We took our time after the
festival to pack up and leave the camping area at Barunga. By the time we actually left, most of the
hundreds of other campers had already left and the parkland was looking
extremely empty. The locals of Barunga
were still out at the parks hanging out together and running around but in
comparison to the past 2 days that we had spent here, it was now back to being
it’s quiet little town. We drove on back
towards Katherine and on our way into town we stopped in at Cutta Cutta Caves
(meaning many stars). You walk around
700 metres to the opening of the cave and upon entering you can see why it is
called “many stars”, these limestone caves have a lovely shimmer to them, with
a few spectacular stalactites and stalagmite formations throughout. The cave has a path that you follow in and
there are a few tight spots that Josh had trouble squeezing through, especially
as you aren’t meant to touch the caves themselves. One of these was called the tonsils of the
cave. There are about 5 species of bats
that live deeper within these caves, as well as other animals such as a range
of snakes and birds. As there is only
one entry into the cave, they actually get hotter the further in you walk. As with other cave sites, they tend to use
their imagination and spot figures in the roof of the cave, this time the most
prominent was a face and even with the little amount of imagination that I
have, I was actually able to make it out.
Upon leaving the caves, we continued on to Katherine and checked into
the Big 4 just outside of town. We spent
a few hours mucking around at the great pool and spa here before having a quiet
night in.
The following morning we had no
plans so got the kids to do some of their school work – they make it sound like
we are treating them so cruelly every time this has to be done. This afternoon we had a 1pm “Katherine Gorge”
tour. Nitmiluk (meaning place of the cicada dreaming) National Park, formerly called
Katherine Gorge National Park, has great ceremonial significance to the local
Jawoyn people (who are the custodians of this park) and there are a total of 13
gorges that follow the Katherine River. We
had booked a river tour which was to take 4 hours and Philip and Jamie were
great guides along our trip. After
touring up the first gorge, we had seen many freshwater crocodiles lying along
the banks of the river. These are
harmless to humans and don’t grow to the same size as salt water
crocodiles. After arriving at our first
stop we hopped off our boat wandered up the rocks a little to where there is
quite a bit of aboriginal rock art telling many stories from thousands of years
ago. It was a short walk along a
pebble-crete path to the next slightly smaller boat. After grabbing seats we relaxed again and
enjoyed the stunning scenery surrounding us – including many more freshies. There was another section of rocks up ahead
and we had to make one more change of boats to get to our final destination
even further into the gorges. Upon
reaching this final destination, we were the first off the boat and up the
stairs and across the gorge to a lovely waterfall with great swimming spot in
the cool water. Just what we had been
looking forward to after sitting in the heat of the afternoon. Whilst here we were supplied with afternoon
tea and the chance to take some memory shots on the camera before climbing back
down the mountain and back on board the first of our three boats. On our way back we spotted a couple of rock
wallabies in a cave about half way up the height of the gorge, enjoying their
own afternoon tea of leaves on the scarce trees. It was very late in the afternoon by the time
we returned to the car and we were pretty hungry and in no mood for cooking, so
mum shouted us dinner at about the only restaurant in town and we enjoyed a
lovely Chinese meal before having to roll ourselves out of there.
It was Wednesday morning and we were supposed to check out of the van park. Josh tried to check us into the van park for another day but it was pretty busy and we would have had to change spots so instead we packed up and left here bound for Darwin once more. We stopped first in Katherine at the Katherine Hot Springs for a dip. The water wasn’t as warm as Mataranka but it was relaxing and crystal clear nevertheless, and nice for mum to experience some hot springs. After a further short drive north, we stopped in at Edith Falls which is part of Nitmiluk National Park. This is another big waterfall with a large plunge pool but it had a small island in the middle of the plunge pool. We dipped in and the water was freezing. Zoe wasn’t in long before she piked it and got out but the rest of us persevered with the cold water and the harsh rocks under our feet. It was lovely and refreshing and Sami and I found lots of pretty rocks on the island in the sun. We didn’t stay too long as we still had a large drive ahead of us into Darwin. Upon arriving, and driving into the Howard Springs Big 4 Park, we noticed our travelling friends pull in not far behind us. It was good to catch up with Debbie, Nikayla and Jacinta again tonight. They’d had a very rough day on the road today so we offered to make them some dinner and hear their stories from the last few days. We will stay here until at least Sunday which means some time for all the kids to catch up.
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