We were up bright and early this morning - for two reasons really. One was to get out of the sweatbox as quickly as possible, and the other was to book a trip to Katherine Gorge. We managed to get ourselves booked onto the 8am bus, (nothing like forward planning!), and had some breakfast before we left.
The journey to the Gorge took about 30 minutes and we were soon queueing up to collect our double canoe to paddle up the river, through the Gorge... boy was it a bumpy ride!
No sooner had we sat in the canoe when the arguments started - Nikki told me I wasn't allowed to get her wet - me explaining that we were sat in a huge river fell on deaf ears. The ride through the Gorge was beautiful, and it was something else hearing our arguing bouncing off the huge rock walls. It went something like this... "I TOLD YOU NOT TO GET ME WET", "I SAID PADDLE LEFT NOT RIGHT" and my personal favourite "THAT'S IT, I'M GETTNG OUT - I'D RATHER BE IN WITH THE CROCODILES THAN YOU!".
We paddled for about an hour up to the end of the first Gorge and stopped at a small beach. I went for a walk to look for some Aboriginal rock paintings while Nikki sat in the shade (it was about 38°). After an hour or so, we headed back. This time I sat in the front to see if it would make any difference - and it did, our paddling got worse and we ended up going around in circles. We saw loads of crocodile nesting areas and Nikki thought she saw something in the water too. Apparently they're only freshwater crocs and you're safe with those, but we didn't hang around to find out!
When we were safely back on dry land, I went for a walk up to the viewpoint, while Nikki went to the visitor centre for a cold drink and look around. We met up afterwards to share stories, and then caught the shuttle back to town.
This afternoon, we bought some food for our lunch and then hung around the hostel until 5pm when we headed to the coach station and got on the 5.15pm Greyhound heading for Alice Springs. The journey to Alice is almost 16 hours, so we spent the rest of the evening on the bus...
Next time we hire canoes - we're getting two, so that I can paddle away!
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