Merry, merry king of the bush is he...

We spent this morning hiking some of the trails in Nitmiluk (Katherine Gorge) National Park. That is the gorge behind us, having hiked up a steep little path from water level to a nice viewpoint. The water was still exceptionally high from the flooding that had happened some weeks prior.




From the viewpoint we hiked south across the plateau, which was mostly rather hot and exposed, but as we descended the far side we reached a somewhat greener area that was very pretty. If we had more than one full day there, I think we would have taken some of the longer hikes that cut down to swimming beaches along the gorge, as they follow some wetter canyons.




We had lunch at the visitor center's cafe, which was populated with some very aggressive Blue-Faced Honeyeaters. The moment you turned away from your food they would land on your plate. They are very common birds, rather like jays over here, but that doesn't diminish my enthusiasm for them. Their backs are a beautiful rich olive green, which you can't quite see in this photo.




This is a Blue-Winged Kookaburra, cousin to the Laughing Kookaburra who provided the atmosphere in all those old Tarzan movies. I love the proportions of this bird; his enormous head and beak not exactly balanced by a tiny tail and feet. He was also looking for an opportunity to steal a snack.