27th – 2nd July



A few days have gone by and we have not recorded our activities.  Today we are relaxing at a small camp just outside Litchfield National Park and catching up on all the things not yet done.

As for the whole of our journey the last week or so has not gone exactly as we had envisaged.  You will note that I did not use the word “Plan” as it is no longer a regularly used word in our vocabulary.

We arrived in Darwin (actually staying at Howard Springs – 23 klms south of Darwin) on Monday.  The journey from Kakadu took us through more of the park and especially some wetlands however as we had made a commitment in Darwin we did not stop much.  In our experience wet lands need to be visited in early morning or late afternoon to see the wildlife and visits in the mid day do not give a real picture of the area.

In Darwin we caught up with all of the vans we had seen travelling up through the centre.  The population here swells significantly during winter (they call it the dry season here) and there are an enormous number of vanners who migrate north for the winter and just sit in the parks.  They become a community of their own.  Surrounding us we had some Victorians who were doing some short term work (2 months), a couple from Harvey Bay (3 months), and some Jews from Melbourne there for 12 weeks and an elderly couple form Victoria who have been coming here for years every winter.  And that is just a sample. 

We did not do a lot of tourist things in Darwin.  We did however meet up with some wonderful friends of Alice and they have been great hosts to us. 

 The 1^st July is Territory Day in the NT.  It is the anniversary of the establishment of self government for the territory.  To celebrate the aw allows fire crackers to be sold and set off for this one day only.  The sales can only be made on the day and they all have to be exploded on that night before 11:30pm.  Any activities, sales or use outside these hours draws prosecution.  It is fairly unique for Australia by our experience.  The population goes crazy too.  It goes unsaid that emergency services also go crazy trying to deal with the outcome with some injuries and over 200 calls outs for fire over night.  One rocket landed within one metre of our car and van, luckily without any significant damage.

From Darwin we moved on to Litchfield NP and enjoyed some good walks in the heat.  Litchfield is approx 130 klms from Darwin and for most people it is a day trip.  There are many rocky water holes and some are free for swimming so the crowds turn up just for that purpose.  As for the rest of the Top End there are many visitor sites that have not been reopened after the big wet they experienced earlier in the year.

We continue to be surprised by the sparseness of the population here in the north.  The shire bordering the NP has a population of just 1647 people and it covers quite an area.  It is difficult to image how a shire can operate economically.

Florence Falls

 The country here is quite open typical NT bush.  The Park starts in the flat planes and rises to a table top plateau.  It is known for its waterfalls some of which flow all year round.  This is because the flat table top has weathered significantly creating large crevices in which have grown vegetation.  These crevices become large sponges in the wet season then slowly leak out over the whole year.  The water is crystal clear which is great for swimming however the clear water does not always encourage water wildlife to abound.

Buley Rock Pools

Very few cameras - lots of swimmers

Florence Falls - they swim in the pool here too!

The main attraction in the park is Wangi Falls.  These are beautiful (twin) falls which flow all year round.  When we were there the pool below the falls was closed because of crocs.  The water is so clear that one would have thought you would see them coming but apparently not.  The parklands surrounding were well laid out and it was a prime spot for coach tours to have lunch.

Wangi Falls.  Crocs in this pool

Tolmer Falls - surrounding area is a sacred site

Pool below Tolmer - note the clear water from 60 m away

The stream feeding the falls - Tolmer

A unique resident of the park is the Magnetic Termite.  It builds scores of termite mounds and in many cases they form a structure wafer thin that lies in a north / south direction, hence the name Magnetic.  In fact they are not actually magnetic.  This breed of termite does not burrow below ground so it lives totally above ground.  In this climate the mound he builds can become extremely hot from the sun.  To manage this the termite tries to build a constant thickness in its mound.  In the morning the termite them migrates to the western side of the mound where it is cooler but as the day progresses and the sun moves to the west he needs to move to the eastern side to maintain a constant temperature.  Hence his answer is to build a mound of near constant thickness in a north south direction.  Maybe we should consider that in our home construction.

Giant Termite mounds - approx 4 m high

Wafer thin Magnetic Termite Mounds

See the scores of mounds behind trees and ferns

Tabletop Swamp

We hope you enjoy some of the photos here.  We must say that although Litchfield is really beautiful it has not come up to our expectation.  I think this is more an issue of our expectation having been built too high as compared to actual.  The country is quite dry but interlaced with some beautiful little oasis mostly along stream courses.  It has really been worthwhile coming here though.  Hope you enjoy.

 From here the news is that we are travelling back to SEQ for family reasons.  We will be away for about 10 days giving us an opportunity to spend time with each of our family.  We know this will be all too short but they are very special and we miss them all.