It has been a LONG time since I last visited Katherine, and then it was for work and most certainly not a tourism trip. After two days of driving, covering the 600km distance between Parry’s Creek in WA and Katherine in the NT, we were happy to be out of the car again. Still being school holidays, caravan parks are busy but we managed to find a spot at an awesome rural place on the outskirts of town. Somehow we were lucky enough to end up with a camp spot bordering onto the field next the campground and had horses and cows coming to feed next to our caravan. We all feel lucky when we score a spot like this and is far more preferable to a busy campground.

Adding to the rural flavour of the campground, the owners organised animal feeding times twice a day that the kids could get involved with. In the evening we could feed the horses…

But… perhaps the most fun was the morning adventure to feed the cows and buffaloes. Thanks to the size of the property, the animals had a decent area to roam so the farmers opened the back of their utes and drove the kids out each morning to go and find the animals! I am not sure what was more fun for the kids- the drive in the Ute or feeding the animals. Either way they came back full of smiles and stories about cows licking their feet and buffalo slobber!

Five minutes drive from the campground we found Katherine Hot springs. This is the first time the kids have ever experienced hot springs and they were pleasantly surprised to find the water was actually warm! I think they thought we would be kidding about the hot water after we have taken them in so many cold gorges lately. A fun few hours spend splashing around in the water, made even more fun when they found a mud slide! Let’s just say Kiera’s pink and white swimmers were not the best choice of clothing for this adventure!

Keeping in tune with the rural theme of the campground, we organised a family horse riding lesson. I said it has been a long time since I was in Katherine but it’s been even longer since I last sat on a horse. The kids were so excited for their first horse ride and I think Andy secretly enjoyed it too (though his horse Rex was a bit cheeky and just wanted to eat the grass).

Such an amazing experience and fun afternoon outing for us all. Finlay spent half his time telling the lady who was leading his horse how much he loves the beach but he really wants to live on a farm and have lots of animals and maybe he needs a farm by the beach. I think he summed up how we all feel pretty well.

The next day we took a 30 minute drive up to Edith Falls. Only a short 1km walk from the car park and we found ourselves at a very impressive swimming hole with waterfalls. Certainly not hot springs temperature, but change for a refreshing swim.

Katherine has been a brilliant start to our NT adventure. Next stop… Litchfield National Park.