As we work our way up the valley, we sometimes drop our packs and do an exploration of a side gorge. Eventually, we climb up out of the Matt Wilson Valley and cross the plateau heading west toward Ryan Creek. We find a number of high, shallow gorges on the small creeks that feed into Ryan Creek.
Some of the walking is fairly easy. Some has thick scrub and is quite slow. Gregory is much drier than Kakadu or Litchfield so there aren’t a huge number of waterholes on the small creeks, but occasionally we even find a small flowing waterfall .
Once we reach the main creek, the going gets easier and the views more spectacular. As we continue the gorges get deeper. Walking on the top is fairly easy but some of the side gorges are deep enough so that we have to drop down to the main creek or contour well around. There isn’t a lot of difficult terrain, but as the middle photo below shows, there is some.
Eventually, we return to where we began, climb into the vehicle and begin the 530 km drive back to Darwin. (Some groups prefer to finish on the second last day and camp en route to Darwin.)