Last Day in Darwin

Semi-early start today - bus pick up was 7:15am and once we picked up the other 5 people on the tour (an ostrich farming older couple from South Island New Zealand, a widow from the Blue Mountains in New South Wales Australia and a young couple from England) we were off to Litchfield Falls National Park.

We saw several Wallabies along the way before we hit the first falls and our first swim.  The Florence Falls were beautiful.  We descended 132 steps and a long path to get to the swimming hole below the falls  -  I can't describe in words - this will have to be one of those "pictures speak a thousand words". 

The older couple and the widow didn't bring their swimmers so it was just Tony and I and the young couple from England.  The young woman was fearful that there may be crocodiles but reluctantly finally got in.  The water was refreshing and once we swam over to the bottom of the falls where the water was thundering down in to the pool, the water was actually warm coming down.  We swam directly under the falls and were pelted with warm water.  

Our next stop was Wangi Falls.  Not quite a long a decent to get to the swimming area but just as breathtaking.  This swimming hole had a lot more people but no worries... there was plenty of room for everyone - young and old alike.  Again we headed across the swim hole to sit under the thundering waters.... Quite exhilarating !

Third stop was Tolmer Falls which was just for viewing because the water levels were too low so it was closed to the public.  Then we stopped for lunch at one of the local caravan parks that had a huge banyan tree.

Last swim of the day was Buley Rockhole which was a series of ponds that were cascading down on each other creating great swimming pools (some were only 10 feet wide by 15 feet deep)...  Even our tour guide took a dip to cool get relief from the 95 degree weather and 78% humidity.

From here we headed home - we stopped for a cold beer @ the Shooter Bar at the Banyan Tree caravan park and chat about the day.  Directly across the street were two water buffalos so the lady at the bar gave us some bread and we fed the two young buffalo.

A surprise stop as we worked our way back to Darwin was at the Termite Mounds.  This little tourist stop is quite interesting .  You look out into a field and it looks like a bunch of tombstones but these tombstones are 5- 10 -15 feet high !.  And two of the biggest ones we saw were 15 ft high (this one is estimated to be 70 years old) and one that was about 25-30 feet high and estimated to be 150 years old).  Each mound is 1 colony, no combo-living here !  Our tour guide poked a little hole in one and within 2 minutes the termites were poking their heads out wanting to know who was invading their mound.  They immediately began plugging up the hole.  Pretty amazing.  You see these mounds scattered amongst the trees throughout the drive.

We arrived home at 6:30pm - another full day of fun.  We both had a hankerin' for pizza and found a pizza joint around the corner that had a great salad and really good pizza.

We say goodbye to Darwin tomorrow and are off to Cairns.  Early shuttle pick up @ 5:35am will have us to the airport by 6:00am -and we should land in Cairns at 9:55am.

 Pictures should be under Litchfield National Park.