Now we can tick Katherine off the 'Bucket List'! We have just had 3 days at the Riverview Top Tourist Park on Victoria Highway. We chose that park as it was within walking distance of the Toyota Dealership and Peter had the car booked in for a service on Monday morning. It proved to be a good choice as the 'Thermal Pool' was only a 400 metre walk from the back gate of the park and there was a 1.2 km low level walk along the river, heading west. This walk took us to the low level river crossing near the Big4 Caravan Park. We did that walk on Tuesday morning and the mist rising from the warm river water, into the crisp morning air was quite beautiful. Hope I have been able to capture it with the camera. We honked reception as we left this morning! Well the sign did say to do that if you had enjoyed your stay! So what about the spelling of the town Katherine.  When we visited the Museum we found out the John McDouall Stuart had named the town and this is the info that tells the story of the misspelling:  John McDouall Stuart reached the Katherine River at a point approximately 90 km upstream from the present town.

Katherine Thermal Springs in NT

  It is recorded that he wrote in his diary:  Came upon another large creek, having a running stream to the south of west, and coming from the north of east.  This I have named the 'Katherine' in honour of the second daughter of James Chambers Esq.  James Chamber's daughters name was actually spelt Catherine, but Stuart's misspelling has never been changed.The entry sign to the town also says that 'Katherine is the birthplace of Cadel Evans'.  The timeline at the Museum informed us that the sign was put there in 2011, when Cadel won the Tour de France.  Obviously before that, it didn't really matter that he had been born in Katherine!The highlight of our stay in Katherine was the four hour, three gorge cruise on Tuesday afternoon. There is a morning and an afternoon cruise and if you do the 'Ultimate Three Gorge Cruise' you get a 'Nitmiluk' bag of goodies to sustain you for the four hours. The gorges are absolutely beautiful. The boat can't get all the way up until the wet season and then the cruise only takes 45 minutes. We cruised through gorge number one and our aboriginal skipper told us all about crocs laying their eggs and the various uses of river bank trees by the aborigines. He was a humorous little fella and said "It was his first trip". Not sure if that was truly the case, but he certainly had us convinced that there was a baby croc sleeping on a branch, on the riverbank, just sitting out of the water!  It was a bit hard to see, but we did eventually find him and there were cameras constantly clicking.  As we moved further on our skipper made a comment "That it was probably a plastic croc"!  The more I thought about it, I'm sure that was what we were photographing!  All fun for the tourists and I'm sure it is fun for them too!  To get to gorge number two, we left our first boat and walked 600 metres over rocks and down steps to another boat. Gorge number two was the most spectacular. Truly beautiful. Our little skipper talked about the film that was made there in the 1980's named 'Jedda'. I think one of the scenes was filmed there.  I can see we are going to have to get a few DVD's out and watch them when we get home.  We got out of the boat again to go to the the last gorge.  We had a few rocks to negotiate before we tied up and did our short walk to another boat.  There was about a metre and a half of water over the rocks in the middle of the river, but it will drop to only half a metre before the wet season.  The water is quite high at the moment as they had rain in Katherine in April.  We tied up for the afternoon swim where there were lots of rocks.  We were able to clamber  over them for photo shoots.  A fair percentage of the passengers had worn their bathers and they went for a swim.  We stayed there for an hour.  It was a bit longer than we would have liked, but it gave the swimmers plenty of time.  We didn't bother wearing the bathers.  In actual fact the water was quite cold and we aren't that fussed about having a dip and sitting around in wet bathers!  Plus we saw a freshwater crocodile as soon as we pulled up to the swimming place.   Fresh water crocodiles are supposed to be okay most of the time!  A croc is a croc we reckon!In the morning we went to the Katherine Museum.  It is on Gorge Road, so it worked in well to do that on our way out to the 'Nitmiluk Visitor Centre'.  We took a picnic lunch, but we did support the Museum fundraising by purchasing a devonshire morning tea when we got there.  Peter says "They definitely weren't CWA scones though"!  The Museum has been established within very large grounds, which are very well maintained by the community.  As you drive in there is a large community garden.  Many stories are shared at the Museum such as:  The 1998 Australia Day Flood, The Three Townships of Katherine, The Russian Peanut Farmers, The Overland Telegraph Station, Katherine's Aviation History and Katherine at War in WW2.  The main exhibit is 'Dr Clyde Fenton's Gypsy Moth Areoplane'.  This was the plane he flew in the 1930's while pioneering his aeromedical work.  There are also many aboriginal stories relating to the 'Stolen Generation'.  Also stories about 'Sabu Sing' who was a legendary stockman and is now a 'Town Icon'. There is a bronze sculpture of Sabu Sing on his horse, in the main street. The way the display boards were placed around the walls with the 'Katherine Timeline' above, worked extremely well for a tourist to get a real feel for the town. 

Although the couple we sat with for our evening at the 'Daly Waters Pub', disliked Katherine with a passion, we enjoyed our three days there.  Sure there were plenty of abos hanging around the shopping area and there was lots of broken glass in the carpark at the Visitor and Information Centre.  But they weren't drunk, they were just sitting around!  The weather was divine and there is quite a bit to see and enjoy in the town.  20 photos