherine Gorge is one of our favourite places. When Wesley was seven we went on a camping trip with National Parks we all did the boat trip as far as we could then spent the day walking further into the gorge. We also did a helicopter trip from the Ghan a couple of years ago which was quite exciting for we oldies. Feel like we are with you some days. What a wonderful trip you are having. Love GM

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