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Published: September 22nd 2009
Day 147 - Litchfield National Park
Hurrah, it’s still lovely and hot! Bring on the humidity because we just can’t get enough! Our only suggestion is that the humidity sods off when the sun goes down and doesn’t come back until just before the sun goes down again! That seems fair and proper!
We didn’t sleep well, it was a tad warm! Oh well, no drama!
The alarm went off early because we wanted to do a few walks before the heat of the day took hold. Gone was my initial idea of doing part of the Tabletop Track which is the long distance 39km bushwalking circuit close by. I’d been tempted by the Greenant Creek to Wangi Falls at 8.4km or the Walker Creek to Florence Falls at 10.7km. Both completely within our capabilities but the lack of sleep last night has totally put me off so instead we’re doing a series of little walks which mostly incorporate swimming holes!
When we say the walks mostly incorporated swimming holes it was all but the very first one! We chose to do it first because of that fact, figuring the other walks would be hackable later in
the day with the lure of a cool, refreshing swim afterwards!
Greenant Creek is a shady walk leading to a small pool above Tjaetaba Falls but because it is a sacred site there’s no swimming allowed here. The walk is good, not too steep and we find the track easy to follow in the coolness of the morning. There’s plenty of rustling in the bushes and birds singing in the trees but we don’t encounter too much wildlife until further along in the walk where we find a weird looking spider and then a big fat beetle on the path! We were the first to arrive at Greenant this morning so the wildlife has been undisturbed until this point! We have a good look around at the top of the falls then wander back down the path. We were nearly at the end when we hear thudding and two wild boars run across the path in front of us followed by a third! Through the bushes we can see a few more but they look much smaller and much younger. We wait for a while but neither group returns. What a shame, no photo but what a great sighting
it was for us!
Onto the next walk which we start at Florence Falls and head to Buley Rockhole. Just as we get to the track I let out a rather girlie yelp but I spot a snake just where my foot is about to go! He was already on the move into the bushes so sadly there’s no photo of him either! Double darn!
The walk ducks back along the creek side to provide nice views of waterfalls along the way and when we reach Buley Rockhole we’re delighted to find lots of beaut rock holes to cool off in! We have a great dip in our own private little waterhole and watch while the others around us fill up! There are people climbing up on trees to jump into the deeper plunge pools, but not us, we just sit and watch as climbing is not in our portfolio!
It was time to walk back to Florence Falls and luckily when we get there we find an even bigger plunge pool! The walk back didn’t bring us any more snakes so we continued along the creek side and took the path to the Shady Creek walk
to reach the falls. We walk through Monsoon Forest and Woodland Garden both of which have information stands displaying the temperature and humidity for today - it’s shocking or broken but either way one reads at 100% humidity! Ah ha, we now have proof that we’re not being wimps, it really is hot!
We meet a pretty big tour group walking back so there will be 20 less people in it when we arrive at least! Lots of people have told us about this place and how beautiful it is and a couple we met at Gunlom in Kakadu even told us how they skinny dipped here! Well it probably wasn’t as full that day as it is today because we certainly wouldn’t have done that with such a large audience!
It’s a Sunday today and it’s relatively busy but there’s still plenty of room to swim and we even get one of the waterfalls to ourselves for a short time. We’ve taken the camera in the waterproof bag so we’re happily snapping away whilst bobbing around!
In what seemed like too short a time we drag ourselves out of the cooling water and take the track
with the 160 stairs up to the lookout! It’s there that we find the inspiration for our blog title ‘Florence Fools’ for climbing up the waterfall is a man with blue swimmers on whom we hope will stop part way up but he doesn’t and after a few minutes he’s standing on the top looking down at people swimming below. A group of girls join us at the lookout and start chatting before they too notice the chap. “Is that guy going to jump?” one asks and I’m momentarily distracted as I turn to talk to her but out of the corner of my eye I see him take to the air followed by a huge splosh of water as he lands, presumably he’s fine and hasn’t hit one of the rocks or landed on anyone innocently swimming below! We don’t know his real name so we call him Florence, Florence Fools.
With plenty of the day left we decide to take the short 4WD only track out towards Blyth Homestead. The track is a mixture of rock, gravel, sand and dust plus of course it’s corrugated in parts as most of the off road tracks are. It’s only
7km but as we’re travelling we remind ourselves that we’re going to visit a place where people lived and worked so travelled this route a lot, us tourists have it easy these days! Blyth Homestead is an interesting place but one that you could easily imagine some people reaching and saying ‘Is that it?’ out loud. However, by taking a look around, reading the Sargent Family Album about how Alma and Harry plus their 14 children lived at the nearby Stapleton Station with the older children working the land here mining for tin and running cattle, you start to appreciate how tough you had to be to live out here. Tough lives, tough times are the words that greet you when entering through the ‘front door’ of Blyth which is described as a tin humpy and is 25 miles from the site of Stapleton Station.
When the homestead was sold outside of the Sargent family the new owners instigated talks with the authorities to ensure that Blyth Homestead was protected for future generations to see and appreciate. A real effort has been made here to make it an interesting place to visit, being able to read about how 10th
child Max had a pet croc and to see the tools hung up out back with messages written by the now grown up ‘kids’ was great idea. We thought it was well worth the visit.
Not far down the road is yet another waterhole with a walk leading up to it. Tjaynera (Sandy Creek) Falls is tucked in the midst of 3.4 kms of stony woodland which on a hot day like today might be a bit of a challenge! Who should we meet in the car park but a lad who was hanging out in the NT Mobile Service yard where our car was having its brakes fixed up on Friday! The lad is out here for the weekend with a mate and assures us the walk is very worth the while so off we go again in the pursuit of another refreshing swim!
It’s a bit of a hike over rocks and sandy tracks but when we got there, wow. There are only 5 other people here when we arrive and the pool is huge, bigger than Wangi or Florence and the falls are pretty impressive too. Refreshing, cool, gorgeous, clear, beautiful! Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhh! So very worth
the walk!
When we left there were only 3 people swimming and 2 lads had just arrived. As we walked back along the track we met a couple with their blown up air beds heading for the water so all in all it was the most beautiful and least busy plunge pool we’d been to all day!
We took it easy over the corrugations on the way back, people say if you drive at 70 kms then you can skim over the top but there are large humps at certain points along this track that we don’t think we can ‘skim over’ at any speed without taking off completely!
Dinner comes earlier tonight seeing how we’re back in day light! We get a visit from a family of either Wallabies or Wallaroos, we’re not sure which but they hang around for a short while before heading deeper into the bush.
We’re still sticking it out heat wise through the night without resorting to putting the cool air fan on in a desperate attempt to get used to it but tonight Darryl issues me with a wet t-towel in the event of an emergency ie waking up
in the middle of the night due to the heat!!
Sleep well everyone!
Dar and Sar
Walks:
Greenant Creek 2.7km Moderate (steep in sections)
Florence Creek 3km Easy (sandy track)
Shady Creek Walk 1km Easy (plus 160 stairs back to lookout)
Tjaynera (Sandy Creek) Falls 3.4km Moderate
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Lynne Coulsell
non-member comment
Wow!
Now look chick, you know that you can stick your bugs, frogs, creepy crawlies, crocs and bat poo where the sun don't shine but show me a stunning sunset and awesome waterfalls and now I'm jealous! And is that a little quote from Pretty Woman that you slipped in yesterday's blog - nice touch! Shame we lost Mr Swayze last week, we will have to have a Dirty Dancing do when your home. Lots of love xxxx