We drove back from Darwin to Katherine booked into the same caravan park and then took a cruise through the famous Katherine Gorge. Stunning scenery as you will see from the pictures below. The water level at the moment is lower than usual due to the low rainful in the Wet Season this year so after cruising the first gorge, we had to walk 600m across the rocks to the next gorge and a second boat.
The Katherine Gorge is home to a number of fresh-water crocodiles. However the Katherine River flows 280km all the way to the Timor Sea so occasionally large salt-water crocodiles swim up into the gorge and the park rangers catch them in traps and relocate so that the gorge can be used safely for swimming and canoeing etc. They have various methods of locating the "salties" including placing a red rubber buoy attached to a rope on the water. Salties are inquisitive and will bite anything floating on the surface of the water so the rangers can tell by the teethmarks if the salties are around.
The following pictures were all taken cruising through the Katherine Gorge..............
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| At times the water level after a good Wet Season reaches the lower of the top branches of this tree |
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| Croc Trap set by Rangers |
Before leaving Katherine, we visited Knotts Crossing - a pretty area close to the centre of Katherine.
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| Knotts Crossing (The Katherine River) |
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| All ready to hit the road leaving Katherine |
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