yes with a ‘k’. we are now officially in the northern territory!
we have not seen much of katherine, though: after a long day on the road we arrived quite late. it took us about 9 hours from kununurra to katherine, with two short stops. one for fuel and another one to book a camp site (camps generally close at 1600 but by 1800 they have all well and truly gone night-night.
the first part of the trip was typical for the area around kununurra: flat, with sparse vegetation and great boab trees.
btw: boabs are related to the baobabs of africa and madagascar. scientists are unsure when and how they got there but think it has not been too long ago. one scientist even suggested they could have been brought to australia with the first humans. anyway, we love their chubby and slightly obese looks. totally huggable.
as we followed the victoria river and drove through the gregory national park the landscape changed. massive plateaus and sheer rock faces dominate the landscape and there are more trees.
we stopped at joe’s creek to take a few pictures. on the way in we saw an injured wedge tailed eagle. there is something profoundly wrong with the vision of such a majestic flyer hopping around awkwardly on the ground. however, we didn’t think it would take any attempt on our side to pick it up and bring it to a ranger or vet too kindly; those claws and the beak look the business. natalie alerted the people at victoria roadhouse not far away and they promised to tell the rangers. we hope they’ll be able to sort him out.
and we’ll be doing a bit of exploring here in katherine tomorrow. we’ll be spending the next few weeks between katherine, lichfield, darwin and kakadu (maybe a bit of arnhem land) and need to work out how to best get around. i’m sure the guys at the local tourist information center will have a few handy hints.