Litchfield National Park
Massive Cathedral Termite Mound, Litchfield.
Magnetic Termite Mounds by the hundred.
Litchfield National Park lies just 150km South West Darwin and is well worth a quick detour off the Stuart highway. Although it is about a tenth of the size of Kakadu, it should not be underrated as there is at least as much to see and do! We loved learning about and viewing a field of magnetic termite mounds and some of the largest Cathedral Termite Mounds that we’ve ever seen! The kids and indeed the grown-ups learnt a lot of interesting information here – such as the fact that even though the magnetic termites are completely blind, an ‘in-built’ compass allows them to always build their mounds North to South, thus regulating the internal temperature of their home!
Wangi Falls, Litchfield National Park.
Treetop Walk at Wangi is magnificent.
We camped at Wangi Falls campground, which is Litchfields most accessible waterfall. We loved being able to literally walk 500m and be at an awesome swimming hole every afternoon of our stay. Even at the end of the dry season these double falls still flow beautifully and offer excellent swimming in sandy floored, crystal clear, warm water. Our girls even got the opportunity to swim right across to the far side of the swimming hole with their Dad and sit underneath the waterfall – a memory they won’t soon forget. Wangi falls also offered a great tree top walk through the beautiful monsoon rainforest that surrounds it – We love bush walking and this particular shaded walk was amazing!
Kitty, Kady and Dad swim over the other side of Wangi Falls to sit under the falls.
Kady’s account of her epic swim over to the other side of the falls:
A few days ago we went to a place called Wangi Falls. We’d gone there before and had a lot of fun, we went back again it was a lot of fun too. While Mum and Cam were playing and having fun Kitty, Dad and I swam to the waterfall. In there, there was a deep hole that filled up like a bath. We stayed there for about 15 minutes and then came back. I really enjoyed it there it was a lot of fun. Kady Rowe.
Buley Rockhole, Such a relaxing place.
We spent a magical morning at Buley Rockhole, which is a very popular place to swim due to it’s many different pools and beautiful rainforest surrounds. As we are not huge fans of crowds, let alone crowded swimming areas (who is) we decided to go off the beaten track downstream a little and were rewarded with an isolated vision of beauty all of our own!!
Florence Falls offering great swimming at the base.
Just up the road we stopped and gawked at Florence Falls from the viewing platform above. It was a spectacular falls which cascaded into a plunge pool below offering excellent swimming as well.
Natural Bridges formed from water flow.
Tolmer Falls also got a look in and was probably our favourite to simply just look at. It offered cool natural bridges, amazing caves and turquoise water; access to the bottom is restricted though to protect a colony of rare bats.
We loved Litchfield and know that we’ll be back again to enjoy all we did and more!