On Friday the 26th (of May), I had a now usual early start to join a new three day tour from Darwin to Alice Springs. Although it was a completley new tour, I already knew a couple of girls - Alex and Nina - in the group who had the same national pass as me and who had been on my buses since Mission Beach and would be on all my tours down to Adelaide. You're generally quite lucky if someone's on two of your tours, so getting people who are on half of them is even better. When you're backpacking, you're meeting and leaving people so often that it's nice to have some continuity and not have to start again from scratch every time.
So after meeting our new guide - Ryan - and assistant trainee guide - Travis - at the hostel, we boarded the bus and headed south, stopping first at the Adelaide River roadhouse (where we'd been days before on Desert Venturer) for breakfast. After three hours of driving, we got to Katherine Gorge and then had the oppurtunity to do a helicopter ride, a cruise or a walk. All but two of our group chose to do the free walk, so we set off on the 8km hike after lunch.
After a steep climb up the side of the Gorge, we had a lengthy walk through the bush at the top of it, ending up at a secluded waterfall called Southern Rock Hole. We had a relaxing swim around for about half an hour, then headed back the way we came to the bus. We stayed at an Adventure Tours purpose built permenant campsite that evening, one of several they have through the centre of the country.
