Daly River & Litchfield National Park

Right from the outset I have to say that Litchfield National Park is probably the best National Park we have visited in all of our travels so far!

It has hiking trails to suit everyone, i.e.; short, long, steep, easy.  It has unique rock formations, it has hills, valleys, plateaus, & unique rock formations.  It has waterfalls both tall and small, clear water swimming holes, monsoon forest, savannah grassland scrub and, as always in the Northern Territory, termites mounds!

Litchfield National Park - What a great place!

We stayed for 4 days and had things to do each day without being hurried to get it all done or bored in between activities.  We thoroughly enjoyed every bit of our time here.  But before I go into detail, I need to briefly tell you about a couple of days we spent in the Daly River region prior to getting to Litchfield.

The Daly River Region is reputed to be one of the best ‘Barra’ fishing locations in Australia.  ’Barra’, short for ‘Barramundi’, is a fish species prized by anglers for their good fighting ability.  I haven’t got right into fishing to wile away the time just yet (truth be told - the rod and reel have not been seen for the entirety of our journey thus far), so despite its reputation for great fishing, that wasn't the reason we came here.

Parked on the low-level Daly River crossing looking for Crocs!
This crossing is frequently under water in the wet season.

We parked and set-up the van under a nice shady tree off to one side of the local pub.  I hear you saying, “I thought you said there would be no more bush pubs for a while”.  You are absolutely correct - I did say that!  For the first time in a long time we did not go somewhere in search of an autograph in our book.  The Daly River Inn is not even in our book but it is the epicentre of commercial and social activities (fuel, food & drinks, accommodation and information) in town.

The attractions for us, beyond ‘because it is there’, were reports of crocs in the river and water buffalo (yet another feral animal species in Australia), roaming the camp area under the cover of darkness.  As it was still early afternoon we decided to get out and about and explore the surrounding area a little bit.

From a lookout in the beer garden of the pub (we did go out and about beyond the pub), we quickly spotted a saltwater crocodile.  From a bridge crossing a few hundred metres away we soon spotted another along with a gangly looking Black Necked Stork wading in the shallows and walking on a sand bar in the river.  It was hard to get good clear photos of any of them as we were quite a long way from the animals.  With the camera on my phone at ‘full zoom’ the images I captured are a little blurry - definitely better seen with the naked eye than through a screen.  We also visited one of the local mango farms and picked up some mango cheeks for a smoothie - yum!

Saltwater Croc (estimated to be 2 - 2.5m in length)
lurking in the shadows

This Black Necked Stork has a funny way of 'sitting' down!

During the night, Heather heard some noise outside of the caravan.  Was it a herd of water buffalo?  She grabbed her video camera in the hope that it was and that she could get some footage of the beasts!  To our delight, the buffalo were out there!  Unfortunately, just the noise of the van door opening and a small light on the camcorder was enough to trigger their natural wariness resulting in them disappearing silently back into the shadows before we could enjoy their presence or get any photos.

Heather managed to get some video that was of much better quality than the stills I could manage.  To see video of the crocs, stork and the mango farm (but no buffalo), in and around Daly River, just click on the link below:

https://youtu.be/FOj__ZBSwJ4

Now... Litchfield National Park!

There are a couple of campgrounds in the national park.  We managed to get a site in the Florence Falls campground.  Just a 5 minute walk from our site were the namesake falls themselves.  Two cascades, side-by-side, splash down into a beautiful shaded waterhole.  The water was clear and inviting.  So much so that it did not take long for us to get into our swimming gear and take our first swim at the ’local’ waterhole.

Florence Falls from a lookout just steps from our campsite

View of Florence Falls from the steps into the plunge pool

Florence Falls from the cooling waters of the plunge pool

While termite mounds are prevalent all over the Top End, they are a major feature within this park.  There are two main types - Cathedral Termite Mounds and Magnetic Termite Mounds.  Cathedral Mounds up to 5 metres in height can be seen throughout the park.

Heather is dwarfed by this Cathedral Termite Mound

Magnetic Termite Mounds found on floodplains within the park stand up to 2 metres in height in a North-South orientation.  This orientation acts as a temperature control mechanism as it presents the least possible surface area to the heat of the sun.  We couldn’t get very close to them but there was a whole field of them.

Field of Magnetic Termite Mounds

Yet another feature of the park is ‘The Lost City’.  Located about 10 km down a 4WD access track, The Lost City is a formation of weathered sandstone blocks and pillars that, with some imagination, resemble crumbling buildings and ruins from an ancient civilization.

10km down a dirt track is an easy walk around and
through the sandstone pillars of 'The Lost City'

Over the next couple of days, we visited Tolmer Falls, Buley Rockhole, Tjaetaba Falls, Walker Creek and Cascades.  Spectacular scenery at all of them with swimming allowed everywhere except at Tjaetaba and Tolmer Falls.

So many photos, such limited space!
Did not want to bore you with endless photos of
waterfalls and swimming holes but I easily could have.

Last but not least was Wangi Falls.  Like Florence Falls, these are also double falls but Wangi Falls are much much higher!  Easily accessible, Wangi Falls is the most popular swimming location in the park.  Fortunately the pool at the foot of the falls is also large so there is room for everyone to enjoy themselves without feeling at all crowded.

Heather in front of one of the two cascades at Wangi Falls.
Shortly after this photo was taken we were swimming
where the falls splash into the waterhole!

WTF? - Where are The Farrows? had a great time at Litchfield National Park and highly recommend it to anyone who finds themselves in this part of the country.  Re-reading this post prior to publishing, I feel that I have not been able to do it full justice.  Hopefully, "Wow!" and  "You’ll Love It!" convey the message as to how much we liked the place.

A better way to see more of Litchfield NP as we saw it would be to watch the short movie (it runs for 9 min 30 sec), that Heather made of our time here.  To do that, just click on the link below to see what we saw.  Like we did, you may well find yourself asking WTF? - Where are The next Falls?

https://youtu.be/suyn_pTpnjs

With Darwin now less than 150 km away, WTF? - Where are The Farrows? are closing in on their targeted dry season destination.  Stay tuned for more tales from the Top End...