A bit more about Katherine

It is really relaxing to spend a few days here again at Katherine, have a more detailed look around and also check out some of the things-to-do while in Katherine. Being a bit of a flyer myself, I put down my name and contact number with 2 different companies that provide flights over various sights, mostly, all the gorges as well as several waterfalls. There is only one problem with that, on all flights a minimum of 2 passengers, on another, a minimum of 3 passengers. I am traveling alone, so am dependent on someone else to want to fly as well. So now I need to wait and see….

Yesterday I had a browse through an exhibition of semi precious stones and rock formations found in the wider circumference around Katherine.

Passing a river on the road to the gemstones

An ancient-looking man who has collected all the exhibits in a shed near his home told me, he prefers going out there to fosic during the wet season because he loves the heat and really enjoys being out there at that time of the year.

I bought one of his displayed "Blue Agates", sliced out of a rock, found at "Wave Hill Station" its about 6 mm thick and about 10 cm wide, highly polished. It is a bright blue with a variety of patterns throughout that light up when you hold it against the sun. Quite amazing, really. The blue colour, he tells me, is due to Nickel Minerals in the ground.

My Blue Gem stone

There were also very nice brown and ochre coloured once but I thought these were a lot more common and not anywhere near as nice as the blue ones.

Last night I met a couple, Sally and Jim, from the Gold Coast in Queensland. They have a permit to travel through Arnhem Land. They are driving a big, heavy 4-wheel drive with a 6 litre Chevy Diesel engine and a compact Aluminium trailer that contains their tent, refrigeration and a 50 litre water tank, perfect gear for going through the never-never where they were headed this morning. They will refuel at Jabiru, where I was last week. Apart from a full tank, they also carry 300 litres of Diesel and 100 litres of drinking water, as the fuel will have to be enough to also bring them back out. There are no filling stations where they are going. They have made these kind of excursions many times before, and so it is a pleasure to watch them this morning braking camp, each of them both knowing exactly what to do, in order to get under way. Very nice people. They invited me last night to share dinner with them. I brought a bottle and it turned out a really nice evening, talking mostly aboutr living that gypsy-life.

I have not heard so far from either of these two flight operators so far, so maybe its not happening. If it does happen for tomorrow, I will add-on another day at Katherine.


I also just bought a camping catalog that shows each campsite in all of Australia, together with the available amenities at each of these locations and GPS co-ordinates. All I need to do now, make up my mind where I want to stay the next night, key-in the respective degrees, minutes and seconds and my GPS will take me there. Pretty nifty, eh. Yes, I know, "…Peter the gadget-man…" True enough, I love travelling this way. It eliminates a lot of guesswork.

Through Litchfield Park

Litchfield National Park is about 100km south of Darwin, directly on the way back to Katherine, where I will need to take the main highway into Western Australia, then on to Broome when I am ready to go.

Being Sunday, there's lots of traffic out of Darwin, heading south, as it turns out, some of them are also going to Litchfield. At the turn-off towards Batchelor I exit, lots of smoke up ahead, confirming small-fire burnings at this time. There are also many Crocodile flowers blooming along the road, called by Aboriginal People by that name, as that indicates the time of year that Crocodiles lay their eggs.

The smoke is getting heavier as I am getting closer to Batchelor. On the outskirts of town there is a rather large brushfire, well alight and as the local Fireies are on site with their trucks, someone must have thought this could turn into something much bigger. I take a picture and drive on.

Fire outside Batchelor

I follow the sign to Litchfield Park on a road meandering its way through the park. The speed limit is 80kmh which suits me just fine as I pass through lots of brush, some swampland on my left and further along lots of Termite mounds, many of them in the 3-4m range.


Quite astounding how these mounds can vary so much in size, from the rather small knee-high or even less, to the giant ones that seem to appear only in certain areas. The sign, pointing right says, "Florence Falls" and "Buley Rockholes". I follow the turn-off to first have a look at the Rockholes and find the place already 'invaded' by lots of people trying to stay cool on a warm day. It’s a great location with water cascading down and through a series of natural pools - its all a bit noisy, with kids screaming and lots of splashing about so I decide to drive on to Florence Falls.

The cascades at the Rock Holes

By this time its well and truly warm, walking from my van through the bush on a track which leads to a viewing platform revealing a great panorama of a waterfall with a large pool at the bottom, again, quite a few people have gone down there to have a bit of fun in the water. I decide, its too warm, or rather hot to descend and afterwards mount all those stairs again.

Florence Falls

Next stop is called "Tolmer Falls" just a few kms down the road. They are quite spectacular, with water plunging down into a deep and narrow gorge. No way down this time (just got lucky - no decision necessary). Meet a young German with his English girlfriend and have a bit of a chat. They are going on to Perth, sell their van and then fly back to Europe.

Tollmer Falls

Last stop on my list is "Wangi Falls" where there is also a campsite I am planning to stay the night in. More winding road, steep climbs and declines, turn right to the Falls. The parking area is chock-full and I have to be a bit inventive to park my vehicle. The shop there sells me a very nice icecream for $4.50, but what the hell, its good and they had to bring it in for about 70km. I enjoy the icecream, walking down through the park among a large crowd of Japanese tourists. Wangi Falls is also spectacular. There are actually 2 Falls dropping into a small lake, with me standing on its shore looking up. Wow! Worth coming for. Its really amazing to see all this water flowing from a landscape that appears to be dry as toast.

Wangi Falls

Its time to check out the camping facilities and I drive ashort way up the road to look for vacant sites. It’s a typical bush setting, lots of trees in between parking bays, but, alas, she is full up. What now? Its nearly 2.00pm and I am just under 300km from Katherine and figure I can do it in about 3 hours to get there. Its about 75km to get out of the Park and back to Batchelor. Another 14km to the main highway. I arrive at Katherine right on 5.00pm.

Impressions of Darwin

Its still true, you can only ever make a first impression once and as far as first impressions go, in Canada they would call Darwin 'Redneck Country'. Let me try to qualify this. This weekend is V8-racing at Darwin, which could easily have something to do with bringing about this male-dominated, hairy-chested side of town. Not unfriendly, but rather 'loud', in-your-face kind of Rodeo-like energy that’s about. Due to this Racing weekend, there are also quite a few campers at the park who are obviously out-of-towners spending a less expensive night here in their tents. As I don't know what other establishments are charging at Darwin, I can only say that this Park at Hidden Valley is outstanding in one respect, which is that it charges two to four times as much as other camping establishments for a night's stay and comparable services. At most places I have stayed, there is usually an easy kind of cameraderie among campers. There is little evidence of that here, people walk past each other without a 'hello', without a bit of a story about where they come from, where they are going next etc. This is the big-city kind of way, of not taking time to speak with your fellow campers, instead, blank faces as they pass. Feels a lot like the big city I left a few weeks ago.

The guys up at the local Pub are quite friendly though, many wearing Holden caps or some with Ford emblems, its easy to start a conversation and to get to know a little about them. The place is called 'Santa Fe' which kind of sounds really nice, from outside it is made to look just like some of the establishments I had seen in New Mexico, right down to the colours of the building, made to look like adobe, the decorations on the façade with wooden fake roof supports ('vigas') protruding from the walls. Once I get inside it looks just like any pub, even the pokie room at the end and not a single item or fixture that even looks to go with the promise of that 'Santa Fe-look' outside. I feel really let-down. The place had been recommended for their good food. Well, it was really mutton-done-up-as-lamb, the food rather less-than-average. But then, Peter, remember where you are! Probably a case of too high expectations on my side…

I am looking forward to getting out of here tomorrow as I have no further interest in this town and head for Litchfield Park, about 130km south of Darwin.

Jabiru, fabulous Ubirr and on to Darwin

Thousands of years old Artworks

I had a relatively short ride from Katherine to Jabiru. Nothing unusual on the way there, except that a lot of the Savannah grass had been burnt to help the new growth to come forth. This is the time of year when the Aboriginal people do this, when the dry season has begun, its perfect to burn off grass, keep the fires small and at the same time forestall really big fires that destroy the lot.

I thought I would use Jabiru as a jump-off point, to venture out into the Kakadu area. That idea was good as it turned out to be vitually insect free in the evening also, giving me a perfect night's sleep. My next-door neighbor advised me that they had stayed the previous night at a campsite at Merle, which is only a few kilometres away from where I was planning to go, Ubirr a site of many Rock paintings by Aboriginals, dating back thousands of years, but also with newer Art, being only a few hundred years old. So, at short notice, I decided not to stay there and be eaten alive by the mozzies.

On checkout, this morning, from the Kakadu Lodge Trailer Park, (which is operated by the Aurora Hotels & Resorts) where I spent last night, I wanted to collect a signature on my Centrelink form, so I can claim a rebate from the Government. The girl at the counter informed me that management had decided to no longer sign these forms. When I asked for someone from the management I was informed that there would be no-one there who could help me. Just like that! I do intend to take that one up with their management via email and keep you informed...

Ubirr (pronounce it in German) is a real treasure with a walk-about track that leads you past most of the old artworks,


finally ending on a high plateau that offers magnificent views of the wetlands, the Nardab floodplain, wide and green for many kilometres, but looking the opposite way, all your eyes can see are rocky outcrops and dry bushland.


A view of the wetlands

I really enjoyed the time I spent there, also took lots of pictures. When I left there, I drove right past that campsite at Merle and kept on going for about 260km all the way to Darwin, where I am writing from now.

Around Katherine

A bit of a rest was exactly what I wanted and needed. Australia is such a large country, so the further west I go, townships of significance are far and wide, only ever road houses where I can stop in the shade (with a bit of luck), treat myself to an icecream and then go on for the next lap. The campground I found at Katherine was really nice, with lots of green grass, me bang in the middle of it. They also offered fresh Burramundi with chips, me not known for eating a lot of seafood, have to confess I ordered it 2 days in a row because it was excellent! This was the first time I had burramundi where the fish had not been frozen and there IS a great difference.

Another interesting point for Katherine is, that it also has hot springs - and only a few blocks from my campsite. Naturally I went and had a look - in hindsight, I should have brought my swimmers. Anyway, the water looked crystal clear, not hot but nice and warm. A few oldies were hanging about in the upper end, but further down the stream, lots of local kids were having a great time below a small waterfall.


Can't leave Katherine without taking in some of the gorges, so yesterday I had booked myself in for the breakfast -run. This meant that I had to move from my campsite at 6.00 this morning, so I could be at Katherine Gorge before 7.00 as the cruise started at 7.00.

Not quite full daylight yet

Well, it was absulutely super-duper, the early morning colours, the water, the walls of multicoloured sandstone. Obviously, the shutter on my camera was in full swing. I took more than 200 pictures, which tells you, that I was IMPRESSED. The breakfast was also excellent, Bacon, sausages and eggs and tomatoes, together with fresh croissants.



Some of the many images I brought back from the Gorge

I had to pick up a few bits at Woolworths, fill up my tank again and left Katherine after 10, heading for Jabiru in Kakadu National Park.
Similar to what I observed at Tennant Creek, there seem to be an abundance of Aborigines hanging about town at Katherine, mostly young men and women of all ages, sitting on footpaths in the shade, all of them looking bored with themselves and life in general. As a real positive contrast, the young Aboriginal who ran today's tour on the gorge, was not only good natured and polite. Also he knew who he was, where he fitted into the picture and very definetely was not bored. He also knew exactly what he was talking about.

Pine Creek, the next town on my way, then turn off onto the Kakadu Highway (what else would you call it?) passing Mary River Roadhouse, then Gangural and finally, at around 2.30pm I arrive at Jabiru to somewhat higher temparatures, also higher humidity, but there is a breeze and so ok. Now, at around 7.30pm, it has cooled off from the 32 this afternoon, but its still quite warm. I'm going to sit outside for a bit before I go call it a day.