Are We There Yet?: Mataranka - Nitmiluk National Park (Katherine Gorge)

More Hippos in the Water Hole

We were tempted to extend our stay at Mataranka, but we packed up, parked the van and caravan and spent the next hour in the pools as the next best option. There weren't very many people there, so to the kid's delight they were able to jump in off the edge and make hippo noises to their heart's content. The pools were fed by Rainbow Springs which bubbled up out of the ground at an astonishing rate - 30.5 million litres per day. The water then flowed down into the Roper River which was a curious green colour. Any crocs lurking in there would have been hard to spot. We managed to get the kids out of the pools for the hot drive through sparse woodland and termite mounds to Katherine.

More keen on the washing up than any of the kids!

Nitmiluk National Park was our next destination, and was not too far, so we arrived in good time. Fortunately the park was not full and we got set up and booked a canoeing trip for the Katherine Gorge. The park was bone dry and mostly dust, but the pool was fantastic so we quickly headed over for an afternoon of swimming. The pool was surrounded by lush, green grass. The kids took off their shoes and enjoyed the feeling of grass underfoot for the first time in at least a month! (OK, Dave and I did too!) The other highlight of the day was the wildlife - we had wallabies hopping around our camp and the kids hand fed them carrot pieces. They were entranced when one female had a tiny joey which got out of her pouch to hop around. The female was enjoying some free time when the male came over and decided to try to mate. She was not keen and tried to hop away. He grabbed her tail and spent the next 20 minutes hanging on to her tail in a vain attempt to stop her. She was grunting at him as she hopped away (it sounded like "bugger off") and we all thought it was pretty funny! Dave and I were not so entranced when a big male came back into camp during the night and knocked everything over. He was about 10 cms from my head (I was in the tent) and spent about 20 minutes carefully lifting our foam mats to eat anything that had fallen through!

We had just got to sleep when one set of neighbours arrived back and proceeded to open and slam closed their vehicle doors. More than us must have been awoken, as a laconic voice drifted through the camp:

"Jesus, mate, how many bloody doors have you got?"

Our next day at Nitmiluk was spent cleaning, repairing and washing. The pool looked awfully good by the time we took our picnic lunch over! The kids were in the water for so long they all had sore eyes and needed eye drops to be able to blink again! The wallabies entertained us around camp again at dusk, although the male must have got the message as he didn't show up.

We decided to take a trip into Katherine for some essentials on Sunday morning. We left a bit later than anticipated, so it was a horrible surprise when a wallaby walloped into the side of the van. It was being chased by a dog and obviously didn't see us at all. Poor thing died on impact and we now have more to tell the insurance company when the phone has reception!

Edith Falls

We enjoyed the air-conditioning in Katherine so much we nearly didn't continue on to Edith Falls (on the northern edge of Nitmiluk National Park) but boy were we glad we did! The falls emptied into a vast pool which was absolutely magic for swimming. It was 150m across to the falls and we all swam across to check it out. The boys found a 2m rock platform to jump into the water from which kept everyone occupied for hours. Ella graduated from a rock at the water's edge to the high rock during the afternoon. I tried many times, but chickened out at the vital moment, to my disgust. Ella tried to console me. "It's OK Mummy. You still did really well for a mummy."

Dave had a pink floatie to help him!

It was a terribly hot 60kms back to the caravan so we had another swim in the pool. Deciding we needed to carb load for the canoeing the next day, we had dinner at the Bistro. The $15 all you can eat plates were as big as the Northern Territory and even Jackson could not completely empty his. He made several valiant attempts, swimming lengths and playing tag in between!

We finally left the water and went back to try to get some sleep for our big day. Others close by were intent on having a big night and may as well have been in our tent with us for all the protection it afforded from the noise. So it was difficult to get out of bed when the alarm rang the next morning to get organised for the canoeing.

First paddling since NZ

Three double canoes were quickly filled with food, water and us and we left the banks of the Katherine River to paddle upstream through the gorges. Dave paddled with Ella, Lachlan and I were in together and Jackson and Marcus made up the last boat. We had so many waterfights that it is a wonder there are any photos at all, but after a near miss we devised the call "Camera Out" which let us take some photos! We had the most wonderful day paddling up the first three gorges, exploring the rock faces and caves, climbing up into rocks sculpted by the water and swimming. Freshwater crocodiles live in the river but we didn't see any at all, although there are many sandy areas where you can't beach the canoe as they are breeding areas. The rangers trap the salties before declaring the park open for swimming. I'm not sure how they know they have got them all, but it was so hot we enjoyed the swimming anyway. All of us agreed that it was the best day we have had so far.