Saturday, 19th June
An early start this morning to Litchfield National Park, in the hope of beating the worst of the heat – and tourists. Tourists are such a pain, at times!
Our first stop was at the magnetic termite mounds – the mounds are built with the narrow sides pointing north/south and the wide sides facing east/west. Unfortunately, there has been a lot of burning off done in Litchfield National Park and the termite mounds are like a moonscape. In fact, the extent of the burn offs made the whole appearance of the park a little disappointing as most of the trees were blackened and the vegetation either burnt or attempting to recover. (The same arguments exist in Tasmania!!!)
Our next stop was at the Buley Rockhole, a very pleasant cascade suitable for plunging, evidenced by the bikini-clad sweet young backpackers! Cat wasn’t the only one quite taken with this stream. Round the corner were the Florence Falls – definitely big waterfalls with a large pool at the base, open for swimmers. There was a climb of 143 steps down (and back up) to the pool, so again, we decided to give a miss to a refreshing dip.
We pulled into the Tabletop Swamp, which was quite pretty but it didn’t take much imagination to picture the hordes of bities flying around here later in the day! We walked into the observation deck of the Tolmer Falls – very spectacular falls, with the water flowing under a rock bridge before falling to the valley floor. Tourists are not allowed walk to the base of the falls as the area contains some threatened bat species.
Wangi Falls was our last stop this morning – truly beautiful falls with a large plunge pool at the base, which was unfortunately closed to swimming! Both freshwater and saltwater crocodiles inhabit this pool at the moment. We did decide to take the 300 metre walk to the treetops lookout – big mistake. It certainly wasn’t worth the effort of walking through snake infested and insect infested tropical jungle, then to climb forever to the lookout where only tree tops could be seen (from underneath!). It was soooo hot, and soooo humid. When we returned to the car park, there was a large cane toad sitting in the middle of the footpath.
Back to Batchelor and the caravan park, where we decided to check out the menu of the resort’s bistro. The manager informed us that meals would be very basic for a while as the chef decided at 10.00 am today that he was leaving, immediately. I guess we all have problems, some bigger than others.
The bushfire of yesterday had disappeared this morning, but some more have sprung up during the day – obviously more burning off. It certainly didn’t affect the bird feeding last night, with plenty of red collared lorikeets (bit like rainbow lorikeets), blue faced honeyeaters, galahs, white cockatoos and noisy miners joining in.
An early start this morning to Litchfield National Park, in the hope of beating the worst of the heat – and tourists. Tourists are such a pain, at times!
Our first stop was at the magnetic termite mounds – the mounds are built with the narrow sides pointing north/south and the wide sides facing east/west. Unfortunately, there has been a lot of burning off done in Litchfield National Park and the termite mounds are like a moonscape. In fact, the extent of the burn offs made the whole appearance of the park a little disappointing as most of the trees were blackened and the vegetation either burnt or attempting to recover. (The same arguments exist in Tasmania!!!)
Our next stop was at the Buley Rockhole, a very pleasant cascade suitable for plunging, evidenced by the bikini-clad sweet young backpackers! Cat wasn’t the only one quite taken with this stream. Round the corner were the Florence Falls – definitely big waterfalls with a large pool at the base, open for swimmers. There was a climb of 143 steps down (and back up) to the pool, so again, we decided to give a miss to a refreshing dip.
We pulled into the Tabletop Swamp, which was quite pretty but it didn’t take much imagination to picture the hordes of bities flying around here later in the day! We walked into the observation deck of the Tolmer Falls – very spectacular falls, with the water flowing under a rock bridge before falling to the valley floor. Tourists are not allowed walk to the base of the falls as the area contains some threatened bat species.
Wangi Falls was our last stop this morning – truly beautiful falls with a large plunge pool at the base, which was unfortunately closed to swimming! Both freshwater and saltwater crocodiles inhabit this pool at the moment. We did decide to take the 300 metre walk to the treetops lookout – big mistake. It certainly wasn’t worth the effort of walking through snake infested and insect infested tropical jungle, then to climb forever to the lookout where only tree tops could be seen (from underneath!). It was soooo hot, and soooo humid. When we returned to the car park, there was a large cane toad sitting in the middle of the footpath.
Back to Batchelor and the caravan park, where we decided to check out the menu of the resort’s bistro. The manager informed us that meals would be very basic for a while as the chef decided at 10.00 am today that he was leaving, immediately. I guess we all have problems, some bigger than others.
The bushfire of yesterday had disappeared this morning, but some more have sprung up during the day – obviously more burning off. It certainly didn’t affect the bird feeding last night, with plenty of red collared lorikeets (bit like rainbow lorikeets), blue faced honeyeaters, galahs, white cockatoos and noisy miners joining in.
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