Litchfield

Before I tell you about the wonderful time we had in Litchfield I wanted to tell you the words of wisdom we learnt from Russell (our Katherine Gorge guide) in case you should ever wonder as we did. We saw a crocodile on our tour and Russell was asked how to distinguish a “freshy” from a “salty”. Without a sign of a smirk Russell replied “By its bite!” Gee thanks Russell, that really helps! He did go on to tell us that Freshwater Crocodiles don’t eat people.
Now on to Litchfield National Park which is a beautiful place to visit. After we settled in to our park we went to see the Termite Mounds which are either Cathedral or Magnetic. In the photo Ian is standing beside a Cathedral Termite mound so you can see how tall they are. They are a fascinating phenomenon. The location of the Magnetic mounds and how they are built is really interesting down to the angle of the mound. If they are not built at the right angle the warmth and coolness is not conducive to the population of termites and the nest dies --- natural selection.
Litchfield is also well known for the number and spectacular nature of the falls. We visited a number of falls over our two days and climbed to the top of Wangi Falls on the second day and I have posted a photo of them. It was not an easy walk but the view from the top was well worth it. The Park rangers have the trails well marked and graded according to difficulty and the expected time to complete the walk and our skills as mountain goats are improving!
After our walk we decided not to swim at Wangi as it looked very cold and went on to Walker Creek where we walked through a number of secluded camping spots until we found a lovely spot for lunch and a swim which we really enjoyed although I was not so enamoured with the hundreds of little fish who were very keen to make our acquaintance. Falling asleep at night is not a problem for us! The weather is very warm now and we’re really enjoying being able to swim, even if the water is cold we soon warm up.
Next stop Darwin!