LITCHFIELD NATIONAL PARK

Since The Alice, I have flown home for a function for work.  I left Stuart at Alice and was home about 10 days and flew back into Darwin where Stuart picked me up and we drove back to Katherine for the show there.  These shows out west are only small but gee they are good for us.

We left Katherine Sunday morning a bit disappointed that I didn't see too much of the area but after Darwin we will have a more extended stay. We headed for Litchfield National Park about an hour and a half out of Darwin.  The caravan park there was all grassed and shady trees.  At $35 a night there isn't much for the money but very pleasant just the same.  We met Mick and Carol who have a much later model Lotus than ours, they are only the first Lotus people we have talked to since leaving home in May, but we have seen about 7 Lotus' on the road.

Litchfield National Park is south west of Darwin covering several hundred square kilometers with numerous waterfalls.

Walking up the gorge to the first waterfall "The Cascades" which involved 'walking the plank' on 2 occasions.
Very difficult as it seemed about 20 feet to the bottom - well 6 inches anyway....

The Cascades

Still the Cascades

Wangi Falls, the most popular in the area

Wangi Falls again but too cold for us to swim

Wangi Falls - the photo doesn't do justice



Florence Falls

Florence Falls, where I actually braved the cold

Magnificent Magnetic Termite Mounds which are tall, wide and narrow.  Named thus because the wide sides face east and west to take advantage of the warmth of the sun.

A giant Cathedral Termite Mound which stands about 25 feet high and has been slowly added to over the last 50 years

Found the one Tracy squatted behind in the 80's to do a pee!
The impression is still there Trace, you really left your mark. 

Tolmer Falls

We had a very pleasant 2 night stay at the Litchfield Caravan Park. On our only full day we set our map lunch drinks and water in hand to see as many of the waterfalls as we could in the day. We walked kilometres in and out of lush vegetation and plenty of fern leaf grevillias and pandanas palms to each waterfall and even swam at a few amongst lots of tourists.

This bought back plenty of memories of when Kathy was pregnant with Ricki Lee and I flew to Darwin for a week.  Mick (Ricki Lee's father) drove out to Litchfield and we had a swim in one of the waterfall pools.  Not a lot has changed in Litchfield since then I don't think. Then it was on to Darwin and after a short consultation decided to do a dirt road instead of bitumen and save about 60 kms.  Although only about 20 k's of dirt it was VERY corrugated and just a little dusty.

After 3 days of the Royal Darwin Show, we were looking forward to a leisurely trip back to Katherine taking in the beautiful Gorge And surrounds and a trip down memory lane at the Low Level Reserve where we stayed all those years ago when I heard that our breakfast cook has broken her foot and is not capable of working for a while.  My first response was to get on the first flight out of Darwin back to Mackay but Kathy's assurance that in the short term thing were covered I resisted.

After a sleepless night I have got a flight out on Friday so that I arrive in time to give Kathy the weekend off and stay until I find someone to cover all shifts before we start off again.

In the meantime, we went out to a restaurant on the wharf called "The Jetty" with two other couples and had the most magnificent seafood buffet for $35 a head then on to the casino for coffee.

Monday we took in the Crockodylus Park and then the military museum which has had a real revamp only 6 months ago with state of the art electronics and video showing the bombing of Darwin in World War 2.  We also had a walk around the gun emplacement where Kylie fell down the stairs all those years ago.  Great memories - of the trip, not Kylies falling...

We will spend the next couple of days being tourists and then it is on a plane for me and Stuart will leave Saturday back to Townsville for the Multi Cultural Festival and then on to Mackay where we will stay for another couple of weeks before heading south.