Litchfield National Park

31 July

Next morning we headed up the road another 200kms to Litchfield NP.

On the way we were following a road train and I was about to overtake but decided it wasn't quite right so pulled back. Within 5 seconds I saw a couple of horses come out of the bush up ahead so I slowed down. The truck driver saw them a couple of seconds later and braked heavily and swerved  just narrowly missing the young foal. Very close shave and would hate to think what would have happened had I decided to pass.

Anyway we were lucky enough to get a camp site and we stayed at Wangi Falls campground. The management of the NP's is so different in each state. Here in the NT you don't pay to enter, except Kakadu, and the camping is only $15.40 for the night for a family and that is at their best parks which have showers, toilets, BBQ;s. Unreal.

Our campsite.

 

We set up the van and went for a look around some of the park. Firstly Wangi Falls which was a short walk. Absolutely beautiful. Two entrances into the water and two waterfalls. I swam across to the falls and was impressed by the power of the water as it hit the pool.

 

 

 Then into the car and off to Florence falls which was a hike down 130 steps but definitely worth the walk. The pool was quite hard to enter as it was really rocky but the falls were fairly close. TJ swam across and under the falls and when she came back I did the same. As you got closer the force of the water hitting the pool made it quite hard to get right under. I swam back and took Milly over and did the same for Lincoln. By this time it was getting quite hard and I was a bit tired but Patrick wanted a turn so I swam here over as well. Not such a good idea. TJ said that she thought I was going to have a heart attack by the look of me when I came back. I have to say that being sick the couple of days earlier and not having eaten much for 48 hours had taken their toll and I really struggled at the end.  

 

 

Anyway I made it back up the 130 steps and we headed 2 kms to Buley Rockhole. This was a series of shallow pools with little falls in between. Great fun for all.

 

 

Finally we went off road for a 12 km rough ride out to the Lost City which is an area of rocks that resemble and old city.

 

Very unusual but impressive however the drive out was really rough and we were glad to get back to the road. Then it was back to the van and dinner.

 

There were a couple more things we wanted to see in Litchfield before heading off but we were on a time schedule because we wanted to get to Darwin for the Mindil markets. I went for a walk with the boys back down to the falls in the morning and we had one last look.

Love these croc signs.

 

Just magnificent and even more so as there was only one other family there enjoying the serenity. Turns out they were form Albany and had come up the centre before going to Darwin and were on their way back towards Broome.

 

Anyway we left the van and headed out first to Cascades but the information was a bit misleading and we didn't have the time to do the 3 km walk in and then back out again so off we went to Tolmer Falls. This is promoted as the most spectacular but it is only a lookout and because of a bat nesting area you can't go down. It was pretty spectacular but we think it might be better with some more water flowing in the wet season.

 

Then we headed towards Blythe Homestead which was about 4 kms up a 4WD only track. We had only just started when we came to a water crossing. I wasn't too sure of the depth and as there was a warning sign out about crocs in the water I wasn't keen to walk across to test the depth and I didn't want to just drive and hope because being washed down a croc infested waterway would slow down our progress somewhat. So we decided to abandon this part of the expedition. So back to the van and off we headed to Darwin about 180 kms north.