Katherine was another winner for us.
We stopped at the Cutta Cutta caves on the way in. A local aboriginal name meaning "Place of a many stars". It was a really beautiful walk through limestone with an informative guide. The high humidity in the cave causes larder crystals to grow in the various cave formations so that some areas are particularly brilliantly sparkling. Impossible to capture in a photo of course but we tried:
We stumbled on an community art show which was great fun. Live music, maybe 1000 people there and all art made from upcycled materials. Some of the work was actually really cool (in my humble opinion!).
Pretty good grub too. I was heartened to see an anti-fracking group there who shared with me that there are some prominent members of this movement among the Maningrida Elders so I look forward to meeting them. I had to buy a T shirt and I chose this one with a message written in Kriol.
Kriol is the second most spoken language in the NT. A hybrid of Pidgin English and multiple different aboriginal languages. It has some subtypes in particular large tribal groups but there is a recognised specific language. I found it's origin fascinating (thanks Wikipedia). In 1908 an Anglican Mission was established at Roper River (right where we just were in Mataranka!) and about 200 children from variously traumatised and culturally diverse backgrounds were thrown together in a single dormitory. The common language was a broken Port Jackson Pidgin English. In their lifetime these children were almost entirely responsible for the development of a language which is now estimated to be spoken by 20,000 people. As Maningrida is a town with several tribal presences, Kriol is spoken commonly there.
We stayed at another lovely campground just north of Katherine in a National Park called Edith Falls. The series of pools and waterfalls throughout the park was magnificent.
The drawcard of the region was of course Katherine Gorge, or Nitmiluk National Park. Another major tourist attraction that didn't disappoint. There are actually 13 gorges in the larger gorge complex, each separated by raised rocky barriers. We cruised through 3 gorges and it was magnificent. The scenery is amazing and the fact that it is broken up is actually extra fun as each barrier requires a boat change with a walk across a rocky platform that wends along the river with access to many amazing ancient aboriginal artworks. At the end we climbed into a natural pool above the main river to enjoy a swim.
And so our travels are ended. We move now to Darwin and surrounds, staying first with Aunt and Uncle Meg and Paul and then into a more central accomodation for my orientation to begin in Darwin (Scary!). Our campervan had done some hard yards over the last 9 weeks so I'm sure she will be happy to have a rest for a while.
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