Mix and Karrots 12 month Aussie Adventure

A JOURNEY TO LITCHFIELD

29th June 2014

A beautiful Sunday morning we decided to take a trip out to Litchfield National Park which is about an hour from Humpty Doo reached via a town called Batchelor and Rum Jungle which used to be a uranium mine. First stop the magnetic termite mounds which stand around two metres high. It is very eerie sight as there is a whole field full of them. The mounds are constructed in a north-south orientation and they act as a built-in temperature control mechanism, allowing only the least possible surface area to be exposed to the sun. The ants actually have a built-in GPS so they know which direction the mound should face amazing!!

Florence Falls is reached by going down 135 steps and you are greeted by a double waterfall cascading into a tranquil pool at the bottom which many visitors love taking advantage of.

The Buley Rockhole is a very popular place with a number of holes and waterfalls cascading down. A perfect spot for a picnic lunch.

Then it was on to the Tolmer Falls which cascades over two high escarpments into a distant, deep plunge pool. This area is also home to Ghost bats and Orange Horseshoe bats so there is no swimming allowed in the pool at the bottom there.

The Wangi (pronounced Wan-guy) Falls is another spectacular area and is very popular with tourists. There are two waterfalls coming down from the top and the swimming here is very refreshing - we took a dip here and followed it up with an icecream from the cafe. Very pleasant.

On the way back to Berry Springs we stopped at the Cascades which seemed to be a lot quieter than the rest of the areas and we soon found out why. It was a 1.2Km walk to the lower falls. Easy we thought and the start of the track was but then we found we were walking across log bridges and clambering up rocks and crossing the creek over rocks and eventually coming to this beautiful tranquil pool with a waterfall crashing over the top and we were the only ones there (at the time)!! We absolutely loved it. What a glorious end to the day.