Today’s off-train excursion on The Ghan is to Nitmiluk Gorge, formerly known as Katherine Gorge. Departure is at 9am, with breakfast from 6.30am. Something is rattling in my cabin during the night, and by 6am I’m up and in the shower. I’ve survived 2 days with a shared bathroom, but I could cheerfully choke my noisy, elderly, apparently deaf neighbours. There is no chance of me ever surviving living in a group retirement home for more than an hour or so.
Nitmiluk Gorge is 30km by bus from Katherine Railway Station, and requires two separate boats to do two sections of the gorge. Whilst we’re waiting for the boats to be loaded with passengers, much attention is paid to the estimated 100,000 flying foxes (fruit bats) roosting in the trees by the river. According to the ranger, a colony of 5,000 is normal, but the drier than normal ‘dry season’ has driven the bats to the waterline. They will apparently migrate downstream when it becomes hotter (33 degrees Celsius today), and when the rains come. In the meantime, there are more bats than mangoes hanging from the trees. Poor things, there’s no real shade and they are desperately trying to fan themselves with their wings.
It is nesting season for freshwater crocodiles, with signs posted not to walk on the patches of sandy beaches. Further into the second gorge, a 2m freshwater crocodile is sunning itself on the rocks, while keeping a watchful eye on the boat.
Freshwater Crocodile, Nitmiluk Gorge
The freshies aren’t a threat, and there are no shortage of tourists swimming in the waterhole in the first gorge.
This is the final outing on The Ghan before it arrives in Darwin. Like all of the stops since Adelaide, The Ghan rolls into Darwin precisely on schedule at 17:30, disgorging an additional 285 people into Darwin’s temporary population.
