Tour Australia

From Darwin we drove south and visited Berry Springs. Berry Springs are located only around 50kms from Darwin and offers a great swimming spot. The spring is warm and there are 3 distinct swimming spots in the spring; 2 are large pools while the third is small but is much more shallow and has a small waterfall.

After our swim at Berry Springs we drove all the way down to Litchfield National Park and camped at Wangi Falls Campground for 3 nights.

Day 1 of Litchfield
We visited the southern ends of the park today but before we headed south we went up to the Cascades and did the short walk up to the lower end of the Cascades. It was a nice walk and led us to some small but nice cascades.

We then went back for a swim at Wangi Falls to cool off. We left Wangi Falls and headed south and turned off at the Southern Access Track. There are a number of river crossings on this road and as a result it is 4wd access only. The first crossing was only 40cm deep. After the crossing we continued south and then turned off to visit Blyth Homestead. This track is a little more rough and has a slightly deeper water crossing but still only came up to the side steps of the Jeep. Upon arriving at the homestead we were greeted by a number of large flies. The homestead was interesting and contained a really great book that had stories from previous occupants.

 

After having a good read and look around we left the homestead, drove back to the main track and continued south. Unfortunately Sandy Creek was closed, rumour has it due to a salt water crocodile being present, so we continued down towards Surprise Creek. We reached the Reynalds River Crossing. It is a fairly long crossing with soft sand and can be quite deep. We entered the crossing slowly and quickly realised that the sand was very soft! There is a half-way bail out which takes you onto dry land before finishing the crossing, so we headed up that, gained a little momentum and finished the crossing.

We arrived at Surprise Creek and had lunch. We didn’t really know what to expect, other than not many people and a place to swim. We did the short walk and were met by a group of older people who told us that there was 3 levels of plunge pools and to go up to the higher ones to swim. We had a look around and climbed to the top pool. This was an absolute gem of a swimming spot, probably the best in Litchfield! The lowest plunge pool is at ground level and is the bottom of the waterfalls. Up from that is a very deep plunge pool with amazing water and finally up again is a third plunge pool which also is very deep and has amazing water. We enjoyed a swim, some jumps and diving for a few hours only sharing the place with several people at a time.

We made our way back to Wangu Falls for the night.

Day 2 in Litchfield
We drove out to the Lost City in the morning. The track is marked as a 4wd only track but it was in great condition and was very easy. Out at the Lost City the carpark looked very busy, there were about 7 or 8 vehicles parked across the beginning and end of the walking loop. We park a little further away and realised that it was a large group of backpackers who appeared to have camped there. They had loud music pumping, their belongings were scattered in front of their cars and a large tarpaulin was layed on the ground in the picnic area. We ate our morning tea at the Jeep and then navigated our way through the backpackers to a walking track. We walked the short loop walk through the Lost City and marveled at the rock formations and rock stacks. It is almost unbelievable that some of the stacks of rocks haven’t toppled over. We had a great time walking through the area.

From the Lost City we drove out to Buley Rockhole. The carpark was absolutely full so we continued on to Florence Falls. It too was very busy but we found a car park. We walked out to the lookout and then down to the plunge pool. Florence Falls is a very beautiful water fall that is actually two water falls. There were a lot of people swimming and sitting around the edge on the rocks. We jumped in for a swim too and cooled off as it was getting very hot. We stayed there into the early afternoon before heading off back to Buley Rockhole.

Buley Rockhole appeared to be less busy, so we found ourselves a car parked and walked down. Buley Rockhole was amazing; it blew us away at the way the creek had been formed and the number of amazing cascades and swimming holes. A very noisy group of backpackers then arrived and we realised they were the same ones down at the Lost City. They were pumping music from a portable device and proceeded to jump and bomb/canon ball in a pool that a group of older people occupied. They then lit up their smokes and popped open beers. Meanwhile the older gentleman was trying to make a conversation. Soon after the older group left the pool to the backpackers. We jumped into the lowest rock holes and slowly made our way up as people vacated the pools. We really enjoyed the beauty of this location and decided we’d come back early in the morning.

 

Day 3 in Litchfield
We left the campground fairly early and got up to Buley Rockhole at around 8:30/9:00am in the morning. There was only one other couple there already. We promptly found ourselves another rock hole and jumped in. It was much more peaceful and relaxing to come at this time and be able to enjoy the place without so many people. We stayed there for a couple of hours, by which time it was very busy, and left going back to the caravan.

We packed up the caravan and headed for the Magnetic Termite Mounds. These really amazed us. Scientists conducted experiments which concluded that the termites, who are actually blind, build their mounds in an almost perfect north/south direction using their own inbuilt compass! How cool is that?!

 

After marveling at the magnetic termite mounds we also had a look at the Cathedral Termite mound and then left Litchfield heading for Douglas Hot Spring.