Litchfield National Park Day 1

So, now I finally have the opportunity to write an entry again. The last three days Andi and I were in Litchfield National Park and because of all the experiences I didn't have any time. Not to mention that there wouldn't have been any internet to upload anything :D

We left on Monday morning and we used the weekend before for some preparations. For example, we completely emptied our car, sorted out things, cleaned everything and put everything back in. Then we bought food cans and other camping equipment. That took a lot of time! In between, we treated ourselves to a dip in the whirlpool and we spent the last evening in the hostel with Karo and Matze. That was really nice :)

So on Monday we got up really early, packed all our stuff, got the car near the hostel, packed everything, checked out and then we left. First to the gas station, filled up the tank and also filled a 20 liter canister. There is no gas station in the park. There was one in the town before, Batchelor, but we thought it would probably be more expensive there. And it was actually 14 cents more expensive, so we did everything right. After refueling, we drove to a shopping center with a Kmart. That is a store with cheap camping, cooking, fishing, sleeping and clothing equipment. We bought bedding, a cutting board and a cooking spoon there. In a small store in the shopping center, I finally found a hat! And that for only 24 AUD. I've been looking for a hat since we arrived in Darwin and never found the right one.

Then we set off towards the national park. It's about 120 km from Darwin and we arrived there around 12:30 pm. Litchfield is one of the few national parks where you don't have to pay an entrance fee, so you don't really notice when the normal surroundings turn into the park :D

Our first stop was the Magnetic Termite Mounds. There we could see a field with hundreds of these huge termite mounds built by the magnetic termites. They are called that because their mounds are flat walls, but always built in a north-south direction. There were also meter-high mounds of cathedral termites to admire. It was really fascinating!

Next, we drove to the Lost City. Part of the way there is a 4WD track, so not every car can go there, but of course, we wanted to try out what our car can do. So we drove 9 km on a partially sandy, partially hilly and bumpy track through the forest. It was pretty exciting! It was fun as a driver, but as a passenger, you just got tossed around :D When we finally arrived at the Lost City after what felt like an eternity (I think it was about 45 minutes), we were a bit disappointed because this "city" was just piles of rocks. Not some remains of walls, just big rocks. But you could walk around there a bit and in the end, it was really nice and the rocks were quite impressive! After the short walk, we drove all the way back through the forest and were really glad when we had a normal road under our wheels again.

The next stop was "Buley Rockhole". It's a stream with several pools where you can swim. The cool thing is that it's very safe to swim in Litchfield National Park because there are only a few crocodiles. And the few that are there are well localized and not really present during the dry season. So there are many places where you can swim in the different rivers and streams, which is really really nice. Especially after a hike to the swimming spots and being all sweaty. But we didn't swim in Buley Rockhole, we just looked at it and then continued to Florence Falls. We wanted to set up our camp there and because we didn't know how busy the campsite would be, we decided to go there a bit earlier. We were able to get a good spot. From the campsite, you could also walk to Florence Falls (down a steep staircase!) and we did that right away. It was so beautiful!! Down there, you walk through the jungle for a bit and then you see this plunge pool that the waterfalls flow into, which continues into a shallow river. So beautiful. There were already a few people there, but it wasn't crowded. We immediately undressed and jumped in. So refreshing!! We then swam to the waterfall and stood underneath it. The view went towards the jungle, the evening sun illuminated the rock walls, and the cold water came from above. I've never experienced anything like it, it was so great.

At some point, we had to get out again and start our way back because we wanted to prepare our camp stuff. We also had to pay our fee, which works on the campsites in the park by putting the money in an envelope, writing your license plate, the date, and the number of people on it, and then putting the envelope in the designated box. So it's basically a trust payment. In the morning, though, we saw a ranger vehicle, so maybe they also check the payment.

In the evening, it got dark pretty quickly (sunset around 6:45 pm) and our first camping attempt didn't go smoothly. We had to familiarize ourselves with the camping equipment (the first assembly takes longer) and for example, the connecting cable from the gas bottle to the gas cooker was broken and we created a fireball. Thank God nothing happened. But it was already dark when we finally managed to cook our sausages and rice (with a spare cable). Unfortunately, our wood for the campfire was used up too quickly, so we were sitting there with only our battery-powered lantern. Also, in rural areas there are sooo many insects that are sooo annoying. We already noticed that when we got out of the car for the first time at the termite mounds. It really feels like a horse swarmed by flies. Thank God we have insect repellent spray that was still in the car and that works pretty well. But because of the heat, you sweat a lot and the stuff washes off quickly. So you have to spray yourself constantly. In the evening, the insects are actually better because the big horseflies and flies are only active during the day. So we were able to enjoy the evening with our red wine and admire the stars. They are really amazing out there. You see sooo many and they seem so close. Really beautiful.

After the evening program on a campsite is not so exciting and we didn't really have any light, we snuggled into our tent at some point. We have a 4-person tent, but it also fits well for 2 people with the two single air mattresses. The tent itself is pretty used and the zipper at the entrance doesn't work properly anymore, so we're thinking about buying a new one or somehow building a bed in the car. We'll see. But in general, we slept well in the tent. Just that it's a tent with an air mattress and you never sleep perfectly :D

The next day continues in the next blog post :)