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Published: October 24th 2008
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Plunge Pool Day, Kakadu and Litchfield NP
October 23, 2008
We drove through the southern part of Kakadu National Park very early this morning taking time to go 74 kilometers (roundtrip) on a 4WD road to a waterfall and plunge pool called Gunlom where Joe swam. The signs said to look out for freshwater crocodiles, and I figured that was my job since nobody else there was doing that.
Soon it was “Goodbye Kakadu” and we were on the road heading back north toward Darwin. For a while we drove along the train tracks for the “Ghan” train that we will be boarding on the 25th.
We made a couple of stops exploring small towns and then turned off the highway to the town of Batchelor where we checked into the Banyan Tree Cabins…a very adorable place where the guide book says “if something goes bump in the night it will be a mango falling on your head.” When we drove in, to our delight there were black cockatoos everywhere. We’d only seen them at a distance and now they were up front and personal. The friendly lady owner told us if we wanted dinner we’d have to
The Road to Gunlom
We loved this Nissan. be back before 6:30 and sent us off with her suggested itinerary (turned out to be a good one) into Litchfield National Park. This is a small park, but known for all its waterfalls and plunge pools. We spent the afternoon swimming in as many pools as we could and they were beautiful and wonderful. No crocodiles to look out for either.
We saw a bunch of wallabies today. Ho hum.
Another thing this park is known for is the field of “magnetic termite mounds.” Quite an interesting place and too complex to explain so I’ll just include the sign in my photos for anybody with the burning desire to know about these things.
Funny thing about termite mounds here… When we first got to Kakadu we took our photos beside a mound we thought was really big, then we’d see a bigger one and take another photo, then there’d be a bigger one and another photo and so on and so on. Today we think we saw the biggest we’ll see, Cathedral Mound. That thing is over 5 meters high. How do you like the way I’ve become accustomed to using the metric system? It doesn’t
take long to start thinking in meters.
When we got back to Banyan Tree it was 6:35. The owner scolded us a bit for good measure, but she made a hamburger for Joe and a ham and cheese sandwich for me anyway. After we ate, Joe stayed to visit with the owner’s husband and I went back to our cabin to get the camera because the sunset was pretty. On the way, I saw a dingo running in the field across the road. You might think I just saw a dog, but you would be wrong.
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Lois Settles
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What a life!!!
Just back from Copper Canyon,Judy so just now getting caught up on your blog. I LOVE it! What a great trip. You are seeing lots more of Australia than we got to see (in nearly four weeks). We did see all the animals you mentioned....and the birds were wonderful. Did not see the enormous termite mounds. Why do they call them "magnetic"? Are they magnetic? Thanks for including us in your blog I am enjoying every bit of it. Love, Lois