Time for a bath

Trip Start Jun 05, 2007

131

Trip End Jun 2009

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Flag of Australia Litchfield National Park, Northern Territory, Australia
Sunday, September 28, 2008

With the heat of the tropical north, we felt it time to do some cooling off. Litchfield national park is a forested river and waterfall park and with many plunge pools it was the perfect place to do just that. First stop was a series of small falls with varying sized pools at the base of each, it was pretty busy as it was the weekend but a sign in the carpark had read "if there are no parking spaces please return later as the falls are busy" so the area couldn't ever get too busy.
The next falls required a little more energy to get to, stairs and a path leading down to the base of a fairly large waterfall, or at least it would be at the end of rainy season. A large deep dark pool rewarded the extra effort, we swam over to the fall and the thundering force was a deep invigorating massage. At the top of this fall was a campsite where we stayed for the night and got rather frustrated with the numerous flies with no table manners. We were treated to a lovely pink sky at sunset followed by a very clear stary night where the milky way was visible.
The next day we drove into the park as far as we could and planned to slowly work our way out. The furthest point accessible in a 2WD was an old discarded quartz mine. It was like a ghost town and would have enjoyed walking around if it wasn't for those pesky flies, we had already resorted to using the headnets for only the second time on this trip, but we were introduced to a type of black fly we hadn't met before - a large biting one that looked a little like a horse fly, it hurt like hell initially so we made a hasty retreat back to a soothing waterfall. On the way we had to slam on the breaks as a large goanna was crossing the road. I jumped out of the van with the camera, took a couple of snaps then found myself reassuring the concerned looking fella with a Steve Irwin style "your alright mate, your alright".
The next pool was within a park area that is heavily frequented, as has a large carpark and a shop! The pool had been made more accessible by the placing of concrete steps and a handrail - not quite in keeping with the ambience really. But it was lovely and refreshing and with a sand bank running through the middle it made it easier to stand up. There were signs around the pool warning of the presence of crocs, but these were only freshwater crocs and harmless to humans really, it will be in Kakadu where we will have to be careful as saltwater crocs reside there and they are definately not to be messed with.
At the nearby campsite we got talking to Peter, a Dutch guy who was feeling the open road from the back of a motorbike, we listened to his potential plans for travelling through south east asia on his bike - brave man. There was a Danish family who pulled up too, they had 3 children and had shipped their beloved 4WD VW camper all the way from Europe. Not the first family we had met who were home schooling their children on the road. We all spent the night around our first campfire of the trip, hopefully it wont be the last.