9/18 Plunge Pools & Bushwalks @ Litchfield National Park nr Darwin

 What an exciting day we had planned: swimming in the plunge pools and hiking, or as the Aussies call it, bushwalking in  Litchfield National Park.

Certain activities in the 'Top End,' i.e. the northernmost places of Australia's Northern Territory, are only offered seasonally, normally in the Dry (the word ‘season’ is implied but not always stated) which lasts from April to October. The only other season up in the far northern reaches of the country, the Wet, therefore lasts from November to March. An average of 1650 mm of rain falls during the Wet.

Drivers in the NT have to abide by very strictly enforced speed limits from all that I had before our trip. We thought it was very unusual that we saw NO police cars on any of the highways we traveled but we did see scads of signs indicating red light cameras were used. Speeds up to 130 kmh (75 mph) were permitted on what we thought was a pretty narrow 2 lane highway even though there were no homes or commercial activity present.

The drive to Litchfield took us on the Stuart Highway, the straightest road we could remember in along time. It reminded us of driving into Vegas from the north. Finally, when I feared Steven might nod off to sleep in sheer boredom, the road did slightly curve in spots – just enough to keep drivers awake and make it simple for a North American to drive in this part of Australia.

Interesting telephone/power lines poles en route to Litchfield National Park.

 We stopped for a few minutes in tiny Batchelor, the NT’s tiniest town with a population of only 538, and the gateway to Litchfield National Park. The 1500 sq km park is about a 2 hour drive from Darwin so great to visit for the day. It has a beautiful collection of waterfalls, sandstone formations, termite mounds and mostly crocodile free swimming holes – what more could we want!

We weren’t shocked that prices in the well stocked General Store were so high as everything needs to be trucked in from such a long distance.

If you want to follow our journey for the day, this is what we did: entered the park on Batchelor Road, then went to Magnetic Termite Mounds, north to Buley Rockhole and Florence Falls, then down and around to Wangyi Falls, then backtracked to Grrenant Creek ending up at Tolmer Falls. All the red dotted lines meant the roads were only for 4x4 vehicles.

About 17 km after entering the unmanned and therefore free park entrance from Batchelor we came to what looked like various sized and colored tombstones. They were in fact Magnetic Termite Mounds. They’re perfectly aligned to regulate temperature, catching the morning sun, then allowing its residents to dodge the midday heat.

It was fascinating seeing just one or two initially and then a huge number of them on both sides of the road. 

Some were giant mounds; those are aptly called Cathedral Mounds.

Buley Rockhole was the first swimming hole (called a 'plunge pool at the park though) we came to; it was evident that everyone was having so much fun sunning themselves or lazing about in the series of pools of different depths. I was surprised to see one guy dive into one of the pools as there was no sign indicating the pool's depth.

Some of the pools were quite shallow.

We had our swimsuits with us but decided to drive to the next site, Florence Falls, and swim there as it was 35 degrees out. 

The 700 foot high Falls are accessed by a 135 step descent to a beautiful pool surrounded by a rainforest. We couldn’t wait to join lots of other people in the water.

I was glad I had my trusty river shoes as it was much easier for me to clamber over the rock strewn bottom before swimming over to the 2 falls. 

I loved getting pummeled by the pounding water under the falls; it was like being in a nail salon and sitting on one of the massage chairs, the closest I’ve ever come to getting a massage! But it was hard grasping onto a narrow piece of rock jutting just far enough out to get a finger hold. I got a momentary appreciation, Alexander, of what rock climbing must be like. I could have stayed there for ages but we had other things to see and do.

There was a fantastic hike through the rainforest at Florence Falls which we took; even though it was hot, there was luckily quite a bit of shade and we had kept our swimsuits on which cooled us off for a bit at least.

Not sure if you knew what constitutes a monsoon forest? We hadn't.

We'd never hiked on a slate trail before.

Like a 'camouflage' tree.

Saw this same sign for the first time as we left  Ayer's Rock Airport near Uluru; it made perfect sense to have the sign there because you can imagine lots of visitors driving for the first time there. But, in the middle of a huge national park far away from any airport?

Back to the car for a shortish drive to Wangyi Falls where they fall year-round spilling either side of a large orange rock outcrop and fill an enormous swimming hole bordered by rainforest. 

We immediately got into the water and swam over to the falls themselves enjoying ourselves yet again.

We made sure to keep away from the left side of the plunge pool unlike others who either hadn't read the sign or chose to disregard it.!

Saw some guys, who could only be described as idiots, climbing up the rock face through heavy underbrush and then dive or belly flop over the cliff sight unseen into the water below. There were of course signs everywhere strongly urging against such behavior.

There was a great boardwalk through the rainforest which we then hiked.

Climbing to the Treetop Platform,

This part of the path was like being on stepping stones; if I'd been several decades younger, I'd have felt like playing hopscotch!

Crossed this very small creek which actually became the Wangyi Falls far below us; almost immediately the trail changed to this barren landscape, below, which was SO different from what we had just seen.

No camera tricks here - these leaves were really as bright green as they appear above.

We couldn’t resist jumping into the water after the hike to cool off before setting off in the car again.

We decided to give this hike a miss after reading the sign and finding out we needed long pants, shirts, DEET, socks, enclosed shoes - none of which we had on the hike, mind you, -  AND couldn't sit down either!

Hopped back into the car and onto just one last attraction, Tolmer Falls.

 The lookout afforded superb views of the falls. In order to protect the nesting site of the rare orange horseshoe bat, visitors are prohibited to swim in the plunge pool there.

There was one last hike we could do, the Tolmer Creek Walk, and even though it was 'only' 4:45 by then, we were up for it. I think it was the only hike we’ve been on where we never encountered anyone else on it – just fantastic just enjoying the sounds of nature without other hikers constantly chatting in loud voices and disturbing the wildlife and us!

This plant is called a Hoya and is known as a water hoarder. Are you familiar with it, Pat?

Imagine lugging a gazillion rocks like these on a trail like this. We saw so many new types of trail cover today alone.

These Cycad plants are only found naturally in the Top End of the Northern Territory.

It was after 5 when we began driving back to Darwin especially when I ‘had to’ stop on the way out of the park at lots of termite mounds to take photos – you can never have too many photos of magnetic termite mounds I figure!

This sign is for long haul truckers driving 'road trains.' They are trucks, easily double the length of the 58' trucks you see on US interstates, and normally have 4 'cars' behind the driver. It was pretty scary seeing and hearing them rumble past us 3 and 4 at a time as we drove back to Darwin and I was only the passenger  in our small car!

It was dark when we reached Darwin but luckily the town is small enough that driving ‘downtown’ at night on the left hand side of the road wasn’t too tough for Steven, thank goodness. It was amazing that we’d already driven in one day well over Budget’s allotted 300kms for the three day rental.

Can only say we both felt our day at Litchfield National Park near Darwin was one of our favorites in our 18 days in Australia.