Around Oz with the Munchkins: New friends, posh dinner cruises and birthday parties in Nitmiluk

The next morning, we packed up and, after a dip in the crusty spring-fed pool, drove a short while to Nitmiluk (Katherine Gorge). The campsite there was lovely and shady – with agile wallabies hopping everywhere and staring at us from their pretty white faces (not so cute later when they had eaten all our un-cooked spaghetti, one of Sasha’s puzzles and 5 pages of Zara’s scrapbook, but for now we oooohed and ahhhhed over them). It was still hot hot hot (a steady 38 degrees) and we were a bit reluctant to do the long walks up on the escarpment to view the gorge – we were told it is around 10 degrees hotter on the escarpment!). Kate did a shorter walk early one morning and the view of the first gorge were pretty spectacular, but we would have needed to do a longer, hotter walk to see the rest of the gorges. We were also keen to do a canoe trip but kids had to be over 5 and Sash will tell anyone within hearing distance that he is 4 so we couldn’t risk pretending. A helicopter ride was out of the question, so we booked ourselves onto a dinner cruise up the gorge for the following evening. We felt a bit posh, but it turned out to be a good move. Not only was the scenery pretty amazing, the food was great and we ended up joining a lovely family from Tasmania whom we had met at the campground that day. First we cruised and saw birds, plants, ancient rock art, and the towering cliffs of the gorge. Out driver and guide was a local Jawoyn man who was able to tell us a lot about the history of the people in the area and something about their culture. After a spectacular top end sunset, it was dinner time! Bill, Kate and our new friends, Astrid and Rohan, sat up on the adults table, sipping our wine and crocodile soup and ignoring the reigning chaos on the kids table next to us where Arlo (2), Raffy (5), Essie (7) joined Zara and Sash in leaning overboard, harassing the driver, drinking endless glasses of iced water, visiting the onboard toilet (and locking eachother in) and other general shenanigans. A lovely evening.

The rest of our Nitmilluk time was spent playing with our new friends, making masks, playing monopoly, visiting Katherine and spending endless hours in the campground pool. We was astonished to hear our first Stone Curlews at Nitmiluk - the funniest birds ever that run along with their heads pointed forwards and scream like angry children outside the tent at night. Most peculiar and slightly unnerving. Zara and Sash became extras in a funny video Astrid was making for her father’s birthday and so we all managed to wangle an invitation to a poolside party for a man we have never met. Happy Birthday Grandpa! Thanks for the great cake guys. Sad to say goodbye to Astrid, Rohan, Essie, Raffy and Arlo after only a few days but we look forward to seeing them again in Melbourne or Tassie.