The Mighty Boab, Nitmiluk and Silky Sounds Round the Pool

There has been so much to write about I’ve neglected the mighty boab. It’s a surreal looking tree often the shape of a wine bottle with dreadlocks. It looks like something you’d see in a cartoon – a tree drawn out of proportion and exaggerated for effect. The base is not uncommonly hollowed out and used to be used as a means of incarcerating prisoners en route from one place to another. We had hoped to visit the Prison Tree outside of Wyndham when we were there but the road was closed – it was one such tree. We’ve fallen in love with it and will remember it endearingly once back in the country of deciduous maples and conifers.

Today was a travel day so we packed up camp and made our way some 500 kms to Katherine and the adjacent Nitmiluk Gorge (formerly the Katherine Gorge). It’s an interesting place in that it was the first land claim dispute which resulted in the Jawoyn Aboriginal people having their homeland restored to their ownership. The process started in 1978 and was completed 11 years later in 1989. They had to prove they had persistent occupation to the area which I gather is a rather slow process. Rather than staying in Katherine we elected to head into the park and spend a couple nights in the resort campground of the national park. There were maybe 2 or 3 spots left when we arrived and we were forced to set up our caravan under a ‘drop’ tree or river gum with some dodgy looking branches – but it was the best of the remaining spots so we took the risk. Having parked the van and started our set up we noticed the rather loud sounds of a local duet singing ‘soft rock favorites’ to the flock of tourists enjoying the comforting waters of the resort pool and feasting on bistro meals from a small restaurant set up on the pool grounds. The music was actually not too bad and I found many songs with which to sing-a-long. The kids had a ball in the pool with Piper demonstrating her recent prowess in alternate arm movements – a stroke suggestive of front crawl but not quite there yet. She no longer needs her floaties anymore and can virtually swim unattended without struggling too much or inhaling large amounts of water. The boys finally developed enough gumption to try some front flips from the pool edge. Aidan’s back flip ran astray though and the loud smack echoed through the pool area and led to a rather sore unhappy lad who was sure he’d bruised his spinal cord in the process. He vowed never to try a back flip ever again – we’ll see…Once swum out, we had some dinner and returned to poolside to enjoy the duet for a few more songs. It was a very pleasant way to be introduced to the area and this park will figure highly in our post-trip memories – likely becoming the park by which all others are measured.