Litchfield

At last - another post!

Today we finally got the chance to do some proper exploring and headed off down to Litchfield National Park.

We came in via Batchelor and the drive into the park was through fairly dry, flat scrub with an abundance of Pandanus Palms (we were both surprised to see how green the photos turned out because it definitely seemed much drier at the time). The main road through the park is tarred and has every point of interest well-signposted along the way - we decided to see how many we could cram into the day.

Our first stop was at the magnetic termite mounds - a large field of mounds all aligned in a roughly north-south direction. There was a short board-walk there which took us out to the edge of the field (where there was a line-up of other sight-seers all having their pictures taken in front of one particularly large mound) and then back to the carpark. Was a short stop but interesting nonetheless.

From there, the main road then climbs a jump-up and the scenery starts to get slightly more rugged. Our next stop was Buley Rockhole. The carpark here was chockers and the pools themselves were choked with people. It was actually a really nice spot (crowds aside) - a series of cascades and pools of beautifully clear water, all over colourful red and yellow-brown rocks.

We walked from Buley down to Florence Falls. The track followed the course of the creek, but far enough away from the shaded water to be pretty hot and sandy (and at 34 degrees today it was just a little uncomfortable)(have to keep reminding ourselves its the middle of winter).

The closer we got to Florence Falls, the greener the bush became, until we descended into a pocket of monsoonal rainforest (complete with butterflies flitting through the trees and even a small python spotted by the side of the track). Florence Falls is a double cascade plunging down into a huge pool - also full of swimmers. Ryan could no longer resist the urge to get wet and had a paddle there (with foot-long fish darting below his toes)(and who knows what else lurking in the shadows beneath). It was another beautiful spot - we both wonder what it would be like in the wet...

We took a detour from the main road down a 4WD-only track to check out the Lost City (another Lost City). This track was 10km of bone-jarring, truck-rattling corrugations - and also narrow and windy enough that it was hard to get up enough speed to cruise over the bumps (good fun!)(well, I thought so at least). The Lost City was a whole bunch of sandstone formations that had been left standing like a maze of ruined buildings as the softer ground eroded away. There was a short track that wound through the pillars and boulders, with lots of little detours to explore the crevices in the bigger stones. Turned out to be a good track to explore (and just as rattly on the way out)(poor BT).

Our last stop was Tolmer Falls. Again we decided to take the walking track from the carpark, along the creek leading to the top of the falls. Right at this point, the water bubbled away down into a huge stone cauldron before shooting out lower down and over the main falls (from downstream we could see this hole was made by a huge stone arch capping the highest point of the falls). The walk leads out to an excellent lookout which gives an expansive view of the falls plunging into a deep green pool at their base, and the steep-sided gorge opening out into the valley lower down (the landscape all of a sudden having become much more rugged). The creek and valley at the base of the falls are not accessible, but the view from the top was plenty good enough.

By this time the afternoon was wearing down, and we decided to leave the remaining sights for another day - but decided to drive back via the gravel to Cox Peninsula Road. This dirt looked reasonable - wide, flat, not many ruts - but turned out to be very corrugated the whole way (the nasty type that don't smooth out much, even with speed). We had to try it once :)

So we've left a bit more Litchfield exploring to do (plus having to go back later in the year to see all those cascades turned to raging torrents)(at least then there should be a few less swimmers...)