3 River Rats Abroad

Yet Another Canoe Trip up the Gorge

Went for another canoe recently with Mia, Cj, Dino, Anna and Leanne. Great day perfect weather good workout.

Last Sunday i took Mia and Baylee for a canoe on the Gorge. On our early morning drive to the Gorge we passed an Echidna in the middle of the road. This is the first time i have seen one in the Territory after 20 odd years of living here, so i was pretty excited. I was so worried he/she would be run over that i threw a towel over he/she and begged Mia to pick it up and move him/her to the side of the road. She did this after much begging and " you can do it, it wont hurt you " , i thought I'd drop it if i tried. Mia moved him safely off the road amid much hissing from the echidna and we continued on, happy that he was safe.

The Gorge is always beautiful but more so early in the morning. The weather was perfect, chilly but not real cold. A strong wind made the paddle to the first Gorge very tiring but we made it.

We left the canoes and taking our snacks we walked around to the second gorge to find a nice spot to sit and eat. At this stage there were no other people around, i don't know where the owners of the other 2 canoes were.

Walking to second gorge

second gorge

The girls braved the cold water for a swim, watched by a tour group walking on the other side.

I tried to find some birds and found this fellow, Sulphur Crested White Cockatoo

The girls swam back to the canoes while i played mule and carried everything. In our absence a few more canoes had turned up.

Mermaids on a rock

Heading back. The girls had a double canoe and i had a single one, my first time in a single and i think i will stick to the single from now on because i found it so much easier to paddle and control than the double.

The girls did a good job paddling and didn't weave all over the river like Clare and i did !

Not a very good hiding spot girls

I was so busy clicking away that i beached the canoe, the girls came over to see what the problem was.

Baylee took this one with her phone of me powering up the river, the young ones just couldn't hack the pace i set ....when i saw this photo i saw how low in the water my canoe was, must have been caused by the weight of the backpack ..mmmmmm

Painting

my girls

Show day

Anna doing the high bits for me

thank you Anna, the place is looking brand new.

I Wonder What The Rich Are Doing ?

While everyone else was at work Clare and i decided to Canoe up Katherine Gorge, our goal was the end of the 3rd Gorge at Lily Ponds. We hit the water very inelegantly at 8am, no one around but us or no one else silly enough but us.

It seemed to take hours but was only about 30mins to reach the 1st Gorge. This is where you leave your canoe and walk around the rocks into the 2nd Gorge.

Once in the 2nd Gorge you select another canoe and off you go.

Try as we might Clare and i could not keep our canoe in a straight line. We zig zagged all over the river, very embarrassing which is why we stopped and took photos every time other canoes or a boat would come past. Going up was hard work, gale force winds coming straight at us and because it was early the sun was in just the right spot to render us blind. We tried to stay in the shadows which meant colliding with the rock walls now and then..we did laugh at ourselves, what else was there to do ?

We reached Lily Ponds in 2 hours which was pretty good time, we had no feeling in our arms or legs but 2 hours is good, if we had paddled in a straight line we probably could have done it in an hour..but we'll never know. Above is the 4th Gorge which is not canoeable. This is the end of the road for day canoe hire, you can go further on an over night hire which we plan to do one day soon. We left the canoe and walked over the rocks looking for a good spot to sit and eat.

Having lunch ( above ) our view is the 5th Gorge not far from Smitt Rock. It was so beautiful and quiet, hard to believe we were only about 30klms from town and home.

While i traversed back over the rocks with the cameras and bags, Clare swam back to the canoe. The water was freezing but this never bothers her.

Our paddle back was easier because the wind was now behind us and we moved faster, still zigzagged though. I blame Clare because she was in the back of the canoe and therefore in charge of steering !

The couple below passed us in a straight line..show offs. We had a lovely day, ached all over for the next 2 days but it was worth it. All this 20 mins from home...i wonder what the rich are doing cause us poor buggers are paddling the Katherine River and loving it.

Lily Ponds Walk with 2 old chooks and one slightly younger.

Saturday morning 8am, we set off for the 20klm walk to Lily Ponds above Katherine Gorge. Armed only with water, food and enthusiasm, we headed off into the unknown...half of it was unknown to us.