Katherine August 20

The town of Katherine is 300 ams south of darwin and on the banks of the Katherine River.
It is famous for the Nitmiluk Gorge which the river flows through 13 separate gorges which you can kayak on several.
Our first stop was a laundry and with this located we got ourselves organised to catch up on the boring life jobs that have to be done.
However as we walked into the laundry I noticed a Anglican Group and i thought they are the type of place that might have a HIPPY programme as I knew there was one in Katherine. Sure enough there was a HIPPY sign so in I go and introduce myself. The Coordinator Heather Dingle was lovely and we enjoyed a couple of hours talking HIPPY. It was fascinating for me to hear about her programme and how challenging it is working in the outback.There workbooks are quite different, they are made more simple for the outback aboriginal families who have very low literacy levels compared to us in NZ.

HIPPY Katherine Coordinator and me!

We went the the information centre and made enquires about the kayaking in the Nitmulik gorge. Just as well as they were all booked up for 4 days so we decided to do the gorge on the way back from Darwin as you have to come back into Katherine to go to the Kimberleys.