Mays offthemooring part II

In part I of holiday #25 with the Mays we covered Kakadu and discovered the sensational Maguk. Part II was to cover other highlights in the region including Katherine (Nitmiluk) and Litchfield National Park.

But we didn’t fancy the drive all the way from Kakadu to Katherine and so when we spotted a little gorge, Umbrawarra Gorge, that didn’t feature on any of the big tourist brochures we went to suss it out. We caught it just on sunset, which I rather suspect is prime time for this gorge.

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That night we learnt that Andy can dance, when he wandered around the back of his van and nearly stepped on this guy:

And now, with great expectations, onto the much acclaimed Katherine Gorge (or Nitmiluk as it is renamed). We made the decision to skip over the boat tour and also the half day canoeing tour in favour of the full day canoeing epic. And on being epic it didn’t disappoint.

Heavily armed and dangerous with 5 canoes, 10 paddles, 4 adults, 6 children, tonnes of water and provisions enough to make the English Navy proud, we set off. The briefing was that there were 5 gorges to paddle across with ‘portages’ in between where we would need to carry the canoes to the next gorge. Portage, in my minds eye, is something English Explorers used to frequent in exotic locations and involves sipping pimms and eating cucumber sandwiches while hired local help carries your canoe and provisions over an obstacle. The genius plan was the kids were going to be the hired help, and by allocating 4 kids to a canoe and with each child making multiple trips, we would be across.

And then we got presented with this:

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We left reception a party of about 25 people (10 in our group). Only us and a Dutch family made it past obstacle #1, everyone else declaring it unassailable. Then there was obstacle two, three, four and five…

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In the fine tradition of English explorers, and knowing there was a return trip we started leaving depots of gear, canoes, children, food and water. In this way, by the time we got to the last gorge (the only group to make it this far we should note), we were down to just 1 canoe meaning that we had to swim not paddle the last stretch.

Supremacy over the Dutch in this way established, we collapsed onto the beach on the far side to bask in our glory. Only Katie spoiled the moment by examining her watch, doing some maths and working out that after three hours of intense exercise, we only had 15mins rest time before we needed to turn around and do it all again in reverse in order to make the last boat home!

Luckily the return trip was down wind, and with necessity being the mother of all invention, our tired bodies came up with a means to get us home.

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At one point Daniel fell (ok Andy pushed him) out of his canoe into the water. We were all having a laugh but he was panicking about crocodiles. We assured him there were none, and then:

Yikes. That was a day out. Home, dinner in the cafe, in bed at 9pm.

Next day, so well thought out, there was hot springs to soothe exhausted bodies. A pretty cool feature: dive down at the source with goggles on and you can see the spring disappearing deep into and underground tunnel.

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Enough rest already, on to Edith Falls. A beautiful free camping spot, right by some pools, and some lovely opportunities to walk up stream and discover further pools and falls all of your own.

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And that brings us to our final stop, the much acclaimed Litchfield National Park. And it was here that we invented Bum Dams. Now the May-Moors have a long tradition in determining that a particular river or other was in the wrong spot, and needed to be dammed and diverted along a more suitable path. We have been occupied by this pursuit right across the world, from the Scottish highlands to the mountain streams of New Zealand, the tropics of Asia and the colder climates of Tasmania. But never before had we encountered the smooth, impenetrable and certainly immobile rock that makes up waterfalls and rock pools of Litchfield. A new technique was required, and looking around for the most suitable resource at hand to us, we found that it was bottoms!

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We became so proficient in this endeavour that we could, at will, target a waterfall, decommission that waterfall, establish a new waterfall somewhere else, and then reinstate the original waterfall only with twice the flow. Mostly we were on our own, but at times our activities caused some consternation downstream when people lined up for a waterfall photo only for that waterfall to suddenly dry up, show up somewhere else, and then revert to the original location with a sudden rush, in one place coming close to washing people off their ledge.

There was no obvious limitation as to how long Bum Dams could be pursued, but to break things up a bit, we did a day 4WDing. Straight off the bitumen, the first water crossing had it all: exit point not visible from entry point, muddy water so cant see the depth, and crocodile warning signs everywhere.

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And now for the last laugh.

Since we left Sydney, Daniel has never missed an opportunity to pick up a fishing brochure and pitch the idea of a family fishing trip to us. Not much of a fishing family, he hadn’t been successful to date, but we felt terrible about constantly denying him something he was clearly committed to. Being as we were in what I understand to be a Barramundi Mecca, it seemed right that we finally grant him his wish.

32 Deg and 3hrs and 40 mins later, everyone had caught something….except Daniel! He’d had two big fights with some monsters, but they had both got away. The support crew were hot, hungry, and that starting point over three hours ago hadn’t been one of excessive enthusiasm! But Daniel, and the codger who ran the shop couldn’t be diverted from the task. Daniel catching a fish is standing in the way of everyone getting their lunch and some cold water.

…and then we were on! Daniel’s rod is bent double. He looks at risk of being pulled in. All 10 of us gather around. It’s an epic struggle. The fish makes multiple runs. The reel squeals at each run. In between Daniel grinds away to bring him back to the pontoon. Suddenly expert fisherman, everyone’s shouting advice. The net’s in the water. The fish runs again. Daniel’s still winding. The fish sits on the rim of the net…and dives again. Georgia: “you’ve got to be kidding!”… Until finally…A FISH. Hurray! Now please lets go for tea.

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And that’s where we’ll leave you. A fond farewell at camp and we were each headed back to Darwin independently. The Mays to fly out back to Albania, us to down tools in Darwin for a bit and recharge our batteries ready to assault the Kimberly next week. Another cracking holiday, so glad we found this family to make these amazing memories with and looking forwards to doing it again soon (we are thinking a yacht in the Med 2020).

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