The alarm sounded at 5:00am. We had booked a dawn cruise on Katherine Gorge and had determined on the previous day that we needed to depart the caravan park at 6:00am. The plan was to return to the park immediately following the cruise, hitch-up and vacate our site prior to 10:00am, the designated latest check-out time.
We had no problem rising and after preparing and drinking a coffee (together with our daily meds), we were on the road in the dark for our 25k drive to the gorge. Shortly after departing we saw a kangaroo vacate space near the road (our kangaroo whistles may be working after all), but we had to slow for another vehicle travelling very slowly. We still arrived at the gorge car park with plenty of time to spare.
Included in our fee for the cruise was a light breakfast. After pouring a coffee, “He” stepped backwards and fell down two concrete steps landing heavily on his shoulder and grazing his arm. The side of his head also came into contact with a steel pole. There was no light in the area where coffee was being served (yes it was still very dark) nor was there any indication of the presence of the steps. A suitable phone call will be made to the operator when we arrive in Darwin.
Several people came to his aid and a “head to toe” was performed. One of the other tourists provided a band-aid for his arm. After resting for several minutes, “he” was able to regain his feet unassisted. Other than the gash in his arm and bruising to the upper arm and shoulder, “he” appeared to be OK. Naturally his head and neck was of more concern but “he” was confident there was no damage done in that area. Time will only tell!
We did go on the cruise, we did enjoy travelling through the first gorge by boat, walking to the second gorge before boarding another boat and then doing the same in reverse. Katherine Gorge is amazing, the rock formations, the sheer cliffs, the native wildlife including fresh water crocs, all have to be seen. We were able to look at two of the gorges, the other eleven will have to wait.
We arrived back at the caravan park close to 9:30am and were on our way to Kakudu just before 10:00am. We had to refuel before leaving Katherine and said farewell to others in our group deciding we would catch then sometime before arriving at our proposed destination. With 260k’s to travel, we should have caught up in a little over an hour, we never did. Later we would learn that the couples who we were trying to catch had deviated off the route for coffee. We drove straight through to the destination without stopping.
We were allocated five sites close together and being first there, we really had the opportunity to pick the best site. We actually chose the site we thought best for the caravan. By the time others arrived, we were setup with the van being cooled by our air-conditioning.
The temperature was 35c, our fridge temperature was showing close to 7c so we decided to stay put for the afternoon. We did decide to have happy hour at the resort bar and after several drinks, we stayed there for our evening meal. We both had barramundi which was absolutely fantastic. The serves were very generous and the cost was more than acceptable.
Having booked another dawn cruise on Monday (at Corrinda), we were in bed around 9:00pm. We left the air-conditioning running all night. Even though “He” was in pain in the shoulder region from the fall, we both slept well.