Friday 4th July

We broke the mould this morning by being out of bed by 0530 so that we could comfortably drive out to Katherine Gorge for our breakfast cruise. Our caravan park is about 30 kms from the Gorge so we needed to allow plenty of time on a road we had not been on before. As it was, we managed to park a little further from the wharf than we needed to.

Our boarding of the boat was exactly on time at 0700. There was a full load of tourists of all ages from a 2 year old up to much older than us. Everyone was eagerly awaiting this mystical feeling cruise especially as the sun was not over the edges of the Gorge. The skipper of the boat was a local member of one of the tribes. He was a wonderful example of what someone can do for themselves. He was not only articulate and extremely knowledgeable, with a wicked sense of humour, but also a very competent boat skipper. He is employed by the National Parks of the Northern Territory.

He briefed us on the history of the Katherine Gorge and added a few more bits of information. We then were served a lovely hot breakfast that included sausages, bacon, scrambled eggs, mushroom and tomatoes. Cereals and juice and coffee were also available as were croissants. A lavish breakfast compared to my usual Weetbix and juice. Too much of that would be bad for the waistline.

As we completed our breakfast, our skipper/guide pointed out various items as we slowly cruised up the Gorge. He pointed out the depth of the water in the Gorge during the 1998 Flood of Katherine. As it is the dry season, it is hard to comprehend the difference in water level currently and the height of 1998, at least 20 metres!

Drifting on, we came to a bend and it was here that our guide pointed out a freshwater crocodile lurking under an overhang in the Gorge wall. They do not eat much but I am not going to test that out. In about the same location he made mention and pointed out Jedda’s Wall. This location was of a movie made here in the mid 1950s. Jedda was an aboriginal girl. It is a movie that was the first full colour movie made in Australia. Some of the original footage was lost in a plane crash in Indonesia and it had to be redone in the Blue Mountains, just west of Sydney. I vaguely remember watching it in the Cinema at Warren a long time ago. Maybe I will watch it again. We changed boats so that we could cruise in Gorge 2 and it was slightly different then we retraced our steps and returned to our original wharf. A wonderful trip and a must do if you come this way.

Back in the Gorge information centre, I had a long and very delightful conversation with a young professional couple from Quebec, Canada. They are here for 12 months on a limited work visa that they have not used yet.

After the Gorge we returned to the Caravan Park to remove some clothing after the cool morning start. Prue mad one of her cappuccinos before we moved on to the Katherine Museum. This is another very interesting point of interest. It covers the various stages of the Katherine community and district especially Dr. Clyde Fenton who was a very early self funded Flying Doctor. A wonderful man with a lot of talent.

Another wonderful man whose life was displayed was Peter Sing, the son of an aboriginal woman and a Chinese cook. He was mostly brought up by a white family but he always remembered his aboriginal heritage. He was a very successful and highly respected cattleman, by both pastoralists and aborigines, who had a lot to do with Wave Hill Station and several other stations. Sadly, he died before he was very old due to an accident. Some of his work was encouraging the aboriginals to come back to work at Wave Hill after the infamous walk out many years ago. His work with helping to get the locals back to work was really just beginning when he died. If he had survived, he may have been able to help reduce some of the problems we have seen while moving through the CBD of Katherine. He is immortalised by a statue at the Katherine Tourist Information Centre. One of those that help bring about this statue was Terry Underwood (nee Augustus). Terry is an author whose work is recognised as recommended reading by the Tourist Information Centres in the region. Her work I have read some years ago and enjoyed her story immensely. She is a cousin of Gab Murphy.

Prue has produced a magnificent meal this evening using her “Dreampot”. It was beef stroganoff and used genuine Katherine region beef. We sipped several glasses of nice red wine both before and during this dinner.

While this was occurring, one of my bike tyres just blew up so a repair job has occurred just after dinner in preparation for a Saturday morning ride.