katherine and nitmiluk national park

Katherine is the third largest town in the NT, and is home to the first permanent running water encountered by travelers along the road north from Port Augusta ( our route of almost 3000km)
To see a large river after so long in the desert seems almost alien.

Yesterday we took a boat tour through 3 of the River Katherine's gorges ( there are 13 gorges, 5 accessible by boat). As winter is the dry season and the river is low, the tour was a combination of boat and walking between gorges to pick up a second and then a third boat.



In the wet season the river levels will rise by up to 7 metres ( and in 1998 the town was flooded with over 3 metres of water flowing through). So the boats are taken upstream in the wet season and moored in each of the first 3 gorges to facilitate the dry season tours.







With temperatures in the mid 30's, a swim was most welcome.......



........ though I am not sure how much confidence the presence of salt water crocodile traps engendered.