{"id":2328,"date":"2016-12-18T19:40:47","date_gmt":"2016-12-18T08:40:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.stillaslife.com\/?p=2328"},"modified":"2020-10-29T01:18:47","modified_gmt":"2020-10-28T14:18:47","slug":"darwin-to-perth-day-2-katherine-to-kununurra-via-nitmiluk","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stillaslife.com\/fr\/darwin-to-perth-day-2-katherine-to-kununurra-via-nitmiluk\/","title":{"rendered":"Darwin \u00e0 Perth Jour 2 - Katherine \u00e0 Kununurra via Nitmiluk"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Driving<\/a>
Driving between Katherine NT and Kununurra WA<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Day 2, driving from Katherine, NT to Kununurra, WA is long\u00a0but pretty amazing. I thought I’d start with a quick summary of the adventure:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. An early start to go on the sunrise cruise at Nitmiluk (Katherine Gorge).<\/li>\n
  2. Headed West towards the WA border.<\/li>\n
  3. Stopped at Victoria Crossing roadhouse for fuel.<\/li>\n
  4. Drove through Timber Creek.<\/li>\n
  5. Crossed the WA\/NT border and had our van checked at the quarantine station<\/li>\n
  6. Turned off to Lake Argyle and checked out the lookout and shop there.<\/li>\n
  7. Got to Kununurra, got a few more groceries, checked into the Hidden Valley caravan park and then went to Miramar National Park to see the striped hive formations there.<\/li>\n
  8. Back to the caravan park for dinner and bed.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    We covered about 620km’s, so it was a pretty long day, and there isn’t much of anything along the road. The sunrise cruise at Nitmiluk though was fantastic and well worth doing.<\/p>\n

    Nitmiluk Sunrise Cruise<\/h3>\n

    The day warmed up very quickly and even from the time the sun began to reach us in the gorge we could feel the heat, so we were extremely glad we got in early and did this one. The sunrise also added a lot of colour variation within the gorge itself, highlighting some areas with vibrant orange and leaving others in shadows.<\/p>\n

    \"Nitmiluk<\/a>
    Nitmiluk Katherine Gorge Colours at Sunrise<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

    It’s only a few dollars more expensive than the rest of the 2-gorge cruises during the day, and I would guess generally has fewer people on it. The next group that was waiting when we got back was a lot bigger, so in my opinion, it’s a win for beauty, comfort and time. I say time because we were finished so early we had the whole day afterwards to do a lot of other things – in our case, drive the 620km’s from Katherine to Kununurra via Lake Argyle.<\/p>\n

    \n

    We booked the cruise online the night before, so when we turned up at the visitor centre, they pointed us straight down to the wharf. There we were greeted by friendly staff and had some complimentary muffins and a hot drink. They had hot chocolate as well as tea and coffee, so that was nice. It’s all self-serve, so it isn’t super fancy but does help to make it feel that little bit more special given that the rest of the cruises throughout the day don’t get that little nicety. Once it was time to board our boat we were taken down the ramp which is a pretty easy slope and I would say could be managed in a wheelchair. There we boarded our boat and off we went.<\/p>\n

    \"On<\/a>
    On board our first boat at Nitmiluk Katherine Gorge<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

    We made our way through the first gorge listening to the rather interesting commentary of our guide. It turns out that Katherine Gorge aka Nitmiluk is actually a series of thirteen gorges that are accessible depending on the amount of water in them following the wet season. We also learned about crocodiles and how to tell the difference between fresh and saltwater crocs. Our guide also explained to us how the saltwater crocodiles get so far south and how the park rangers trap and remove them from the gorge. We learned how Nitmiluk was named in Aboriginal, as well as how it got the name, Katherine, in English. We also learned how the gorge system works, filling in the wet season and flowing out to the ocean, then dwindling in the dry system, with a series of gorges joined but also separated such that it is impossible to navigate the length of them entirely by boat.<\/p>\n