Our next stop on our journey was Litchfield National Park. On our way to Litchfield we stopped off at the Spectacular Jumping Croc Tour. This was a lovely short cruise down the Adelaide River and we did see some crocs chomp on some water buffalo but I wouldn’t say their jumping was particularly spectacular. We did enjoy the Kite Bird feeding where they threw meat up and the Kites would catch it mid air. We also learnt an interesting fact that they are also know as ‘fire birds’ because in a bush fire the pickup smoldering sticks and drop them in an area not burning to set it on fire so that they can flush out some more food!
Litchfield
was definitely a place we all enjoyed.
We first booked for 2 nights but ended up staying for 5 nights! At Litchfield there are a series of different
waterfalls and swimming holes you can visit and swim in most of them. The first one we went to was the
Cascades. This was a bit of a walk in
but then you got to enjoy a swim in the water holes that cascaded down to the
waterfall. It was here we found a lost teddy that looked very much loved! We
carried it safely back to the start of the walk in case someone came back to
look for it and we put out a lost toy alert!
The next stop was Wangi Falls which were very fresh but an enjoyable swim
after a big and steep walk along the top of the falls. Glen and Emmalisa climbed up the rocks and
got to have their own private little paddle pool. We then checked out Tolmer Falls which is a
pretty impressive, long waterfall but you can’t swim there. To change things up a bit we then went to
check out the Lost City which is a group of rock formations that have formed
due to softer rock washing away and then it leaves these formations that look like ruins from an ancient ‘Lost City’.
We had fun walking through and imagining all sorts of shapes in the
rocks from dragons to puppy dogs to crocodiles!
The next waterfall we visited was Florence Falls, where we had to climb
down 135 stairs to reach the bottom.
This waterfall was a beautiful scenic waterfall but the water was
freezing! So after a very refreshing
swim we then had to make our way back up the 135 stairs to the carpark. Lucky there was one more swim spot to visit,
the Buley Rock Pools. This is a series
of rock pools that you and sit in and enjoy the water flowing past you, or you
can swim in some of the deeper water holes.
We enjoyed our swim here so much we actually went there twice during our
time at Litchfield. Another attraction
we visited while at Litchfield was the Magnetic Termite Mounds. These termites build their mounds on a
North/South facing aspect. This is so
that the mound will always have one side in the shade for them to work on. Scientist have proved that the termites have an
inbuilt compass that guides them as they set up an experiment and changed the
magnetic field. The termites then began to make changes to their mound and then continued to build according to this changed magnetic field.
Like they say all good things come to an end, so we said our good byes to Litchfield and headed to Katherine. On the way we stopped off at the Adelaide River War cemetery, this really just put the final parts of the history together that we had learnt about the Bombing of Darwin and Australia's involvement in WWII.
Once again we found
a gem of a spot to stay in Katherine, at Katherine Farmstay.
Again, the kids got to interact with and feed the farm animals and
reptiles that they have on the farm.
While we were there, some baby chicks also hatched in the incubator. We enjoyed another lovely afternoon in the
Katherine Hot Springs which we decided were more like lukewarm springs. Never the less it was still an enjoyable
afternoon at yet another amazing natural resource Australia has to offer. As we left Katherine we stopped in the see
the Katherine Outback Experience show. This was amazing! We got to see a wild horse being broken in as part of the show. We also saw the dogs that were being trained to be working dogs on a station. This was amazing to see, and Glen and Laura were left wondering if the same strategies apply for teenagers! On our way to our next camp we stopped off at the Gregory's Tree that was blazed when they arrived in October 1955 and when they left in July 1956. This was the place of their base camp and again taught us more history about the development of Northern Australia.
We then made our way to our last camp in the NT before we cross the boarder to WA where our adventure will continue!
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