Katherine Gorge 19/11/07 - 24/11/07

Katherine River at Sunset

Katherine is a town on the edge of the Katherine river, the first permanent river system that the explorers came upon when travelling north from Adelaide. The river has colonies of bats on the banks, walking past during the day you can hear the constant squabbling and on sunset the Bats take to the air in one great swarm.

Cutta Cutta caves - the Dragon Rock! This cave system runs through the limestone rock only 15 metres under the ground. Ghost bats are the main tenant of these caves, but the cave also has other occupants due to the bats, pythons. These snakes grab the bats as they leave the cave each evening.

Mitch and the stalactites.

Kate, looking in the mirror.

Katherine Gorge - famous for ......Rogue ( many scenes from this recent film was shot here).
Katherine Gorge, or Nitmiluk, as the local Aboriginal tribe calls it, is a truly beautiful place. The name Nitmiluk means place of Cicadas ( we though it should have been place of cliffs, or flooding water, or huge Gorge... ). The Jaywon people are the traditional owners of the gorge; most of the people who work in the gorge, run the information centre, canoe and boat tours, are Jaywon.

There are only fresh water crocs in the gorge, no dangerous salties, so we happily canoed and swam in the gorge. We canoed the length of the first gorge and swam in the second gorge. The whole gorge runs for 10 gorges (or so) and you can spend several days in a canoe and camp out on the banks.
Mitch and callum in the rapids between Gorge 1 and 2. During the wet season, the water level can rise 6 metres.


Swimming in Gorge 2, Callum, Mitchel and Richard are all in this picture, but can you find us?

Kate and Richard pondering the gorge.

Callum and Mitch ready to fight those fresh water crocs.. Mitch thinks he is from Men In Black.

Bolung is the spirit that the local Aboriginal people believe lived and died here in the second gorge. The locals have a great respect for this place and will not fish or swim around this spot.

Sunset over Katherine River, this is the entrance to the gorge. Callum found a lizard.... but it died.. we think it had a heart attack.

The Howe family..... trying to look casual...!

Crocodile traps at the entrance to the gorge to catch salt water crocodiles. These traps are tied to the swimming entry point. Kate wouldn't swim.. but I had checked the traps.. and there where no crocs. These traps can hold a 5 metre croc.

A Banded Honey Eater - very cheeky.. he was after our food.

Mitch took this shot. This is a blue winged Kookaburra. They are slightly smaller than their Sydney cousins and have beautiful blue wings.

Callum spotted this face....

...on the back of this moth.

Tragedy!!! We've broken down!

......and are enjoying a longer stay in Katherine.

As we were leaving the gorge, our radiator started to bleed coolant! We are now waiting for a new radiator to arrive from Sydney.

It could be worse... we could be at work/school!

The Tropics - Gunlom falls - 18/11/07

Kakadu Gunlom Falls

Pools at the top of Gunlom Falls, and guess what, the Crocs are good at swimming, but not so good at climbing. We had these pools to ourselves.

This was Kate's favourite spot in Kakadu.

The boys in the pools. It was about 36 degrees out of the water.

Spot the camper. The view from the top of Gunlom falls, ours is the only car in the Carpark.. can you find the camper?

The pool at the bottom of Gunlom Falls.

Said the frog to the fly. There were hundreds of these little frogs at Gunlom.

The Ranger

I have an old school friend. John, a man I have known for since I was a kid. Every year, when I visit Brisbane, I look my mate John up. I find out what he is up to, have dinner and a beer, and we talk about our plans.

This time, when passing through Brisbane, I could not track John down. He had left me a message a month before, and in the rush to leave for the Howe's big trip, I did not get back to him. So on this occasion I left a message, and regretted not having called him earlier.

Travelling up through central Queensland, our first major stop was at Carnarvon Gorge, a beautiful National Park and a great spot for wildlife. In the information centre they have a display of insects, spiders, and snakes. Mitch, curious as always, wanted to know about a strange looking moth. The Ranger on duty could not help, so sent Mitch off to the head Ranger's office to get the moth identified. My old mate John was ready for a kid with a question, but was more than a bit surprised to see the eldest Howe boy in his office. I was amazed to find John.


John had left his comfortable job in Brisbane to take on the Ranger In Charge position for Carnarvon Gorge. John had a successful IT career in Brisbane and a comfortable home on the outskirts of town. Trading the comforts of city life and air conditioning for the hot weather and wild beauty of the National Parks.

It is a very brave step, which also requires the support of his loving (and forgiving) wife Carolyn, to move to the bush.

It was great to see John, and even better to find that he had followed his dream.

The Tropics - Kakadu 12/11 - 17/11

Adelaide River - Crocodile Cruise

Spectacular trip along the Adelaide River on the edge of the Kakadu National Park. There are around 3000 Crocodiles living in this river alone. The Crocodiles have been protected from hunting since the 1970's and are now widespread in the Kakadu and Arnhem Land.

The females grow to 3.5 metres and males can grown up to 6 metres.

Stumpy was the largest croc we saw at 4.5 metres. Called Stumpy because he had lost a leg in a fight with another male over territory. The females stay in one area of the river, one every 60-100 metres, with the males roaming up and down the river covering a number of their girlfriends areas.

These Saltwater Crocodiles eat, fish, birds, kangaroo, other Crocodiles, and anything else they can catch. The Crocodiles are very dangerous and kill several people a year in Australia.
Mitchel and Callum really enjoyed this boat trip, the crocs were jumping out of the water to take pieces of meat from the guide.. we got very close to the action. On these boat trips, you have to keep your head inside the boat so the Crocodile does not mistake it for food.




The croc can leap it's full body length out of the water, the guide kept the boat moving to keep us safe.





The birds of prey are common. The Whistling Kite can catch it's prey but also steals food from other birds. Mitchel and Callum can now hear the Whistling Kite before we can spot the birds.



Kakadu National Park - Ubirr rock art. The Aboriginals have been living around Ubirr for 20,000 years, and some of art is as old. Much of art is of the favourite foods of this area.

Barramundi.. good tucker.

Top of Ubirr rock.. Richard knows which way to go....

The boys agree with Richard's directions.....

Mitch... doing what Mitch does.....!

Kakadu is a world heritage site, a 20,000 squared km National Park. It is special because it is one of the few wetlands on Earth and a significant Aboriginal cultural site. Kate and Richard had a bet as to which National Park is larger: Kruger National Park in South Africa or Kakadu.. do you know which? Richard won a breakfast (although there is only 170 square km difference).

The happy crew at Nourlangie, Crocs and birds are not the only common wildlife in Kakadu.

Mitch and Richard did the Baark walk to the top of Nourlangie. Spectacular views of the lowlands from Mitch's rock.

The Lightning Spirit lives here. The Kakadu area gets an average of 80 lightning strikes per day. We are here in the Storm season, and we hear thunder every day.

Guess who....!

Yellow River, actually Jim Jim Creek... the river is rotten with Crocodiles and alive with bird life.

Paperbarks line the waterway, and the aboriginals used the bark to make canoes and shelters. The bark is waterproof.

Spot the reptile. In this area the Crocodile would eat Magpie geese, this meal would last an adult croc a week and a half.

A croc on the bank, the open mouth is for cooling.

Too cool for school! Mitch needs a haircut ( or pony tails...).

The females make nests and lay eggs on the banks. The eggs take about 3 months to hatch.

A Jabiru (an Australian stork) and Australia's largest flight bird. A Jabiru can the crack a turtle's shell, and likes to eat turtles, fish, and small crocodiles.

We really enjoyed this cruise, it was at sunset and we got caught in a storm.

A Saint Andrews Cross Spider... Kate loves spiders...............not...!

A Cattle Egret

Mitchel's favourite bird.. a Darter.. a great fisherman. This Darter was singing the Elanora School song as we passed.