Day 66-67 Litchfield National Park part 2

• As the days get really hot in the Litchfield National Park, we decided for an early start despite the cold in the morning. First stop was the Florence Falls, where a short walk away is a Lookout on the falls before the stairs (>135) to the falls & swimming start. The falls were in the morning in the shade and with the water being cold it wasn´t  tempting at this time of the day (14C) to go for a swim for us. So were instead heading to the Lost City. It is a short detour from the Litchfield National Park street, 4WD only for a good reason. The Lost City with all the (sand)stone formations is stunning and in Stuart´s opinion the best stop in this national park.
  

Driving back to the main road, we stopped at a signposted Tabletop Swamp Lookout, but it seemed to be only a picnic area with lots of croc warning signs. So we went on to Greenant Creek with Tjaetaba Falls walk. Signs said no swimming on the Tjaetaba falls, but arriving on the top after a steep and sunny walk, there were many people enjoying a jump into the water. For us the spot was too small and full of people so just took some photos before heading back.

Next stop was the Buley Rockhole on the way to Florence Falls. There is swimming at the Buley Rockhole but by the time we arrived there, the small pool and the small holes of the waterfall above were full of people, so we decided to head for the Florence Falls for a refreshing swim. From the lookout we could see, that the Florence Falls were now in the bright sun, so best time to go for a swim. There is a nice big pool underneath the waterfall, so even with quite a few people making their way down the stairs to this waterfall, it was not as overcrowded as other swimming spots in the park.

Refreshed and revived from the swim, it is time for the last waterfall stop on the Litchfield National Park main road: the Cascades. There is a loop walk with a steep & sunny part up to the upper Cascades pool leading onto the Cascades lookout before the way goes on to the lower Cascades pool walk and back to the car park. The first part of the walk is rocky, sunny & very hot before you reach the upper Cascades pool. The pool is pretty small and not very deep, so you could cool-down, but not really swim in it. We just took some water to cool off head, arms & legs before making our way back via the Cascades lookout and the lower Cascades pool to the car park. The Cascades are basically a lot of small waterfalls connected with sometimes small pools inbetween. The lower Cascade pool is a bit bigger, but in the afternoon it is in the shade and full of biting insects just waiting, so were not tempted to go for another swim...

The last day in the Litchfield National Park we wanted to explore Surprise Creek with Sandy creek and the abandoned Blyth Homestead Ruins on a 4WD only road. All information available stated it is possible to drive in the dry... Well, we drove only a few kilometres until we arrived at a huge river crossing with croc warning signs, where one couldn´t even see the exit of the river to the road after the crossing. Not sure, how deep the water will be, how the ground will be and with crocs in the water no good idea to walk through the river to find out whether we could drive this way. There were no other people around to watch them driving the crossing, so we decided this is not our cup of tea and went back for a 'break day' with catching up on work, sleep, recovery, etc.