Katherine Gorge

23rd May 2024

Distance: 75 Km

Fuel: 39 L

Had only a couple of projects today but set out early to avoid the heat of the day.

Katherine Gorge is about 26km from the caravan park so that was where I headed first, I have been here before about seven years ago.

These days there is a charge to enter the National Park and they have constructed a lot of infrastructure including a brand new visitor centre and paths with railings. The boat cruises up the gorge are still there but I am not a fan of boat cruises, even the best ones last far too long, I just wanted to climb up the gorge like I did last time. The route is now a created path with a handrail the whole way, it was great for me but perhaps not as much fun as before but you cannot complain about the views.

After returning from the gorge I drove straight into Katherine for fuel and bread – that was my day apart from a brief stop at the Katherine School of the Air. I could not see the sign for tours so perhaps they no longer do them?

Katherine

22nd May 2024

Distance: 309 Km

Once again not far to drive today, just under 300km to cover.

Stopped a couple of times after leaving Timber Creek.

At one stop was a massive rock as a memorial to the opening of the Bentine Highway.

Arrived at the Caravan Park at about 12.30pm I was able to use the credit note I received last September when I was forced to cancel the trip to Alice Springs because of the bushfires closing the Stuart and Barkly Highways.

After settling in drove to the Katherine Woolworths to top up some supplies.

5th June 2017–Katherine Day One

Distance: 23 km

Had a change of heart and decided to stay in Katherine for an extra day so I did some laundry then rolled up at the office when it opened to pay for the extra day and buy a bag of ice.

Almost immediately took off to go to the Katherine School of the Air which I had passed on the way to the caravan park. Annoyingly it took me ages to find it because the sign faced the town and there was no sign facing the other way.

It was very interesting it is claimed to be the largest classroom in the world because it covers the northern part of the NT from Tennant Creek to Darwin (Alice Springs serves the southern half of the territory). While I was there a teacher gave the pre-schoolers their lesson. Each child has to have a governess (govi) to supervise their study, sometimes it is an employee sometimes the child’s mother. It is a really good education system and the results exceed those of the rest of the system.

They still had the original short wave radios that they used until they got the satellite. Now the children can see their teacher and each other, though the video is under the control of the teacher.

Following that I went to the Katherine Museum which was moderately interesting with information about the growth of Katherine (basically started with the Telegraph Station at Knotts Crossing but expanded massively during WWII), the development of transport, railway and a whole room devoted to the flying doctor – not the RFDS but a local doctor who flew his own plane to treat people in remote areas. He sounded like one of these disastrous adventurers who was a danger to themselves and everyone around them but he was obviously well respected (he crashed at least four planes).

After lunch went to Knotts Crossing where there is a weir and shallow crossing across the Katherine River used before the low level bridge was built. It was also the original site of the settlement.

Finally Dogs Head Rock(?)

4th June 2017–Timber Creek to Katherine

Distance: 321 km
Fuel: 35 L

Another easy drive through varied scenery but a lot skirting or cutting through ranges. Ignored the 130kph speed limit and stuck to my now self imposed 100kph limit. Only overtaken half a dozen times and most of them were not travelling at 130kph judging by the time it took them to pull ahead (one maybe).

Stopped several times during the trip otherwise I would have arrived at some ridiculous hour; as it was I still arrived at a caravan park about 1pm. The park I chose was about 5km outside town which might have been fortunate because one I passed one near the centre of town had a queue of five caravans outside waiting to check in.

I was in Katherine only last year on my Darwin trip and spent several days looking at the sights so am probably only staying one night.

Spend a lot of the afternoon trying to work out rough distances I need to travel each day to see what I want to see and still get back home within the approximate deadline I have set for myself. I want to revisit the Undarra Lava tubes but from now on I am largely in familiar territory. I am only allowing two days to get from the Qld border to home which should be do-able but it is a long drive each day. I just don’t fancy sitting outside in the NSW winter.

The temperature at the moment is just over 30’C during the day and about 20’C at night – it suits me perfectly.