The previous weekend had been the Katherine ultra challenge (a six stage, 100 km race), and before that we had hiked up onto the escarpment at Gubara. I will write a bit more about the race later, but I wanted to get some pics of the walk up first. It was a strange and diverse landscape - lots of micro-habitats laid out on the harsh tableland.
It is also an area known for Aboriginal rock art. Linds and I went scrambling up around a tumbled spire in search, only to find a number of great pieces on the much more sensible flat ground. It was my first time seeing outlines of hands, and I was struck by the tenderness of small child's mark. In other areas there are examples of Aboriginal contact art: precisely rendered ships and airplanes, and white men invariably drawn with their hands in their pockets, often smoking pipes - the Top End equivalent of British colonial etchings of indigenous folks squatting with spears.