Advertisement
Published: January 14th 2016
Edit Blog Post
Termite mound
Litchfield National Park Today we will complete our last day of travel on the tour bus we expect to arrive at hotel in Mitchell St Darwin sometime in the late afternoon. First though we are travelling to Litchfield National Park with the main attractions being unusual termite mounds, four great waterfalls and some curious sandstone formations. We first encountered the amazing Magnetic Termite Mounds all lined up in a North to South row with the highlights being the giant mounds built by the Cathedral termite.
We then visited some of the falls that spill off the top of the escarpment including Wangi Falls which has a pleasant rainforest hike which we both enjoyed before climbing the trail that leads up above the falls which has some stunning views. After getting hot and sweaty we walked back down and climbed in to water hole for a swim. After lunch it was time to continue our journey which took us 115 kilometres further north to the city of Darwin. This is my first trip to Darwin and the city’s compact size was initially surprising, the city is located on a stunning peninsula encircled by ocean which adds to its charm.
It was a great
trip which I really enjoyed but some of our fellow travellers were lazy and didn’t pull their weight when it came to cleaning up and washing dishes which tarnished the trip for Ruth. Our driver delivered us to our hotel in Mitchell St which is the CBD of this small city and we farewelled those who had become our friends.
That night we visited Kitty O’Sheas Hotel for dinner before heading back to our very pleasant room, the Mitchell Street area is full of bars, restaurants, backpacker hostels and young people having a good time. The next morning we set out to explore Darwin walking a long Smith Street mall visiting the Survivor’s look out, Myilly Point Historical Precinct, the wharf precinct and its WWII fuel tunnels and the Indo-Pacific Marine and Pearling Exhibition. We then walked through Bicentennial Park down to Doctors Gully to visit Aquascene where you can feed some rather large fish of various species. Late in the day we hired a car for our trip out to Kakadu the next morning.
We hit the road bright and early stopping at a bakery to grab some breakfast before driving south to the Didgeridoo Hut and
Wangi Falls
Litchfield National Park Urrduddu Emu Farm where I purchased a didgeridoo direct from the artist. Next stop was the Fogg Dam Conservation Reserve where we walked through the monsoon forest taking some wonderful photos of wetland birds searching for food in the swamps before continuing on to the Adelaide River Crossing where we joined a Croc Jumping cruise. The cruise was for about 90 minutes and we saw some truly huge salt water crocodiles some of which would approach the boat and then leap into the air to grab chickens of hooks held out over the river, they also placed meet on a floating pontoon dragged behind the boat which was snatched by birds of prey on the wing.
We continued our journey along the Arnhem Hwy entering the Kakadu National Park a World Heritage area and a highlight of any journey to the territory, we visited the rock-art site at Ubirr staying overnight at the Kakadu Lodge and Caravan park. On the second day we visited the Kakadu Bakery before heading south on the Kakadu Hwy to another major rock-art site at Nourlangie, the Warradjan Cultural Centre and the lovely billabong at Yellow Water.
On the way back to Darwin
we stopped briefly at the Bush Inn which has taxidermy animal heads on the wall and the Humpty Doo hotel where the giant kitsch Standing Crocodile stands guard over the pub where we dropped in for a beer. Next we stopped at Crocodylus Park which we entered for free because we arrived about an hour before closing and nobody was on the gate, the park had a large collection of native and exotic animals but was a bit of a disappointment so we continued on to the excellent Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory which had some excellent indigenous artefacts a Cyclone Tracey interactive exhibit and huge stuffed salt water crocodile more than 5 metres long.
Tomorrow morning early we fly home to Adelaide.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.079s; Tpl: 0.014s; cc: 15; qc: 32; dbt: 0.0414s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb
D MJ Binkley
Dave and Merry Jo Binkley
Termite
Wow,