Canoeing on Katherine River, 8th Sepember 2007

Packed our lunch, drinks, camera and off we went back to Katherine Gorge. We got there and the couple in front of us were the couple with the kangaroo thief last night. We got our canoe and packed our things in to a water proof container.Then off we went, it was great fun trying to paddle together (in rhythm). We were not the best at first, but we were not the worst either. A couple of Japanese girls were paddling in circles and from one side to the other. We got the end of the first gorge really quickly. We had to put our canoe on the sandy banks and walk to the next gorge and pick up our second canoe. This was more light weight, as we were going to carry it from the 2nd gorge to the 3rd, its about 100 meters. Just before we got to the sandy banks, we saw a man in his 20's sat on a rock, he then stood up and walk away, totally nude. We found out later from another couple their was a girl there too and they were of course "German".
In the second gorge we found our rhythm and started having some real fun. Exploring the gorge and the sights. We took lots of photos of us two and the canoe. We had a little trouble carrying the canoe over the 100 meter stretch, as it was a bit heavier than we thought, but we did it and I helped a couple of women with theirs too. Now this gorge only had about 5 canoe in it as most people only do the 1st and 2nd, so it was really great and peaceful here. We stopped and walked up to a place called the lilly pond falls, but it was dry, as it was the dry season.It was a nice walk though.We just cruised along until we reached the end of gorge 3. We had our lunch on the rocks next to the water and explored the way to the next gorge. It looked over 500 meters of rocks and we decided not to go any further and got back into our canoe and let the wind blow us back down the gorge. All along the gorge the are signs telling you not to bank some sandy areas as this is the nesting grounds for the fresh water croc's (Freshies). We never saw a croc and didn't go to the sand banks with sighs. I climbed up a rock face while Hannah waited in the canoe for me. At the top I found some Aboriginal rock art of snakes and crocs. We canoed into a swallows cave and saw the nesting birds. The scenery was fantastic. At the 1st gorge we walked back to our first canoe, had a swim as it was really hot and we started talking to the couple with the kangaroo thief. The were from NZ and have a hostel their. We took their names and the hostel name and may be we'll see them again!
After we got back we drove to Edith falls for the night and bumped in to Peter, our friend from WA (not Peter Kay the storker). We chatted about our day with him and called it a night after dinner. Feeling really tired and happy from our day canoeing Katherine Gorge!