Katherine Gorge

After spending 5 days at Kakadu we thought that this was the highlight of our trip this year but as we turned south we stopped at Katherine for a few days and did a cruise on the Katherine River visiting the amazing Katherine Gorge in the Nitmiluk National Park.

The yellow spec is a canoer

There are several options for viewing this magnificent natural formation including helicopter flights, 5 day walking trails, boat cruises or paddle your own canoe – we took the boat option.

 

 The river had carved its way through the plateau over millions of years taking advantage of and expanding natural faults and fractures in the extremely hard sandstone which is so old it doesn’t contain any fossils. There are 13 gorges in all, 3 are available by boat cruise.

 

At this time of year (the dry season) the river is low and it is not possible to navigate the whole gorge as rock barriers break it up into sections of deeper water so it is necessary to walk short distances and change to other boats on the next section of the river. Other sections are deeper with one extremely deep spot caused by a violent whirlpool which forms when the river is in flood. The hole is ground deeper each year by huge rocks grinding in the bottom of the whirlpool.

The walls of the gorge display a range of colours – red iron oxide, black stains from water flows, patches of green lichen in the shady spots and hanging gardens of delicate ferns which somehow survive the raging wet season flows. These colours all overlay the lighter sandstone walls which tower on each side.

There are freshwater crocodiles which lay their eggs on the small sandy beaches. They are not dangerous to humans as they are smaller, their jaws are not as strong as the “salties” and their teeth are quite fragile. Their normal diet is insects, small freshwater fish and crustaceans etc. Occasionally salt water crocs enter the river during the wet season but they are captured and removed.

 Awesome is a highly over-used word these days but it is hard to find a more appropriate word for the magnificent scenery in Nitmiluk National Park.