Katherine Gorge – Baruwei Lookout

posted in: Northern Territory

Near the town of Katherine is Nitmiluk National Park.  Actually, until we got closer I’d only heard of it referred to as Katherine Gorge.  The entrance to the park is just 30km outside of Katherine.  We did one short walk while we were there, it was too hot to do much else.  We stopped in the visitor centre on the way in and they told us that if it was 30 degrees there, then it would be 40 degrees up on the escarpment.  So we quickly took off for our walk to the Baruwei Lookout before it got too hot. The Katherine River has carved a series of deep gorges, there are thirteen in total.  You can do cruises to see some of them, or long walks to see others.  The lookout walk is part of a longer loop, we started near the visitor centre.  Did I mention it was hot? Katherine Gorge - Baruwei Lookout | How Many More Minutes? Katherine Gorge - Baruwei Lookout | How Many More Minutes? Katherine Gorge - Baruwei Lookout | How Many More Minutes? The walk to the lookout isn’t long but it has a steep set of stairs.  Lots of stairs.  They told us at the visitor centre that the walk was about forty minutes return.  Katherine Gorge - Baruwei Lookout | How Many More Minutes? Katherine Gorge - Baruwei Lookout | How Many More Minutes? At the top you are rewarded with beautiful views.  Of course, that’s really the point of hiking to a lookout!  This is only the first gorge.  Swimming wasn’t allowed in this one though some of the others were open for swimming.  There is some danger of crocs here though I don’t think that’s the only reason they close the gorges.  This time of year the water levels are getting lower. Katherine Gorge - Baruwei Lookout | How Many More Minutes?Katherine Gorge - Baruwei Lookout | How Many More Minutes?Katherine Gorge - Baruwei Lookout | How Many More Minutes?Katherine Gorge - Baruwei Lookout | How Many More Minutes?Katherine Gorge - Baruwei Lookout | How Many More Minutes? Katherine Gorge - Baruwei Lookout | How Many More Minutes? Katherine Gorge - Baruwei Lookout | How Many More Minutes? Katherine Gorge - Baruwei Lookout | How Many More Minutes? It was too hot to wait for this little guy to navigate all those steps.  After he was tucked back into his spot we headed back down to the visitor centre to cool off. Katherine Gorge - Baruwei Lookout | How Many More Minutes? Katherine Gorge - Baruwei Lookout | How Many More Minutes? After seeing those canoes in the gorge we looked into canoe rental but discovered they only allowed two people per canoe, so that wouldn’t work for us.  Our trip to Katherine Gorge was going to be a short one!

  1. […] our lovely, hot walk to the Baruwei Lookout we headed back to the visitor centre to cool off a bit.  Actually, it wasn’t particularly […]

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