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Category: Travel and Places
My big holiday: Melbourne/Alice Springs/Darwin/Kakadu/Katherine Gorge/Mataranka + more!: Friday 18 Sep - Sun 11 Oct 09
Part 4: Darwin, Katherine gorge, Mataranka and Tiwi Islands: Monday 5 Oct 09 - Sunday 11 Oct 09
Day 19: Tuesday 6 Oct 09
Originally we were going to try to get up early on Tuesday morning to go to Katherine Gorge but then there was cricket on Monday night, and, especially after my dad relented and let me get a room with Austar so that we could watch it, he was reluctant to go with me being tired from watching the cricket, so we got up late and went in late and couldn't do as much. I was happy to go while tired but he didn't want me to.
When we got to Katherine Gorge (now called Nitmiluk, its aboriginal name, which, literally translated, means "Cicada country", named after an annoying sounding insect, similar to a cricket) it was already 10am and it was getting to the hot part of the day. We asked about walks and they advised not to do it, suggesting that we should have come down at 6am or 8am at the latest to do them. Oops. We went on the shortest possible walk, of 30 minutes duration, not even doing the loop. The whole thing was not as I had remembered it, as my dad suggested that I may have been combining the many places between Darwin and Katherine and referring to them all as Katherine Gorge. Maybe. The main part was much the same.
After the short walk, I had been deciding whether to go on a boat ride to see some cave paintings and dad wanted to take a canoe out ($15/hr for the canoe or $42/half day vs $56 each for a 2 hour boat ride). So I went on the boat, which I thought was good value, while my dad basically just read the newspaper and waited. The boat ride was fantastic and well worth the money.
At the end of that, after some lunch, we couldn't decide what to do so my dad decided to get a 2 seater canoe and we paddled down the river, the same journey we went on in the boat. We ended up abusing their trust and took closer to 2 hours as we went to the 2nd gorge and I went for a short swim in the 2nd gorge pool while my dad looked at the cave paintings. I am quite terrible in a canoe, but my dad was really good, although he is not as strong as me, so basically I did most of the effort while he fixed up all of my errors. It worked out well.
We decided that that was enough and had an early night. We didn't do an awful lot, but had enjoyed the cricket the night before. In some ways it was fitting, as the new name for Katherine Gorge (since about 1992 or so) has been Cicada country, and a cricket is like a cicada.
Day 20: Wednesday 7 Oct 09
We left Katherine at about 9am and drove down to Mataranka, this time not caring about what time we got there as we were purely going there to swim and to relax. I had heard so much about Mataranka that I was bursting to go there, as this was in many ways the highlight of my whole trip. Would it live up to my expectations? Or would it flop?
My dad had totally ignored my requests to stay in the Mataranka Lodge (I worked out that it was the Mataranka Homestead) and had instead opted to stay in the Mataranka Cabins for some reason, even though the Cabins were actually more expensive ($120/night vs $115/night). Just the same, it turned out that this time he was right, by pure fluke, as the cabins were absolutely fantastic, massive places, with this huge family-size fridge, cooking facilities including a gas-powered barbecue, not only a kitchen table inside but one outside, a second table purely for the barbecue food, and a bench to sit on. It was just awesome. Such a pity that there is so little to do in Mataranka as that place was up there with the Travel Inn Carlton in Melbourne as one of the best places I have ever stayed in.
We were also located very close to the 2nd of the 2 hot springs, the less well known Bitter Springs. Unfortunately, there weren't very clear directions there and we got lost for a good 45 minutes going the wrong way through shrub before finally asking and walking the 10 minute walk to the spot.
The water was absolutely beautiful, that was the clearest water you could possibly see, except for a few bits of algae that were in the water. Many people dived with snorkels. The water was just slightly deeper than a fairly tall person (like me), so maybe 2 1/2 metres deep or so (about 8-9 feet deep). It was warm and just lovely. Not quite as I had pictured it but just as good.
We later went to the 2nd hot springs, located at the Mataranka Homestead (you had to go past the cabins to get there), which was the main hot springs. All around you were hundreds and hundreds (and possibly thousands) of flying foxes (fruit bats) hanging from trees, maybe 50 to a tree, screeching and making awful sounds. The closer you got to the pool, the worse the smell was, because, of course, they pooped everywhere. While they missed the pool itself, and the water was still pretty much crystal clear and beautiful, the smell was overpowering. Yet for some reason this one was far more popular than the Bitter Springs one, which was far nicer. This one did have a clearer path and it had better steps and such, but surely the Bitter Springs one was nicer, if for no other reason than the absence of flying foxes and bat poop. Just the same, they were both delightful, and you'd have to go to both.
That was about it for the day, other than a rather pointless walk hoping to find more hot springs that led us to little bits of river which had warning signs about crocodiles and we got scared and didn't go in. Probably they were safe but you never know. I thought that I saw a freshwater crocodile, and thought that I touched one at Nitmiluk (Katherine Gorge) so didn't want to risk it again. We did go swimming in one though.
It was delightful to finish the day with a barbecue and to sit outside to eat it, surrounded by these huge termite mounds all about and really being walking distance to both pools. The township was cute too, although there wasn't much to it. The movie "We of the Never Never" (and the book) were based on Mataranka and also filmed there. They had several historic sites based on the former Elsey Homestead which the book is about, as well as bits and pieces used in the movie. It was one of the nicest places you could go to.
Day 21: Thursday 8 Oct 09
My Dad had decided that perhaps what I was thinking of for bits of Katherine Gorge was really somewhere that is within the Katherine Gorge Park but is actually a long way away. Perhaps it was. One such place, which he personally loved, was a place called Edith Falls, which itself is now known by its aboriginal name, but I forget what that is (sorry!)
This was yet another tropical waterfall, this one being quite large, although it required a decent swim to get to it. It was probably 300 metres and took me about 15 minutes to swim to, swimming very leisurely so as to conserve energy. I didn't even get into stroke, just doing side, front or back pushes, just purely using my legs, as my legs never get tired no matter what I do.
The waterfall, like at Jim Jim Falls in Kakadu, had spots where you could sit in it, out of the rock, kind of like seats, where you could have the 5 metre high (16 feet) waterfall gush down on you, kind of like a shower or massage all in one. Several of the places that we visited had this kind of thing, as Wangi Falls in Litchfield had a similar deal, and there were many like this around here. We just sat there for a good 20 minutes or so, with the water gushing down. It was quite comfortable and nice, although you had to breathe from your mouth. We could have sat there for much longer. This was possibly the nicest of the dozen or so tropical waterfalls we have seen so far.
Tomorrow I will go to the Tiwi Islands, which are a group of islands off the north coast of Australia, but are still a part of Australia. Aborigines live there, although they are in many ways a different race to the mainland ones, and more like those in Fiji or an island off the coast of Australia. I am not sure though, so will have to see for myself. It is a rather expensive end to the holiday, but it is all on credit card so I can worry about that later. On Saturday hopefully we just end up lazing about, although one of my friends wanted to catch up and go fishing. I am hoping that he falls through and does nothing, as the plane leaves at 1am.
7:45 AM
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