Darwin - Litchfield National Park

Our weeks seem to be getting busier!! Garry has been working 3 days a week at the hardware and both of us are working on Saturdays at the races.  We also spent last Sunday at the Nightcliff Markets where Carol had a stall and sold several of the girl’s dresses and hair band and clips that she has been making.  It was a good start but not a raging success as it was her first outing.  It is a small world though.  As we were setting up our stall there was another couple setting up a stall selling thongs next to us and it was Jack Eddie and his wife Barb.  They had just arrived from Mackay and are doing the grey nomad thing also.

The crowds are building at the races and we are starting to earn our keep there.  The fields of horses are big and one race had to be split into 2 races as there were 24 nominations.  9 races makes for a long day but we are still enjoying it.
We got back into the sightseeing this week.  Garry took a tour through the Aviation Heritage Museum which was very interesting.  There were a lot of aircraft featured in the main hangar which was purpose built to house a B52 Bomber donated by the US.  It is a huge plane and all of the other planes and helicopters on display fit under its wings.  It has a (small) movie theatre set up in the bomb bay which the size of semi-trailer capable of carrying 58 HE bombs or 4 Neuclear bombs.  It has a wing span of 185 ft and is 157 ft long powered by 8 jet engines.  Fully loaded it flies at over 50,000 ft high and cruises at 1014kph.  It is a pretty scary aircraft and there is about as much room in the cockpit as there is in the cockpit of a Honda trail bike.  The Tiger Moth, large Navy Helicopter, and Mirage Jet Fighter were also impressive.  The museum also contains a lot of aircraft wreckage as it was found in the bush after WW2.  They must have been tough times especially for the Japanese pilot who crashed inland from Darwin and was captured by Aborigines and held for a week in the bush before he was handed over.  It was a good facility and very worthwhile taking the time to read the stories on display.

 The B52-G. note the Mirage Jet Fighter under the wing between the body and the 1st engines

 B52 Cockpit

 1938 Indian Motorcycle

 Part of the Air Force control room

 Hurricane beautifully restored

 Navy folding wing helicopter

 Bomb bay of the B52 - that is a 50inch LCD TV at the other end

 Mirage Jet Fighter with B52 wing behind

We followed the Museum with fish and chips on Stokes Hill Wharf and then had a night out at the movies.  A easy meal on the water watching the sun set and the boats sail is very relaxing. The Darwin Film Society operate the “Deckchair Theatre” 7 nights a week.  The theatre is on the water’s edge in the middle of the city beside Parliament House and is outdoors with old fashioned sling seats.  The movies are current and we saw ‘Salmon Fishing in Yemen’.  It was a good movie but the atmosphere was great – especially the bit in the middle of the movie when the possums came down out of the trees and ran through the seats and over the ladies feet.  Many squeals followed by much laughter.  There are picnic tables set up along the sides in the trees and across the back and food and drinks are available.  It was very pleasant sitting out in the cool air beside the sea watching a good movie and enjoying a cold beer; with good company also.

 A sunset cruise departs the wharf

 Relaxing waiting for the movie (and darkness). Yes that is the sea 20m away.

 Carol in old fashioned chairs with cushions supplied.

Another day of work and then we set off on Thursday for Litchfield Nat Park.  Before I start describing what we saw at Litchfield, I will dwell on Darwin for a minute. It looks dry, brown, and the sun shines every day.  For the last couple of weeks it has been hot and the evenings have been uncomfortable until just before daybreak with the humidity increasing daily. Definitely air conditioner weather.  The locals have been complaining that the ‘build-up’ has started 2 months early and are saying they are glad the ‘cold’ weather has gone but whinging that the ‘build-up’ has started too early!!  So, having lived in dry and dusty conditions with brown grass everywhere, Litchfield was always going to be better.  It was!!  It is a beautiful place with several very impressive waterfalls and running creeks of pure clear water within a few kilometres drive of each other and with reasonably easy walking access.  We started by seeing the Magnetic Anthills.  They are a strange formation of anthills along a clearing that have been constructed very wide (2-3m) and very thin (100-150mm) The theory is that they face North-South so as to expose the smallest amount of sun to the surface of the anthill.  Only a short distance away there were anthills amongst the trees that were regular round(ish) shape?? 

 Magnetic anthill in the clearing with a regular shape hill in th trees behind.  There were hundreds of the magnetic ones running along the clearing for more than a km.

 A tall regular anthill over 5m tall.

Next we enjoyed morning smoko sitting in a creek and then walked to the Florence Falls for a swim.  School Holidays are in full swing (they have 4 weeks winter break up here) as the swimming hole at the falls was very crowded.  We settled for a soak in creek below the main pool. The return walk to the car led us through very different types of bush.

 Smoko cooling our heels

 Florence Falls

 Pool below the falls full of tourists

 Enjoying a quiet lay in the creek

 Reflections on the walk back

  A few kms up the road and a short walk in took us to a lookout over Tolmer Creek Falls on the edge of the escarpment. 

 Tolmer Creek Falls

 Cycads showing their new silver growth

We then spent the afternoon at the twin falls and pool of the Wangi Falls.  This is no doubt our favourite spot with large grassed areas and a huge pool below the twin falls. There is camping allowed here but the sites are full by about 11am.  The falls are large and beautiful and the pool is huge, clear, not very deep, and perfectly cool.  Garry spent a long while in the water and, course had to swim out to the falls and take a heavy shower under the falls – just like a lot of others.  It was very peaceful and refreshing from the hot walks. 

 Wangi Falls swimming hole

 Wangi Falls

 View NW from the escarpment beside Wangi Falls

 Garry enjoying an afternoon shower

There was another camp ground nearby and we spent the night in the back of the Cruiser in an unpowered site with a campfire.  And Garry got in trouble for putting vegemite on the bottom of the sausages because he was too busy chatting with the neighbours from SA.  The snags were still edible and the story from the neighbour about what minus 5deg C does to your plumbing was entertaining and reminded us why we are up here.  Apparently the water tank froze and burst the rear brass tap apart, broke the seal in the front tap, and burst the fitting off the tank at the T piece in the middle of the camper trailer behind where the kitchen slides out so that all the water ran into the camper when it thawed in the morning.  Of course the T piece was inaccessible and could only be reached by removing the kitchen or inserting a large tent pole and levering the fitting back together – an exercise that required the use of all known swear words and the creation of several new ones; apparently.  I wish I could have seen it; not.  If anyone knows of the whereabouts of a stretch Landcruiser then tell the owner I want it for my next campout!! And also I am wondering while I type this in whether I should slam the screen shut on my laptop and then re-open it and photograph the squashed bugs on it. I bet there would be at least 20 or 30 species of insect that the Brisbane Museum never even knew existed!!!  Now the fn bats have started landing in the tree next to the car where I am sitting.  Isn’t nature wonderful?   I think so!!

Anyway, back to Litchfield and how nice it is….  We actually slept ok in the car and after breakfast headed back to the Buley Rockholes to get an early park.  It was a beautiful area with cascading water over many levels with good size swimming holes below each drop.  The ferns, moss, grass and trees made the area very pretty and it was still too early for the kids to crowd the place.  We found it hard to believe that we were swimming under a waterfall at 9am on the 13th July.

 Buley Rockholes at 9:15am mid-winter

 Art??

 Clear water

 Garry spent a couple of hours swimming and taking photos before we headed off for a drive to the Lost City.  This is an area of weathered sandstone blocks that appear to be rectangular blocks in tall stacks.  It was interesting and similar to the Carnarvon Gorge but it was a long rough dusty drive in and out. 

 We kept seeing these flowering trees along the side of the road so finally took a photo.  The trees are covered in flowers and bees.

 Lost City

 Is this where they got the design for the Michelin Man from??

 We just had to return to the Wangi Falls for lunch and another swim before heading home through Berry Springs.  On the way we called in at an abandoned tin mine at Bamboo Creek.  The mine was a small underground pit with very rich tin ore but the last 3 leaseholders all died of silicosis within 12 months of the mine finally closing in 1951 when the pit was flooded.  Some veins of tin were pure and just bagged straight from the ground for sale.  Mining lasted from 1906 til 1951 and the site is very well preserved.

 Owners residence beside the Bamboo Creek Tin Mine

 Tin processing plant 50m from the house.  Quartz was crushed into very fine gravel and the tin wash washed out on a corrugated shaking table