There are so many amazing places to explore out there; so many different things to see and so many exciting things to do! Sometimes it seems that we need a holiday to recover from our holidays.
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The Australian landscape is vast. We could never hope to experience it in one bite. Many of our special places are hundreds of kilometres from home and can take many hours and specialist vehicles to get to.
Katherine is a long way from the city and while we are lucky to be able to keep our lives moving at a slower pace we still need to take the time to stop and smell the spinifex every now and then.
One of my favourite 'magic moments' is in Judbarra/Gregory National Park where, perched high on a rock strewn hillside about 40 kilometres south of Timber Creek, a humble wooden bench overlooks the bones of an ancient landscape.
To get there you need to follow the Calcite Walk leading off the Limestone Gorge track halfway between Limestone Gorge campground and the Bullita Access Road.
The road is only accessible to 4WD vehicles during the dry season as rain quickly floods the creeks in this parched landscape. The Calcite Flow walk isn't long but as it winds its way up the hillside you wander back through millions of years of history.
Fossilised stromatolites feature along the walk.
These strange and wonderful things are difficult to differentiate from the grey karst limestone around them but they were created during the Precambrian Era by tiny microbes that breathed oxygen into the Earth's atmosphere. In doing so they created an environment that could support air breathing critters like us.
As you walk up the hill you will pass spiky grey rocks known as rillenkarren. Formed when rain that is naturally slightly acidic falls onto limestone, it looks as if a passing toddler has dragged their fingers down it, leaving ridges in the rock.
These ridges only form when rainfall is heavy, the force of the raindrops scour the rock, and leaving sharp ridges in between ragged furrows.
Once you get to the top of the hill, take a moment, sit down on the bench and feel the warm wind fan your face as you rest your weary legs. You will be gazing down on Limestone Gorge with its craggy rock face, grey trunked Boabs and glistening calcite flow.
But that is a story for another magic day.
