Northern Territory here we come - Katherine 22.08.2012 to 26.08.2012

It has taken us about four months to travel the coast of Western Australia and every place was an absolute delight. After leaving Lake Argyle it was only a hop, skip and a jump into the Northern Territory, the only state (or territory) that I have not been to. Of course had to take the opportunity to get a pic by the border sign.

on the border



I had to laugh at this..........only NT

Along the road to Katherine, just before Timber Creek, we came across a tourist heritage sign for Gregory's Tree, so thought we had better check it out. Augustus Gregory was an explorer responsible to explore the top end of Australia. A large boab tree stands at the campsite of the expedition which was undertaken between October 1855 and July 1856. Inscribed in the tree by Augustus Gregory are the expedition dates. The tree also has special significance to the local Ngaringman Aboriginal people and is a registered sacred sitie. 

It was getting a little late in the day so we decided to free camp that night and head off to Katherine the next morning.

Katherine is 320kms south of Darwin with a population of about 5,500. The main industry is pastoral industry, mining, defence and tourism.  The town is quite neat with a selection of shops and conveniences at hand for the local and traveller. We decided to check in at the Big 4 caravan park, which was nice and shady and had a huge pool (something that is getting to be a must with temperatures of 38) and they had free entertainment at happy hour and into the night, the food was good and it was nice not to have to cook or worry about dinner. 

Katherine Gorge is meant to be a must see and Crowey and I wanted to canoe down the gorge however it was booked out for the days that we were there, but never mind as we will probably stop by on our way back from Darwin and do it then. In Northern WA, especially the Kimberley, Crowey and I have wanted to go to a Rodeo, but we would either be too late, missed it by a week or a week too early. After speaking to one of the local shop assistants she advised us that there was a Campdraft on the Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday. We had to go, so off we went on the Friday to see what the Campdraft is all about.

Well talk about cowboy/girl heaven. The akubra hats, the wrangler jeans, the colourful shirts, boots and belts were a sight to behold. Everyone dressed and on display in their finery, even the girls chose to wear pearl earrings or even the odd pearl necklace or two could be found, which was a nice girlie touch. Crowey and I stuck out like a sore thumb with our shorts, sandals and caps.

So what is campdrafting? ;

A rider on horseback must "cut out" one beast from the mob of cattle in the yard or "camp" and block and turn that beast at least two or three times to prove to the judge that they have the beast under control; then take it out of the yard and through a course around pegs involving right and left hand turns in a figure eight, before guiding it through two pegs known as "the gate". The outside course must be completed in less than 40 seconds. Up to a total of 100 points are scored by horse and rider: "Cut out" is worth a total of 26 points; horse work up to a further 70 points; and 4 points for the course.

We loved the day and had an absolute ball watching these talented horsemen/women.That night they even had a talent quest (Crowey was disappointed he didn't bring his Uke) and then a band after that. One of the hightlights in the talent quest was a old cowboy getting up and singing Rawhide, it was a crowd favorite and he only did it to raise money for charity ending up with $1000 of donations for his efforts. What a great day, we will definately be on the lookout for more of these events as we travel along, loving the casual, country atmosphere of this event. Mark, who we met at Parry's Creek actually won a national title in this sport, which we found out from Jazz his wife.

The boys look on

I think I lost them??

the day ends, off to the hay....yippee

Crowey enjoying the day

The next day we decided to go to the Cutta Cutta Caves, about 27km south of Katherine.Cutta Cutta Caves Nature Park covers 1,499 hectares of Tropical Karst (limestone) landscape, which is limited to only a few isolated locations in Northern Australia.
           
The caves themselves consist of a series of limestone caverns connected by narrow passages with tower like masses of limestone with supporting large boulders. Going down about 15m underground you can feel the air getting thinner and the humidity higher as you venture along to the end.  The caves are also home for a variety of wildlife including the Brown Tree Snake and the rare Orange Horseshoe Bat and Ghost Bat. However we didn't get to see any of these creatures. We found the caves to be quite interesting and something a little different to do for a an hour or so.

The next day we decided to head off, as pleasant as it was staying in the caravan park with that great pool. Our next destination was Douglas hot springs and Butterfly Gorge.