Day 2: Litchfield National Park!

What a day! I woke ridiculously early, had breakfast at the "Duck's Nuts" (don't ask), covered myself in sunscreen and crocodile repellent(!) and then rented a car. It's not a very manly car. Everyone else was driving a ute (with a dog on the back), or a 50m-long road train, or a 4WD. I had a red hyundai. It was quite exciting getting in and realising that it was a manual. I haven't driven one of them since my driving test (a long time ago). Anyway, I only stalled once (and that was because I stopped suddenly so that I didn't end up squashing a huge frilled-lizard that was sitting in the road - and then tried to start up again in 5th gear). I don't recommend re-learning to drive a manual car in Darwin. There are traffic lights approximately every 10m (all of them are on red when you get up to them).

I drove to the Litchfield National Park and it was wonderful. I had the window down, Mozart on the radio and the speed limit was 130km/hr on the Stuart Highway (the same road that Joris, Christine and I were on in Alice Springs earlier this year). It was about 130km to Litchfield and took about 1.5 hours.



The park was amazing. You drive in past huge termite mounds that sit eerily in the forest. I pulled up at a viewing platform and had the most incredible view of thousands of termite mounds (all facing North-South) in a field. I had the whole place to myself. In fact, I think that I had the entire National Park to myself!! All I could hear were the cicadas, frogs and strange splashing sounds in the streams.














I continued my drive through the park for about another 30km before stopping near the "Tolmer Falls". I went on a hike. It was hot. There were cycads (Cycas calicola, if you're interested) everywhere!

I then went past a wonderful, rocky area with views down into a deep gully. There were caves everywhere which you're not allowed to enter because "Tolmer gorge is an important habitat for Orange Horseshoe Bats and Ghost Bats". Apparently there are also big pythons that eat the bats.


The Tolmer Falls were spectacular. Again I had the whole place to myself (by the way, in case you're not believing me - the photo above of me was taken by my camera using its time delay mode). I don't think that I managed to take a photo that showed how spectacular it really was. The river (which I had been walking next to) suddenly cascaded down into a gully. The walls seemed vertical and yet large trees were managing to grow from the rock. There was a huge cave next to the base of the falls and rainforest plants in the gorge.

The views in the other direction were just as incredible. At this point the land is very high (a "tabletop") and therefore the views over the countryside beyond were superb (basically forest until the horizon).




























I was rather hot and wet by this time (from the humidity) and so got back in the car to drive to "The Tabletop Swamp". This was my favourite place by far. Again, I was the only person around. There were heaps of butterflies, lizards, birds (egrets, birds of prey, parrots) and a huge swamp. I was convinced that every log was a crocodile and so kept well back from the edge.







I then continued my drive and ended up at the "Buley Rockhole" and set out on a 5km walk to the Florence Falls. I cannot keep describing everything as spectacular and superb, but it really was. I cooled off by dangling my legs in a creek until I heard a loud splash (admittedly if a crocodile had been there then I probably wouldn't have heard it anyway). The walk was beautiful, but very wet. I seemed to be walking down a river and did at least half of the walk without any shoes on.

I'm running out of things to say. It's all a blur now of green! I spotted a few wallabies, a huge wallaroo, some lizards, heaps of birds (I found a snake, but on closer inspection it was a twig - oh well).

I then drove back to the hotel in a ridiculous amount of rain. I stopped for a coffee in Noonamah and bought myself a stubby holder that says on it "Where the hell's NOONAMAH?". I took a wrong turning coming into Darwin (a bit difficult as there is only one main road). It was an interesting detour - past the docks and the Captain Cook National Park. I'm now about to have a swim before dinner.