Darwin to Katherine Gorge

The day started out pretty well, we were heading for Victoria River, a bit of a journey of around 550kms and not far out of Darwin Rachel's dad Graham rang us and suggested we go to Katherine Gorge as they loved it. Seeing it was not far off the track we decided to change plans and had a short trip of around 260kms to the gorge from Darwin. It was quite warm when we got there but then we were getting used to that. After unhooking and setting up we headed over to the visitor centre for some lunch and check out the tours, being there one night only and work on the go it was unlikely we could see much but luckily there was a sunset dinner cruise available for that night so we promptly booked that and raced back to get our work done before it left at 4:30pm. There wasn't a big group on board and we headed up the first gorge whilst the canoeists were coming back (no I didn't take the kayak off for a paddle, not enough time). Soon we were among towering cliffs and rocky outcrops. The informative cruise was excellent, we got to the second gorge and it got even better. We were supposed to turn around at the end of the second gorge but the guide was good enough to give us a freebie and we jumped onto a third boat for the third gorge cruise, how lucky were we. We arrived at the end of the third gorge and the view was fantastic. We soon turned around and went via another boat back to the first gorge where we jumped on board the dining boat ready for our meal. With a glass of champagne and flickering candles on sunset you could excuse yourself if you weren't stepping onto the set of and Australian tourist advert, with Aboriginal music and tables for two, seated watching the sunset drop through the gorge, changing the hue every second. We had a very enjoyable evening and were glad we didn't skip this wonderful place.