Katherine Gorge

Thursday, a freezing cold dawn at the Shadylane Van Park in Katherine. First thing, we upped stakes, drove 25km, and got one the the first powered sites (one of the dusty, non-allocated variety) available for the morning in the Nitmiluk National Park. We reckon we got the best one. These are apparently all gone by about lunchtime. Immediately, we noticed the prolific birdlife here - it's so noisy, it's going to be bedlam in the morning.

We rented a double canoe for a four hour afternoon session, to paddle Katherine Gorge up to the 1st rapids. They strictly limit the number of canoes on the river, and we were just early enough to get the booking. The paddle of the 1st gorge is 3.6km upstream, and then back again. It was hard work! Not because of the flow, which was very slight, but because of the light wind and our poor canoeing style. The canoes had no keel and no rudder, and it was impossible to maintain course, either upstream or downstream. But the gorge was, well, gorgeous, with a mixture of cliff faces and sandy banks running into the water. The sandy banks were almost all marked "no entry, crocodile breeding area". We didn't see any crocs today. We had a swim at the rapids.

There were lots of other people canoeing on the river, some were doing more adventurous trips where they ported their canoes up the rapids and did the next gorge. There appear to be many gorges accessible this way, 13 in total. Some people had backpacks, and were doing overnight canoeing trips. The canoeists competete with the cruises for the river. Paddlers are cautioned to avoid the cruise boats, "they are big and have no brakes".

We are unused to canoeing (Tracy please note!) and are exhausted after the effort, Mike's arms are sore and so are Clare's wrists and hands. We hoped to save energy by eating at the very nice cafe here, but it's menu wasn't up to our exacting standards, so we are back at the truck, eating our own tucker.

It will possibly be another cold night tonight although now, at 8pm, it seems much milder than last night, but it is still clear skied with a full moon. Yes Ben, we are sleeping in the thermals again. Tomorrow we will be up early, to go on a 3 gorges cruise at 9am, should be great, and someone else will be paddling! Kathryn Gorge is a beautiful place, quite crowded, but the natural beauty is stunning, and it is only 3 and a half hours from Darwin.