The next day we all awoke suddenly to the thought that
we had forgotten something… “Bugger,” I cursed under my breath “we didn’t pick
up the pies!”. But, despite earnest pleas to all make the 200km round trip, I
stood my ground against two very persistent boys. Damn my resolute resilience….
Damn!
“No, boys” I said firmly, in my best impression of
someone who didn’t agree with them (well, not entirely, that is…); “get up and
have some breakfast”. But to make up for it, I told them glancing at our itinerary,
“today we’re going on a cruise”
Well, perhaps ‘cruise’ might have been a stretch, but the
boys fell for it hook, line and sinker. To my mind, the word cruise conjures up
images of large vessels, cocktails at sunset, meals at whatever time of day you
might have whimsy to eat at. But, no… this was a boat! A flat-bottomed boat.
Albeit, a boat piloted by one of the most skilful maritime chaps (does the word
‘maritime’ still count for vessels on freshwater too?) to take the helm of a water
going craft that I’ve ever met. And, with only a handful of people on board
(thank you ‘off peak season’), we were soon away.
Katherine Gorge is a truly spectacular part of the world,
which everyone should visit as soon as possible… Seriously, if you’re currently
breathing and have not seen Katherine Gorge, you’re wasting valuable time! Who
knows, you might be struck blind at any moment, and where would you be then?! “Sure.”
you might scoff, “I’m happy with the awesomeness I’ve already seen…” But,
listen up and let me tell you why you are wrong!
Arriving nice an early for our 9:00 boat ride up three of
many gorges that Katherine has to offer, we stood amongst a gaggle of other
sight seers; each of us vying for shade under a few sparse trees (oh, yes, 8:30
and it was already HOT!)
However, the wait wasn’t at all unpleasant. While we
stood there in the ever warming sun, we were entertained no end by the throngs
of thousands upon thousands of fruit bats, which were roosting in the very
trees we were cowering under away from the hot sun. These were amazing
creatures; all adhering to a hierarchy of who got the best patch of a tree limb
(whatever that means to a bat). There were constant squabbles amongst these
winged denizens of the night. There were baby bats holding on for dear life to
their mothers. There were sleeping bats, squawking bats, chittering bats, and
flying bats. But most of all, at least to our untrained eyes, there was such a
litany of bats dangling mere feet from our heads. And everywhere you looked
they were doing something captivating.
Soon enough though, we were called forth to embark upon
one of the most breath-taking and humbling boat rides of a life time. Heading down
the small jetty, were we ushered on board a broad vessel (unsinkable according
to the captain / guide – but we all know what happened last time a captain took
that attitude… thankfully there were few ice bergs in this heat, but we scanned
the horizon just to be sure!). Up the gangway we were greeted by rows of seats.
The boys naturally wanted to sit right up front – so, as I was keen to take in
as much as possible, I happily followed along (uttering half-hearted apologies
to anyone who got in their way) as they pushed right to the bow of the craft and
plonked themselves down. And so, seated in pole position, we were off.
At this point, for those that have been following along,
I would typically embark upon a long-winded tale of our journey. But, luckily
for anyone actually reading this, the photos speak for themselves. So, allow me
to present a visual account of our boat trip…
…but first, a quick run-down of how the trip went down. Over
the course of the morning, we visited three sections of this gorge. Each ended
with a tight bottle neck of rapidly churning water. Given that our bat was
built more for leisurely sight-seeing, rather than plowing our way through
uncharted aquatic territory, the boat used for each leg of the trip couldn’t
make it over these rolling and boiling waters. So our chipper skipper gracefully
pulled the craft into a safe harbour at the end of each gorge and we walked a
short length of river side path to the next (increasingly smaller) boat. Halfway
down the third and final gorge, the boat was rammed ashore on a sandy beach and
we disembarked to a hike up a steep hill, where we were led to a hidden valley
amongst the cliffs and thick scrub. Having arrived at our destination, we were
treated to an enormous waterfall; cascading down into a churning lake 100
meters below. The lake, albeit coloured in somewhat drab tarnished-bronze tones,
was cool and refreshing; so anyone willing to brave the frigid waters was able
to take a dip. We spent at least an hour in the cool embrace of the waterfall
fed lake – glad to be out of the sweltering heat of the sun. Fish darted about
between our legs as we quenched our hot bodies in the icy water, and we even took
an impromptu shower under the cascading falls. Having been stung by the hail of
water pelting down from above, we climbed rocks, jumped off ledges and lay on
our backs in the middle of the lake gazing up towards the bright orange cliffs
and cobalt skies – watching the white fluffy clouds pass serenely above us.
All too soon, dripping wet and thoroughly satisfied, it
was time to head back to the boat. In the heat of the day we were pretty-well
dry by the time we clambered aboard and started our return journey home. Stopping
along the way, we traipsed up another embankment to view some rock art that had
been lying untouched for 1000’s of years. We plaintively tried spotting crocs at
the edge of the water line, without success (don’t worry – there are plenty of
croc stories to come!), and eventually docked back at the starting point of our
trip.
But that’s where I’ll stop typing up and let you have a glimpse
of the sights we were able to gawp at along the way.
Disembarking from the boat and heading towards the information
centre, we suddenly came back in range of telecommunications and around us phones
started bleeping like at chorus of polyphonic crickets. One of the bleeps also
came from my own phone. It was Nat informing me that she had arrived in
Katherine and had made her way to the town centre where she was in the local supermarket
picking up groceries for the next part of our trip.
We headed back to the car and arranged to meet up with Nat
thirty minutes later in the supermarket carpark. When we arrived, she was waiting
out front – trolley brimming with goodies to see up through our trip to Hot
Douglas Springs and Litchfield National Park.
Reunited as a family once again, we took Nat back to our sweltering
piece of paradise under the palm trees of Shady Lane caravan park. We then watched
her wince every now and then as her body was forced to rapidly acclimatise to
the extremes of coming from a Melbourne winter to the tropical heat of the
north. Oh, and the bugs were a surprise as well!
Bye ‘d bye,
Gregg
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