Day 30 Monday 7th August
Everyone awake early due to heat and the monster mosquitoes which ate Nicole and Matilda alive!
We're going to get away in absolute record time. Before 9am! BUT...we were almost squared away, the clean washing was still slightly damp and could do with 15 minutes in the dryer so it could be put away. We figured a stitch in time saves nine.....Grace was on the job! Unfortunately instead of putting the damp clothes in the dryer Grace managed to put the clean washing in the front loader washing machine which then locked for 40 minutes!!! We waited till it had finished but needed to get it a bit dry as moist hot conditions in the van not conducive to keeping clean washing fresh. That load of washing ended up costing $14 after it was washed twice and dried once! While we waited for the dryer we popped into Batchelor town to see if we could find a hose fitting which we seemed to have misplaced. Bingo!
JD got coffee from a particularly unhappy girl in the takeaway shop. He paid her $5 for the $3.80 coffee and she proceeded to give him change for a $50, once he corrected her she was totally confused and he had to explain it to her in detail! Unhappy and not the sharpest tool in the shed. Its a public holiday and apparently unusually busy in Litchfield.
Asked at the information centre about. Croc safety, apparently all good to go here!
Stopped to checked out a miniature replica castle of the King of Bohemia.(Checoslovacia) Who was not a nice man, he killed the people who built his castle cause he wanted to keep it's design a secret. One of his wives also killed 14 people believed to be maids!
Back to collect the still not dry washing after another 40 minutes....we set off to explore Litchfield National Park.
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We stopped at the magnetic termite mound. We saw a 5 meter high mound. They build the mounds in north-south orientations which helps to control the temperature during the day by exposing the least amount of surface to the sun!!
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Our second stop was Florence Falls, beautiful from the look out... but virtually standing room only at the bottom swimming hole! Long weekend crowds. We all had a quick swim, Grace and JD swam over to the falls. No post card photos today, impossible to capture the falls and not to get other people. Too many people feeding bread to a very large fish frenzy, or dive bombing from the cliff face so we walked back to the van along a beautiful shady tree river walk. Third stop Buley Rockholes! They were absolutely gorgeous, cascades of waterfalls, not particularly high falls but lots of them and so deep, some at least 2 meters down. So yes there were lots of people jumping off rocks and dive bombing too, including JD and girls.
So, so many people....was quiet difficult to find a spot on our own and again not really great National Geographic photo opportunity!
But the pools were so refreshing and it was 37 degrees.
After a bit of a swim Grace jumping off the edge. Matilda thought she wanted to jump but was not actually prepared for the drop and scared herself silly and got a nose full of water.
Back to the van for wraps for lunch then a yummy mango slushy.
We convinced the girls that the short walk to Tolbert Falls would be well worth it! As one of the most spectacular falls cascading over two separate escarpments into distant plunge pools. Where the almost extinct colonies of Ghost and Horseshoe Bats hangout in caves! It was really hot and they as usual weren't exactly interested and had some ridiculous friendships thing going on and carried on like pork chops.
Next stop Wangi Falls a lot larger space which manages to cope quiet well with the massive crowds here! We all cooled off again and then walked to the look out and read some interpretative sings about the wild life, which includes, to my absolute horror, being the home to many Fresh water crocs year round! I suppose the masses of people was a blessing in disguise more choice for lunch, cros!
We ran into the same family from Kakadu who were also staying at the Safari Lodge CP. think they might be following us! Their daughter took a huge liking to our girls.
We thought in our first day whirlwind exploration of Litchfield that we'd done enough and it was time to get settled at camp and have a swim in the pool where there was absolutely no chance of wildlife. That was actually not the case as the Pool turned out to be a water tank cut in half, they use both sides! With no filter and full of brown dirty water, who knows what was lurking in there! The Safari Lodge was actually a bit of false advertising. We thought Berry Springs was bad! The girls had a swim, no way we were getting in, then they made friends with a gorgeous little aboriginal girl who obviously lived in one of the safari tents with her family.
Dinner omelette and baked beans, supplies are running low.
Thankfully no reception of any kind so early to bed.