Awesome Litchfield National Park!

We have had no mobile connection again so I couldn’t do my blog.  You probably thought I'd been eaten by a crocodile.  Here is what we have been up to.

We camped at awesome Litchfield National Park at Wangi Falls campground.  Litchfield is massive! 

We went swimming in the lake at the bottom of Wangi Falls.  Wangi Falls is really beautiful and there are two waterfalls flowing down rocky cliffs.  When I was looking under the water with my goggles I saw huge whitish coloured fish swimming around. 

We swum to the waterfall and climbed up some rocks into a small rock pool called “the cauldron” which is a hot pool where the water from the waterfall trickles over hot rocks into the pool.  As I was feeling a bit sick we just stayed in the pool for the afternoon.

The next day we rode our motor scooters to the Magnetic Termite Mounds.  There are two types of mounds the magnetic termite mounds and the cathedral mounds.  I thought the mounds would be magnetic but they are called magnetic termite mounds because they face magnetic north to south so that the termites can have sun on one side of the mound in the morning and then on the other side in the afternoon and that is the perfect climate for their home.  The magnetic termites also like damp conditions and eat grass.  The cathedral termite mounds can be really tall and the termites like it dry and eat wood.  The round columns on the outside of the mound are for air.  I saw the biggest best termite mound yet – it was about five metres high!

Magnetic termite mounds

The biggest Cathedral termite mound yet!

 

After we looked at the mounds we changed into our togs and walked to Buley Rockhole which had heaps of crystal clear rock pools to swim in.  It was great fun sliding down the rocks into the pool. We also walked about 500 metres to the lookout for Tolmer Falls.  We were really high above a rocky canyon and saw the water plunging down the cliff into a large pool and then flowing into a large cave in the mountain.  The water is fed by a natural spring and flows all the time.  It is also the home of the endangered Ghost Bat and Orange Leaf-nosed Bat. 

Tolmer Falls

Later that afternoon I made friends with a couple of girls that came from Canada and New York.  The girl from Canada told me that Canadians love maple syrup on everything they cook even bacon.

 

At night time we went to a ranger talk and slide show on Litchfield National Park and we learned all about the attractions in the park and the plants and animals especially the crocodiles (saltwater and freshwater).  The freshwater crocodile is smaller than the saltwater and doesn’t normally attack humans unless it is threatened but the saltwater crocodile thinks we are very tasty!  There are warning signs everywhere about swimming in places that haven’t been checked for crocodiles. 

    

On Thursday we went to the Bamboo Creek Tin Mine.  A ranger told us all about the mine and the people who lived there.  Most of it is in ruins but it was still really interesting.  The men that worked in the mine all died at a young age from the dust from mining the tin. 

Old homestead ruin

The tin mine entrance

 

After the talk the ranger told us about how beautiful The Cascades were so we went on a long 3 km walk to the cascades.  We had to climb up and down heaps of rocks.  We swam in a rock pool under the Curtain Falls and the water felt like stones hitting into your back.  I saw a huge Golden Orb Spider and a beautiful little skink with a red tail.  We did some research and found that the skink is called a Lined Fire-tailed Skink and it is really rare.  It eats spiders, moths and insects and the scientists think it waves its tail to communicate.  

Golden Orb Spider

Curtain Falls

After our huge walk we came back to Wangi Falls for another swim and had barbeque in the picnic area and while we were eating dinner we saw a little wallaby with a tiny joey eating grass.  After dinner I threw a piece of bread into the air when I saw a kite in the tree and it swooped down and ate the bread.

Tomorrow after we have been on the Wangi Falls Walk we are leaving Litchfield and travelling further north towards Darwin.

Goodbye for now