Katherine Gorge

July  5,  2002

This is the beautiful Katherine Gorge.  This was the most beautiful thing I had seen so far.  I was waiting to see green, water, and trees.  Don't get me wrong, I have seen a lot of beautiful country here, but there is only so much desert and barren hills before they started to blend together.  Katherine Gorge was water.  This formation was created by water and that water was still flowing.  This was "the dry" meaning the dry season.  The river here in the dry flowed faster and deeper than most rivers I see back home.  Once on this trip we had to get out and walk about 200 yards to a second boat on the other side of some rocks, but that broke up the boat ride and made it even more enjoyable. During "the wet",   I am told the water will rise 6 meters above where it is now.  That is about 16 feet highter or to the top of the trees in the third picture, or a quarter of the way up in the second.  I have a hard time even imagining that much water.  Cactus Jack, my personal mascot,  made an appearance on this trip becaue he would not miss a chance to get out on the water.  Can you spot the six fruit bats hanging from the tree in this picture?  There were hundreds of these flying fox, or fruit bats, at the visitor center at Katherine Gorge. Below is a snap of the railroad bridge crossing the Katherine River just outside the town of Katherine.  There is a water marker on this pillar.  It is hard to read in this photo, but the water is now at  the zero mark.  The stick starts at 3 meters and the bottom of the bridge is 19 meters.  That's a lot of water!





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