Katherine – Hot Springs, Nitmiluk NP

Saturday 21st June 2008

The girls were up and ready to go to the Hot Springs as soon as they awoke but we managed to hold them off for breakfast and a bit more so that it could warm up outside (it wasn’t exactly cold, but if we were going into water I wanted to build up a little heat first!).

The springs were more warm than ‘hot’ but definitely pleasant enough to stay in as long as you wanted without getting chilled – well, maybe I did by the end, but that’s only me... There is a long creek with pale gravel lining the base and a man-made (but not obviously so) waterfall in the middle that the kids (yes, Paul too) enjoyed sliding over (I went over once and grazed my hip bones – something about my technique...) and was overhung by trees and palms. The whole place had a slightly muddy feel – I think it is all well and truly flooded in the wet season – with the lower branches of the trees and the concrete walkways and steps looking dusty and mud-encrusted, but with the sun shining through it was very pleasant lounging in the water.

We then headed into town to do some shopping – we had to get something for Holly to open on her birthday – and to pump the people at the Visitor’s Centre for info on the Northern Territory. We came away with armfuls of brochures! The girls were delighted to find a Brumbys and sausage rolls were the order of the day – even tho’ it wasn’t quite lunchtime (and certainly not on WA time).

We found a Salvos book exchange and spent a good half hour in there swapping our old books for a mountain of new ones (they were much cheaper here than any other secondhand book shop so we went a little crazy).

Next we had to drive for half an hour out to the Nitmiluk National Park for our cruise along two gorges of the Katherine Gorge system. We were a little late getting there, chose the wrong car park and then had to run to make it to our boat on time – as you may imagine, tempers were a little frayed and it didn’t help that Katie hadn’t been aware of what we were hurrying for and wanted to read her book as she walked along!

This was a very different gorge experience for us – sitting in the comfort of a boat, surrounded by about fifty other people, with concreted walkways on the bits where we did have to walk! There was actually a concrete mixer still standing in one part of the gorge. We had commentary so the girls did take in some of the details but the glazed look came over them again eventually.

Afterwards we found the short cut to the car park we’d chosen and also the Nitmiluk Visitors Centre which was excellent – it presented the aboriginal story alongside that of the white settlers, was informative and well laid out and the building itself has a great outlook over the river and surrounding bush.

We stopped for dinner at Diggers Den who offered a very welcome salad bar before returning to our campsite – despite it being Saturday night, the main road seemed quieter tonight.