After having a good sleep in the van, we got up very early, to be one of the first people on the water: Our plan was to hire a canoe and paddle along the Katherine Gorge. For those who don’t know how the gorge looks like, check this out:

Katherine Gorge

Katherine Gorge

Awesome, isn’t it?
Before we hopped into the canoe the instructor told us we were allowed to stop everywhere and jump into the water or onto the land, except where they had signs. The signs basically told every curious tourist that there are some crocs breeding and they may be aggressive if people come to close. Well, to be honest I thought “whatever…” and thought about going on land there. But after only 10 minutes on the water, we saw a 2 meter crocodile swimming right next to us. Not 10 meters away, or 5, or 2. It was just RIGHT next to us, maybe half a meter. I could have reached if I had tried. While Laura and I were fascinated and shocked at the same time, the croc didn’t really bother. So luckily we escaped without being harmed ;-) and ew could jump into the water a couple of hundred meters further down the gorge, to cool down. This place was just so amazing. We climbed up the rocks, jumped into the water and swam around. Soo relaxing.

But anyhow, we had to move on, so after half a day canoeing, we drove further down to Mataranka, which is famous for it’s hot springs. As we arrived we directly jumped into the warm water and had a swim. After jumping in, you don’t realise how warm the water actually is.

Mataranka Hot Springs

Mataranka Hot Springs

But I had a swim a bit further down in a river. In here you could feel the warm, or even hot water from the spring floating into the in comparison ice cold water of the river. It was quiet nice, but there were croc warning signs everywhere. This, the fact you couldn’t really see the riversides, and the croc experience earlier this day, made it clear to me that I had to get out of the water as soon as possible. :-)

After this experience we just drove a few kilometers up the road and stopped on another camping spot to rest for the next day.