Thongs for Nothing

The Nott’s Crossing Resort (there’s that word again) in Katherine was to be our home for the next few days. We randomly picked it out of the accommodation guide we had and it turned out that all the sites had ensuites (fancy French name for an outside dunny and shower). We’d never had one of these before although we hear they are a favourite amongst the GN’s (gray nomads). After we’d checked in we made a B-line for the Cutta Cutta caves about 20 minutes out of town to catch the last guided tour for the day. Ashleigh was a bit apprehensive about going underground again but once she saw how big and well lit up they were she was OK. The caves had some beautiful stalactite formations and flow stones in them. The name Cutta Cutta means many stars in the local aboriginal language and when the lights caught the crystal structures the right way they sparkled just like the stars.

The next day we planned to hire a canoe and paddle up the gorge but when I found out the price I nearly had a heart attack. Being the 5 of us, we had had to hire two 2 person canoes and a single kayak, all for a grand total of $168 for 4 hours!! I could just about buy a canoe for that! It was only marginally more to go on a cruise which took in two gorges (the canoes you could only do one) so we bit the bullet and booked in for a late afternoon cruise. This gave us the morning top head off to Edith Falls, a beautiful part of the northern reaches of Katherine NP. The walk to the top of the first falls and then back down the other side, finishing with a swim in the lagoon at the end was a wonderful (and cheap!) way to spend the morning.


The afternoon boat cruise was very good. The gorge looked spectacular in the late afternoon light and I was glad we got the opportunity to see the second (of 13) gorge too as I thought it was more breathtaking than the first. We even saw some freshwater crocodiles basking in the sun. For some reason, this put an end to any ideas Leanne might have had about going for a swim in the river before we went home!

We couldn’t leave Katherine without having a dip in the hot springs in town so we decided to visit them in the morning after we broke camp. The springs were every much as good as those in Mataranka we had visited several weeks ago. The only problem was that Leanne had here thongs stolen (her best town thongs with the sparkly bits on the straps)!! We were warned by some people when we arrived that the local aboriginal’s come down and steal clothes and we thought we had covered everything up well enough. I guess some people’s the desire for free footwear is stronger than any sense of community or respect for the tourists that come and put money into the local economy.

We departed Katherine late morning for a (relatively) short drive to Daly Waters and its famous pub.