Day 27 - Darwin to Litchfield National Park
Our last morning in Darwin was quite warm, which is never fun to pack up
in. But we were on the road by just after 9am, heading down to Litchfield
National Park. For those geographically aware, you may wonder why we are
backtracking down to Litchfield when we practically drove past the front gate
last week coming from Katherine to Darwin. That was our original plan, until we
tried to book the caravan park in Darwin for this weekend and discovered that
the V8s (car racing) were on. So instead
we went straight to Darwin to be out before the V8s. Which meant today that we
had to head south. But it was a lovely drive, only about 150km.
We were aiming for Wangi Falls campground but we knew that you couldn't
book a site, and that it got quite busy. So we were hoping to be here
reasonably early to try and nab a site, although preferably two and side by
side. As we drove down the road to Wangi Falls, I was describing to Greg the
waterfalls which were clearly visible from the road. We were cruising around
the campground, as there are only 20 sites suitable for caravans. Lisa and Paul
did one loop while we did another, keeping in touch via the UHF radio. Lo and
behold, we found two free sites side by side. Backing in required some
instruction but we were all set up before lunch.
By this stage, we were all pretty hot so we headed down to the waterfalls.
And what a magnificent place the plunge pool below the falls is. The water
cascades down from nearly 150m above into this pool, which was quite deep in
places. But the bottom was sandy and where you could stand, it was crystal
clear.
Although Parks and Wildlife have tried to preserve as much of the natural
beauty as possible, they have also made it a bit easier for visitors with some
steps built in. It is very well done in such a stunning location. We spent
quite some time in the water, chatting to other people and Paul and the kids
swam over to underneath the smaller waterfall where there was a little pool
about 2 metres up, which they said was quite warm. Lisa and I were about to do
it until we heard that a freshwater crocodile had been spotted. Now, they won't
do anything to humans but that was enough to scare Lisa off.
We settled back into our campsite with afternoon tea followed by some
relaxing time and then beer o'clock. After a yummy dinner of hamburgers, we are
sitting back to listen to the native wildlife (a wild pig just walked past our
campsite!) and the sound of the cascading waterfalls. Oh, and all the bugs -
but that's nature!
posted by Tracey @ 4:38 pm
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