Week 23: Kakadu National Park NT - Gregory National Park NT

 Stats Overview

Kms Travelled: 1022

Kms Hiked: 31.5

No. of Campsites: 3

The Adventures

This week we have started our journey west, preparing to head across the border into Western Australia! We have also started the process of running down our fresh food supplies as the restricted foods list for crossing the border is seemingly endless. 

We started our week still in Kakadu where we did some more hiking to explore more of the Aboriginal rock art in the park. We discovered during our hikes, that some of the rock art was painted as recently as the 1960's, so we were able to view art that ranged from ancient times to modern times. It was very interesting seeing all the different styles of art and the different techniques they used to create their paintings. We ended up spending only one night in Kakadu as we found we had visited the few places that were open in the park.  If you are planning a visit to Kakadu, we definitely recommend only going when everything has re-opened in the dry season, otherwise it really isn't worth the price you will have to pay to enter the park. We are trying not to be bitter about our experience, but we have discovered that literally every place we go to now is "way better than Kakadu"... so if you don't want an earful, probably don't ask us about it!

After Kakadu we made our way south to Katherine. We have absolutely loved our time in this area, especially exploring Nitmiluk NP which is home to Edith Falls and the beautiful Katherine Gorge. This gorge is definitely the most stunning place we have seen on our trip so far - it is absolutely huge! We did a number of hikes and have still only seen a snippet of what the gorge has to offer. We also went back and visited Edith Falls and did the hike to the Upper Pools, which have been our favourite place to swim in the NT so far! All the waterfalls and gorges we have seen over the past month are making us even more excited to venture into the gorge country across the border in the Kimberley. Another highlight of our time in Katherine was visiting the Katherine Outback Experience, which is essentially a horse and cattle dog show that is run by country singer Tom Curtain. During the show they demonstrated how they break in horses, train horses and also train and use cattle dogs. We both loved the show and it was amazing to see what the animals are able to be trained to do. One highlight of the show was when a horse rolled out a swag, took some yawns and then lay down on the swag for a rest. It was very cute!

We have now left Katherine and are on our way towards the NT/WA border. We should be crossing into WA in the next day or so, however, we seem to be finding leaving the NT harder than we thought ,as we have already made an unplanned detour into Gregory NP. Who knows, we might still be in the NT next week as well!

Kodak Moments

Lots of rock art - Kakadu NP

The famous ship rock art - Kakadu NP

There were some cool cliffs in Kakadu

How beautiful is this spot - definitely the highlight of our swimming holes so far! - Edith Falls Upper Pools

The rocks were so slippery I fell in seconds later...and you don't want to know the spectacle I made of myself trying to get out! - Edith Falls Upper Pools

The horse with his swag! (Sorry about the photo quality!) - Katherine Outback Experience

Will got to feed a water buffalo - Katherine Outback Experience

The goats got on the back of the horse! One horse had two goats escaping from the dogs at one point! - Katherine Outback Experience

We also got a bit of musical entertainment from Tom Curtain - Katherine Outback Experience

I could sit and look at this view all day... - Katherine Gorge

We did a big hike to Butterfly Gorge, which did in fact have butterflies! - Katherine Gorge

We absolutely loved this spot, although it felt too
croccy to swim in, although apparently it was safe. - Butterfly Gorge

This was me "helping" Will with dinner after our 16km hike to Butterfly Gorge...lucky Will crashed after our dinner was cooked or we would have both starved! - Katherine