Day 12 Litchfield National Park

Day 12 Litchfield National Park

We had originally intended to spend a couple of nights camping at Litchfield National Park, but in order to fit in a dinner date with Barb's cousin Ailsa and her husband Fez we realised it would be just be as easy to stay put in our Darwin campsite and drive sans trailer down to Litchfield for the day.

It's only about 90 km to Batchelor and another 60 km to Wangi Falls at the far end of the park, so we were pulling into our first stop, the Magnetic Termite mounds by 1030. We had been here before but it was still a fascinating sight to see a field of termite mounds closely resembling a parish cemetery full of old tombstones in the middle of nowhere. None of these termite mounds were wearing clothes as some of the ones along the Stuart Highway do. Those give you quite a start when you see what you at first think is a group of people standing by the road but then realise they are dressed termite mounds complete with hats, painted faces and sticks for arms. The mounds at Litchfield are waaay too big for clothes. Some were more than twice as tall as Barb .... and that's tall!

An ancient graveyard?

Some are quite unusually shaped

Barb is dwarfed by the termite mound

Selfies at the termite mounds

Our next port of call was Buley Rock Holes. These are a series of deep pools in the rocks connected by shallow waterfalls that provide safe swimming for the many locals and tourists who visit here. Barb braved the rather cool water to plunge into one of the pools. Once you were in it was deliciously refreshing.

John at Buley Rock Holes

Swimming in the rock pools

Barb takes the plunge

Barb and John

By now it was getting on for lunch time. Although we had brought our fridge and some food and water with us, when we got to Wangi Falls we found that the mobile food truck we remembered from our last visit had been replaced by a smart and appealing new café. Not only did it serve a very decent cappuccino, it also had home made apple pie to rival Holland's apple cakes, and John was thrilled with his hamburger, mainly because it didn't have beetroot, lettuce or tomato on it making it too big to wrap his mouth around. Yay! No beetroot! Oh ... I shouldn't say that too loudly?

Apple pie at Wangi Falls

John wraps his gob around a burger

John at the new Wangi Falls cafe

Will I or won't I take a dip?....nah!

Wangi Falls

Barb and John

There were lots of tourist buses arriving here - it was lunchtime - and it must be on every tour company's to do list. The large natural swimming pools beneath the falls were rapidly filling up with tourists. No salties here to devour us, but the signage didn't guarantee that there were no freshwater crocs or large fish to nibble your toes. Harmless we're assured, but I'm quite attached to my toes thank you all the same.

It is tempting to swim here

Driving on from here we spotted a turn-off to the Cascades. Not on the map. (The GPS had us travelling along blankness, no road in sight.) Apparently it's a fairly newly developed attraction. It involved a two and a half kilometre round trip walk to see the lower cascades (longer to also see the upper ones) so we loaded up the rucksack with plenty of water. What we didn't count on was the very rough state of the new path. John almost turned his ankle twice much to Barb's alarm and the flies were terrible. We were both swatting at our faces maniacally to ward them off. In one section we had to clamber over steep rocks and when we finally got there the cascades weren't that impressive. At least we walked off the apple pie and hamburger.

The lower Cascades

John bushwalking

We couldn't remember if we'd been to Tolmer Falls last trip. It turned out yes we had, but it was worth a second look. You can't actually walk down to the falls as the authorities are protecting the orange leafwing and ghost bats which roost there (when you could see how steep, rugged, thickly vegetated and generally awkward looking it was, it was hard to imagine anyone wanting to - but presumably there are some mad people around), but they do have a very good walkway and a viewing platform that goes right out over the abyss to see the falls from above. Wow! The views are great, and you can see beyond to the plains in the distance making you realise how high up you really are on the tabletop plateau.

The view of distant plains

Tolmer falls viewed from the lookout

Barb bravely stands on an edge

Tired and sunburnt, we headed back to Darwin, just in time to join the peak hour traffic. We had enough time for a much needed shower and spruce up before heading to the Sailing Club to meet up with Ailsa and Fez. The sun was setting as we arrived and looked so lovely from where we sat sipping our drinks and catching up on all the family news. Ailsa always manages to impart some Abernethy family history that I never knew before. Sadly Jess had a prior dinner date commitment so couldn't join us too.

Sunset  at the sailing club

John and Fez

Barb and her cousin Ailsa