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Week 4, Day 22
Batchelor - LitchfieldNat Pk - Batchelor
Total: 5089kms, Today: 141km
Into Litchfield Nat Pk today - one of the reasons for coming to the Top End. Sue was a bit disillusioned with Litchfield as she had imagined tropical rain forest. What it is, is savannah with patches of lush vegetation where there's lots of water. Regardless of this, the main attraction in Litchfield are the waterfalls. Unlike those in Kakadu, Litchfield's waterfalls run all year, albeit stronger after the Wet.
Our first stop was the Magnetic Termite Mounds.
(Top Lt) This is a 'magnetic' termite mound. It's so-named because they are built very thin to have their largest surface area facing East/West. This has the least surface area facing the strong midday sun while collecting warmth early morning and late evening.
In the background you can see the more usual 'Cathedral' mounds.
(Lower Lt) This is what they look like 'end on' or when looking North/South.
(LowerRt) Sue gives a sense of scale to a 'Cathedral' termite mound.
The next stop was Tolmer Falls. This set of falls is harder to see than the others in the park as it falls into a gorge and you really only get a good look at the pool below it from the lookout. The falls are 102m/335' high.
There doesn't seem any way to get down to the base. There are good paths to the lookout as well as a 2km trek following a gorge. As it was 35°+, we just took in the view.
The best set of falls in the park (in our humble opinion) is Wangi Falls. While not the tallest at 84m/275', it falls into a picture perfect pool at the base of the rocks.
There's only one problem - at the end of the Wet, some big swimming lizards still have to be moved on so they don't disturb (or eat) the tourists.
The outflow from the pool below the falls runs off into a wetland of Pandanus palms and Paperbark trees.
You can do anything here except have a swim, and if there's something you really want to do when it's 35C, it's have a swim!
Later in the year they do open it for swimming when the water flow is a bit less ('dangerous currents') and the authorities are certain there are no crocs left in the area. We have no problems with this ruling as a 3.3m/11' saltwater croc was pulled from the area only 6 weeks before our arrival. They can travel a fair distance over land during the Wet.
After lunch at the cafe at Wangi Falls, we started back to check out Buley Rockholes and Florence Falls. As we approached the Buley Rockholes, we wondered why there was such a large car park.
(Lt) It seems it's a very popular place to swim! No crocs here.
This is where the water from the Buley Rockholes ends up a kilometre or so downstream - Florence Falls.
The smallest of Litchfield's waterfalls at 64m/200', it doesn't have a croc problem, but it did have a lot of stairs to come back up in the heat if we decided to walk all the way down.
Week 4, Day 23
Batchelor
Total: 5189kms, Today: 100km
Not a lot of anything today. I went back to take a few (better) shots of Wangi and Tolmer Falls in the afternoon as the light was better, but you've already seen these shots above.
This was one of the nicer caravan park sites we've had.
One of the things that happened at the caravan park we were staying at was that the owner fed the local birds twice a day.
(Lt) The Red-collared Lorikeet is similar to the Rainbow Lorikeets we get back in Brisbane but is now regarded as a separate species. Their raucous behaviour is exactly the same, however.
(Below) The Blue-faced Honeyeater is another colourful attendee at the feedings, but is generally bullied out of the way by the Lorikeets.
Week 4, Day 24
Batchelor
Total: 5199kms, Today: 10km
Batchelor is a quiet little town that was initially established as the site of an experimental farm in 1911. This wasn't a great success but in 1933 a portion of the original farm was selected for a civilian aerodrome. It was subsequently upgraded to be a base for the RAAF and USAAF during WWII. Chris' Dad also served here.
Uranium was discovered at Rum Jungle near Batchelor in 1948 and so Batchelor was chosen as the admin and community centre for the workers. The town was expanded and was used by the miners until 1971 when mining and processing ceased. All this history is very well presented in a restored set of what were female staff quarters from the 1950s. We spent a delightful hour or so wandering through this museum.
Week 4, Day 25
Total: 5274kms, Today: 75km
Back on the road again. We're now as far north as we're going to get on this trip - Darwin, capital city of the Northern Territory.
Approaching Darwin, the road runs alongside many of the airstrips that were built to defend the Top End against Japanese air raids. One of these is Strauss.
Along the old strip (now used for road trains to disassemble their trailers into sizes more manageable for busy roads) there are cut-outs of the most popular aircraft that flew from these strips. In this case they are a Curtiss P-40 Kittyhawk and two different Supermarine Spitfires.
We finally got to our van site and settled in. All very tropical!
Week 4, Day 26
Around Darwin
Total: 5334kms, Today: 60km
Off to see the sights of Darwin today. One of the items on Sue's 'Must See' list was the Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory.
Two things were of note: One was that the indigenous art section was closed for refurbishment, but to compensate for our disappointment, there were the finalists in the NT High Schools' Year 12 art contest. This was just amazing with a very high standard of entries. Everything from paintings and photography to sculpture. Unfortunately, no photos allowed.
What we could photograph was the nautical collection.
(Lt) This is a pearling lugger from the early 20th century.
(Lt) A collection of illegal Indonesian fishing boats and boats used by people smugglers.
Week 4, Day 27
Around Darwin
Total: 5354kms, Today: 20km
'Catching up' day - catching up on washing, shopping, reading, sleep...
Week 4, Day 28
Around Darwin
Total: 5414kms, Today: 80km
Back to see more sights around Darwin. Today's big attraction was the Botanic Gardens. In such a climate, it's not surprising that orchids and bromeliads do well, and this was certainly the case. (Yes, the one at bottom right is neither an orchid or a bromiliad, but it was a nicely patterned croton.)
One of the aspects of visiting Darwin is the realisation that this town has had two very disruptive events in the last 75 years. One was the bombing during the Second World War; the other was Cyclone Tracy. The cyclone managed to destroy 80% of all the trees in the Botanic Gardens. Because of the time it would take to re-establish the gardens from scratch, the then-curator, George Brown, decided that wherever possible the downed trees would be replaced with as mature a specimen as could be procured. Consequently, the gardens seem like they've been here forever.
Tonight was Sue's 'Big 0' birthday, so we went out to celebrate.
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