Up early, we had breakfast and headed to the entry point for the Nitmiluk Gorge cruise. We showed our tickets and boarded the tour boat. The guide completed a headcount and we were out on the water. As we cruised along the river, there were heaps of people canoeing along the edges of the water. We gave them a wave as we passed.
We entered the first gorge and the view was amazing. The cliffs lined the edges of the water and the plants hugged crevices where they could. Our tour guide was very knowledgeable and gave us heaps of information on the history, the aboriginal people, water levels, plants and animals. At the end of the first gorge, he moored the boat at a rock mooring, and we walked about 500 metres past some aboriginal art sites and alongside the rocky rapids, to where the next boat was moored ready to take us along the second gorge.
We all got on the second boat and once again we were in a beautiful gorge surrounded by rocky cliffs. This gorge was also beautiful, and was the one that is photographed in all of the pamphlets and advertising for Nitmiluk Gorge. The guides words were “this is the most photographed real estate in Australia”, and with that the cameras started clicking again. We went to the end of the gorge and then turned around and returned to the mooring, and walked back to the original boat.
On the way back to the end of the cruise, the guide decided that we would look for some crocs. We saw a few along the edge of the river, directly opposite where we were swimming the night before, before the boat finally pulled into the pier and the cruise was over.
We headed to the visitor centre for a look while the kids raced back to the pool for one more swim before we hit the road. Once back at the van, we packed everything up and headed into Katherine to do some food shopping (Darren needed beer too!). On the way to Katherine, we got in contact with the Andersons and found that they were in Katherine too. We made arrangements to meet them at McDonalds to say our goodbyes before they headed west and we headed east.
We did our shopping and headed for McDonalds where the boys had an ice-cream and I had a coffee. The Andersons arrived and we swapped stories about what we had been doing since we last met. We gave Reece a small birthday present for his birthday the next day. We all said our goodbyes and we headed for Daly Waters.
We arrived at Daly Waters’ pub about 5.30pm and booked in for the Beef’n Barra special. We headed off to the pub for tea and once again enjoyed the live entertainment. First a guitarist/singer doing 50’s and 60’s music, followed by Chilli with his comedian act.
Thomas found his way into the bar where he made friends with a couple of backpackers, Shane and Sam. Shane was Irish and Sam was from New South Wales. They were backpacking around Australia and had just started work at the pub. Thomas organised a game of pool, which Shane and he won. Shane bought him a lemonade and he was pretty pleased with himself. We chatted to a few people in the bar before heading back to the caravan for bed.
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