So last night I forgot to mention that Mark Webber was on the dinner cruise with us and a recording crew from the series ‘What’s Up Downunder’. Stay tuned, we could be stars!

This morning we headed out on the more serious MTB tracks. At least on these ones there weren’t man-made obstacles put in to make the ride harder (like yesterday), the obstacles were there themselves! We climbed 100m along gravel, river beds, rocks and sand and there was a bit of pushing the bike for me to get there. Was I out of my depth? Yes. Did I get there? Yes. Did I fall off? No – amazing I know. Even I am surprised. I think I can officially say Bob has effectively completed his recovery from his accident at Xmas based on the riding he has done on the last 2 days. Now just to get more range of motion into his knee.

We rode the bikes to Pat’s lookout where I was quite chuffed when I saw how high we were over the gorge.

We chained the bikes up for the next 2.5km as it was designated for experienced mountain bikers only and I’m pretty sure a practice ride yesterday and this morning’s ride don’t classify me for that. We walked to Jeddha’s Rock and overlooked all the places we cruised last night.

Then we backtracked in the heat going mostly downhill (which came with it’s own challenges) and made it safely to the van.

Karen and Kieran arrived back this evening after a full and very enjoyable couple of days. Karen has put together a commentary of their time canoeing:

The Scott’s embarked on a 2 day kayak adventure in a hired double kayak. A boat took us up Gorge 1 and we managed to squeeze all our dry bags of gear into the kayak. The campsite for the night had to be booked online beforehand so we were committed to paddling through to gorge 9 (the furthest available!!). The gorges are separated by rock obstacles that vary in difficulty. We soon left the 1/2 day and 1 day paddlers behind. By mid afternoon on the first day we were approaching Gorge 9 and our muscles were screaming – not from the paddling but the portages – involving dragging the kayak over rocks and boulders.

An enjoyable evening with dinner under the stars on our secluded beach in the gorge and sleeping in the tent with no fly on.

Day 2 was much more relaxed with the wind and water flow helping. Plenty of drifting and admiring the rock faces and scenery. Katherine Gorge needs to be seen from the water if you ever visit. It reminded me of overnight paddling on the remote Goulburn River back home.

After 3 nights at Katherine Gorge we are hitting the road again tomorrow as we head towards home. We expect to be revisiting the Daly Waters Pub tomorrow night.