We topped up the pantry and the fridge in Katherine, found a decent double shot flat white (this has been nothing but a long shot since leaving home), collected a replacement battery for John’s laptop (which had a serious case of black screen disease), and headed up the road to Kakadu. We had planned to go to a place called Gunlom, or Waterfall Creek Gorge in whitefella language, but at 50km each way, we changed our plan to check out Maguk (pronounced magook, as in hook) or Barramundi Gorge for whitefellas – you’re getting the idea that everything here has two names these days.

We walked up along the edge of the Barramundi Creek enjoying the shade, as it was now at least 32 degrees.

Unfortunately we weren’t allowed to swim just here due to crocs – such a pity as it looked so inviting!

The path started fairly easily, but soon became a boulder hop – only about 900m though. Still enough to make my knees sad again. Pity really, as my two bags of peas are now keeping the cool box (a bit) cool.

Finally we reached this amazing pool.

Above, you can just see Ferg and Harry in the foreground. We swam across to the waterfall for a shower and relaxed in the sunshine. John tried (unsuccessfully) to climb the cliff face, but that’s to be expected.

That’s John in the photo above.

The termite mounds are getting bigger and bigger the further north we go. Here’s Harry measuring up against one near where we camped.

We (read John) spent quite some time researching the various off road camper trailers on the market prior to making our choice of Adventure Off Road Camper (sadly lacking in the creative naming department) made in Adelaide. These were recommended by friends who are on their second one (thanks Dick and Jacq). So all along our trip so far we’ve been looking out for fellow owners of camper trailers the same brand as ours.

Now if you’re in the market for a camper trailer, caravan, camper van, motor home – whatever – don’t bother with the Caravan and Camping Show that makes its annual trip around the nation. Just head to a packed tourist destination – Uluru should do you – and there is your best selection with unbiased opinions by the bucket load. John will often disappear for an hour at a time to sniff around the camping ground. And he always comes back and says “ours is better”. But I’m sure they all say that.

Until we arrived at Nitmiluk (Katherine Gorge), we hadn’t seen a single Trevor the Trailer look alike. We spent two nights there, and on each of those evenings in the camping ground we were approached by a fellow traveller who also had a Trevor clone! This entailed a good hour with each new buddy going over the intricacies of our trailers. We learnt a lot from each other, and will probably never go to the dark side – meaning buy another brand. A bit like being a Canon camera owner. You’ll never, ever buy a Nikon.

It’s a sure thing that if you have an iconic tourist destination like Katherine Gorge, and it’s only 30 km from the rather urban town of Katherine (they even have a McDonalds!), and the road is sealed, then you can bet there’ll be plenty of punters there. Nonetheless, the co-management by traditional land owners and National Parks is well done here in Nitmuluk NP. The information centre is excellent offering many options for visitors and lots of info for those that are self sufficient, and the camping options are many. There’s a pool surrounded by green grass and lots of shade. And the washing machines are FREE! I did two loads, and the toasty weather here means that once you’ve pegged out the last item, you can go back to the other end of the line and start bringing the washing in!

John and the boys took the Mango for an adventure up the Katherine River and the Gorges and I got the last seat on the Tommy Tourist Cruise boat.

My cruise saw a freshwater croc –

And some ancient aboriginal painting, way up high above the water line.

It’s a wide gorge, with safe swimming at lots of places. I’d love to see the river raging through during the wet season 10 metres higher than this:

And my bird photo for the day – a kookaburra, um – dare I say? – sitting in the old gum tree.

Meanwhile, the boy team got way up to Gorge 6 (my cruise went to Gorge 3). They had to portage several times between gorges.

Below is Gorge 6 camping site. There weren’t too many fellow paddlers this far up the river.

The boy team was back at camp by about 3.30pm – ready for a pool session!

They had a great time, and John said they were champion paddlers. Well done boys – 23km today.

We decided to have two in the Mango (John and Harry) and two on bikes (Ferg and me – obviously) for the trip to Mataranka Falls – about 4.2km from our camp. It would have worked out quite well if Ferg and I hadn’t missed a track marker and found ourselves doing hike-a-bike over the river’s edge boulders. The Mango made it to the falls, but Ferg and I turned back, half melted in the heat.

Here’s the happy paddling team.

We packed up after the morning expedition and headed to Bitter Springs, just 6km from Mataranka (on the north side of town).

This was way better than the Mataranka Spring. It’s a long pool along the Little Roper River that you can float down, and then wander back in the shade of the trees. I challenge any landscape designer to come up with a better plan than this one!

We did several laps!

After the feast at Fran’s, we arrived at Mataranka and Elsey National Park by mid day. The campground there has no power, which kept the numbers of fellow campers down nicely. The heat was rather a shock – no thoughts about camp fires tonight.
We set up and then headed to the famous Mataranka Thermal Springs. This is the one you always see in the brochures, looking positively idyllic with overhanging palms, pandanas and cycads. Clear blue water – an oasis in the heat. And that’s just what it’s like!

There’s a fair bit of manmade landscaping here, but the bottom is sand, with the odd pandanas root here and there. The water is about 34 degress. As it’s quite close to town, this place is rather touristy, to say the least.
Then it was time for the Mango to have an outing. The boys took the fishing rods (ever hopeful) and put in on the Roper River about 6km up stream of camp.

Need I say that they didn’t catch a huge barramundi?
Mataranka homestead is also where they filmed “We of the Never Never” in 1981, based on the book of the same name, by Jeannie Gunn.

This is just a replica they made for the movie. Still pulls the tourists in though.