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Katherine, Australia
14° 28' S 132° 15' E
Feb 20, 2006 10:54
Distance 106km

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Other entries in Katherine

The pros and cons of travelling North in the Wet

Text written in: English

On the negative side:

- There's hardly anywhere to swim. All the gorgeous swimming holes and thermal springs and waterfalls etc that we've read and heard about are either flooded or closed because the high water means that saltwater crocodiles have probably moved in. We'd heard rave reviews about Edith Falls and had planned to camp there for two nights - instead we spent about 15 minutes there this morning haven driven up from Katherine - the swimming hole was closed and there's only so much time three children can spend looking at a waterfall.

- Lots of things are closed. Caravan parks that advertise entertainment programs at night really mean ‘entertainment programs at night in the dry season, or when there's more than just one little family from Wollongong visiting.'

On the plus side:

- You get the place to yourself! We frolicked in Mataranka Thermal pool all on our own on Sunday morning (after our ‘round the breakfast table' church service, complete with singing ‘Rejoice in the Lord always' in a round led by Rosie). In the dry season when there's hundreds of people in the park apparantly you just have to wait your turn!

- The rain is quite refreshing. We have of course only experienced three downpours and they might just be baby ones by Territory standards for all we know, but they've been quite nice - the wind gets up and after it buckets down for a while it soon clears up and things dry off fairly quickly.

- Creation doesn't close. Katherine Gorge was still awe inspiring, and the quantity of water flowing through the river is quite amazing. The sun still paints the sky as it sets and the stars fill the sky at night.

So, weighing it all up, should you go to the Northern Territory in the wet season? Well, we're not about to fly home (at least not right at this moment, though if we'd taken a family vote at around 1pm today it would have been close). We've seen great stuff (and hopefully more on the way), we've got a bit of a feel of what it would be like to live here (dashing from one air-conditioned building to the next) and we're enjoying not being overrun with German tourists (not that there's anything particularly wrong with German tourists, there just seem to be a lot of them here, and lots more could be a bit, well, overwhelming).

Enough of the analysis... To keep you up to date with our movements: yesterday we went on a cruise up the first two gorges at Katherine Gorge. Today we've sat by the pool in the caravan park. Tomorrow we plan to drive to Berry Springs (where the natural springs are closed... so we'll sit by the pool at the caravan park) and go to the Territory Wildlife Park; have heard it has a good aquarium (don't worry, we've rung ahead and know that it's not closed).