Nitmiluk national park, or Katherine gorge, is a must do when you’re visiting the Northern Territory. The park has several walks, but the most famous place to walk to is probably Edith Falls, where you can go for a swim after the sweaty walk.
The walk goes up towards the falls and in humid weather, jumping into the water is a real treat. It’s a playful swimming hole where you can swim underneath the waterfall or enjoy the small shoots and push yourself forwards over the rocks.
Edith Falls
Another really cool short walk to do is the Windolf walk, which starts from the visitor center and takes you into the Katherine gorge. In about an hour you walk towards a viewpoint of the gorge called Pat’s lookout. At times it’s pretty steep and during the wet there might be some water on the path. I did this walk in February and the humidity was so high that I was soaked in my own sweat by the time I arrived at the view.
Looking out over the gorge was beautiful. Even more beautiful was that our group had it all to ourselves. We descended to the Southern Rockhole where we had a lovely swim in the lush national park. The park looks so green at this time of year and the bright red flowers stand out in between the green and red.
You can descend even further and will end up at the Katherine river. You can arrange to be picked up from here with the water taxi and have a frogs view of the impressive gorge walls. During the dry you can even canoe on the river, but during the wet it might be inhabited by crocodiles, you swimming or water activities are not allowed.
There are a lot of options in the Nitmiluk national park. Don’t just rush past on your way to Darwin, but take your time to explore this amazing area!