Monday July 21st & Tuesday July 22nd "Darwin & Litchfield National Park"

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Monday July 21st

We went downtown today to try and lodge our tax returns first off. This was unsuccessful because it was just over our heads and we didn’t want to mess something out and lose out on money. Mike went for a haircut so Katja and I walked around the town. Once Mike was done we met up we went to the local Travellers Auto Barn to top up on power steering fluid, talk about an oil change and towing fee. Next was Charles Darwin University for photos. Anything I could find that had Charles Darwin’s name in it I tried to take photos of in town! We stopped by the ocean after this for lunch for our final ocean swim of the trip and also to say we had swam in the Indian Ocean. After that we were now down with the city. So long Indian Ocean! We took the Stuart Highway again, this time heading south to Litchfield National Park. We stopped at the famous cathedral termite mounds which were over 10 feet high before setting up camp at Buley Rockhole. Once set up we got out swimming gear and checked out the rock holes. It was basically a series of small waterfalls with plunge pools at the bottom of each. The largest was 5 metres across and over 3 metres deep. Here we had fun diving off the side walls and swimming before taking lots of underwater photos.

Tuesday July 22nd

Our first stop today was Florence Falls. There was a large plunge pool which we used to wake us up. Next was Tolmer Falls. The falls was town to a trickle and you could not swim because the area was a special habitat for two species of endangered bats. The next stop was Wangi Falls. Here there was a massive plunge pool and best of all there was a little plunge pool built into the face of the falls. It had very warm water in it making it seem like a natural hot tub. From here we continued on to Walker Creek. It was a river with campsites all along it. Certain campsites had swimming permitted to non campers. I had a bad feeling about it after looking at the map. I senses were correct, it was a hilly walk through sand which culminated at a crappy plunge pool. We didn’t even end the walk deciding we would return to the Buley Rock holes so that the Litchfield experience didn’t end on a sour note. Once done we got back on the Stuart Highway heading south stopping at the same caravan park in Katherine for the night.

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