Litchfield National Park Day 2

For our second day in the park, we set an alarm for 8:00 a.m. Of course, it gets light much earlier and because we went to bed early, I got up at around 7:30 a.m. I was awake many times during the night and our neighbors were already up as well. Getting up at 8:00 a.m. is late for camping :D But we didn't let it stress us, we had breakfast first, then did the dishes, and then packed up our camp. It took some time to get everything ready to go, and we didn't leave the campsite until a quarter to 11. One thing that is annoying in the area is that everything is covered in red dust. In Germany, campsites are green meadows where you can place things and walk barefoot. That's not the case in Australia. Whatever touches the ground turns red and dusty. It makes camping a bit more difficult, especially since neither Andi nor I have much camping experience. The good thing about the red dust is that it looks beautiful! It's just so typical Australia and Outback that you feel really happy about it and it feels like being in the photos and movies you know.

Our first stop on the second day was Tolmer Falls. I read that you can walk 400 meters to a nice lookout over the waterfalls, so we wanted to go there. The lower areas of the Tolmer Falls are inhabited by various bat species and other animals, so you can't swim there. Unfortunately, the short path to the lookout was closed, and we would have had to walk the longer loop to get there. But that would have been 1.5 kilometers. That was too far just to get a glimpse of the waterfall. So we just continued driving, there were still many other places to discover.

The next stop was Tjaynera Falls (Sandy Creek), which could only be reached via a 4WD track. And it was much more fun to drive than the one from the previous day. It wasn't as bumpy, but had larger bumps to drive over, and we even had to cross a river. Quite exciting! On the car park where the walk to the waterfalls started, there was no one. So not many people around :D We grabbed our backpack and started walking. It was quite a steep path along the riverbed to the waterfalls. And a big part of the forest was destroyed by bushfires. It's strange to walk on black soil and still smell the burned scent. Later, we read on a sign at another spot in the park that the access to Tjaynera Falls was closed until recently because of bushfires. So the fires there can't be long ago. But when we arrived at the waterfall after about half an hour, everything was still green and very jungle-like. There were only 3 other guys besides us, but they left right away. The waterfall and the surrounding area were really beautiful to look at! But because it seemed so untouched, it was almost hard to believe that there were no crocodiles in there :D But of course, this plunge pool was designated as a swimming area, so we dared to get into the water. It was so nice! That was also the first time we could properly test our waterproof action cam. That was fun too. After swimming to the waterfall and back, we sat on some rocks at the edge and had our picnic lunch. Some other people came as well, and one of them dared to jump from a rock into the water multiple times. It was really high and I wouldn't have dared to do it because there are quite a few rocks underwater! Maybe he was familiar with the place or had researched it beforehand, as he looked like someone who frequently goes cliff diving (not least because he did a backflip off the rock). After lunch, we walked back. It's incredible how quickly you start feeling hot again after being in such cool water!

After safely coming back on the off-road track, we continued driving along the main road and wanted to go to Greenant Creek. But unfortunately, we somehow couldn't find the turnoff. On the different maps we had of the park, which were all not really accurate, the access was marked at different points. But we couldn't find it anywhere. Luckily, there was much more to explore in the park, so we just kept driving.

The next stop was Wangi Falls. That's supposed to be the visitor center of the park, with a café, shop, large campground, etc. We expected a bit more because in the end, it didn't look any different from the rest of the park, except that there was one more building (the café) :D Since we wanted to spend the next night at this campground, we immediately looked for a spot. It was only half past 3 in the afternoon or so, but the campground was already quite full. Luckily, we arrived in time! After setting up everything (which was actually much faster this time), we walked to Wangi Falls for a swim. They are the largest waterfalls in the park, accessible directly from the road, and the pool even has stairs to get into the water. It was really nice to enjoy the evening atmosphere there. Especially because the flying foxes became active, and there were heaps of them. I've only seen these animals in night houses at the zoo before, so it was so great to see them flying freely in a tropical environment! Really beautiful!

After swimming, we cooked our dinner (incredibly creative noodles with tomato sauce) and leisurely watched the stars come out. Because setting up went better, we could enjoy the evening much more. That was true and beautiful camping feeling :)

The last day will be covered in the next blog post :)