Day 57
Darwin - Batchelor - Litchfield National Park
"All summer long....."
We love Litchfield and the different types of water falls and rockholes that the park has to offer. We got to do a couple more things that we didn't get to do last time we were here too which was great.
We left Corinne's Mum and Dad chasing tyres and drove out of Howard Springs at 7.30 and straight into Darwin peak hour! Luckily it lasted all of 5 mins and we were back up to speed on the Stuart Highway heading south. We've particularly liked seeing the old WW2 airfields that run parallel in most cases to the highway - Strauss, Livingstone, Macdonald, Fenton . They all played a significant part in either the bombing of or defence of Darwin and they are still visible reminders of that time now 70 years ago.
Continuing south, we turned at the Batchelor and Litchfield turnoff and rolled into Batchelor at 9. We dumped the van at a park just outside of the town heading towards Litchfield and took off ready to enjoy an action packed day of swimming and exploring.
We drove out to the Lost City first. It's a 4wd track that we didn't get to explore last time we we're here. The different types of sandstone have all weathered to make patterns and shapes that resemble ruins of old towns. One even looked like a robot according to Cayden and he was pretty right too!
From there we continued onto Cascades another place we didn't get to last time. It was very much like the Buley Rockholes with the exception of having a longer walk ( about 1.7ks ) to get there. Multiple waterfalls and swimming nooks and holes awaited us - 1 was very much like a spa, round, deep and with a large amount of water rushing into it. We spent an hour pool hopping at Cascades and by this time we were ready for lunch.
We quickly drove the 10ks to Wangi Falls - closed last time we were here because a large crocodile had moved in . We only did some of the walks last time on a really hot day . Not this time! No crocs and the falls were dumping lots more water too than last visit. We had lunch by the falls and then Cayla and I were the only ones brave enough to swim out to both waterfalls. It wasn't deep in most parts - I could stand a lot of the way. We were rewarded with a great spa like pool a short clamber up the rock ledge. Very deep into the rock it's been forged and it's even a couple of degrees warmer than the main pool.
We swam under the main falls as well and got blown away by the wind and spray - really powerful!
From Wangi we drove to the Buley Rockholes - one of our favourite spots. Again lots more water here than our last visit and still lots of people too initially, but then they all seemed to quickly disappear- most likely ordered back onto the bus!!
We played and jumped, dived and bombed in all the rockholes until about 5pm. Dragging ourselves out, we drove a short distance to Florence Falls.No swimming there - just the lookout and then back to the van at Batchelor.
Some very tired CMJs tonight after lots of swimming!
Heading to Mataranka and the hot springs tomorrow for a few days.