LITCHFIELD NATIONAL PARK

We said farewell to our new friends at Howard Springs last Sunday (19/6/11) and headed to Litchfield National Park. The first half of the road into the NP is a bit rugged and there are a few steep parts but overall not too bad. We went to Wangi (Won-Guy) Falls and were fortunate enough to find a spot to set up camp. There are lots of birds and butterflies and you can hear the waterfall from our camp site. We walked down to the Falls (just a short 5-10 minutes) - a brilliant place. The plunge pool is closed for swimming because water levels are still too high but they expect to re-open in another week or two.
On Monday morning we were woken early by the people next door trying to get their caravan out of their site. It was a pretty tight squeeze and they had gotten stuck. They had been trying to get out for about half an hour and we spent another half an hour but finally got them out and we could sit down and have a cup of tea.  We did the Wangi Falls Loop Walk - fabulous views. It was a bit hard in some parts but well worth the effort. We saw some black bats hanging from the trees on the way up. We crossed the creek at the top of the falls. We encountered another small waterfall on the way down. It was just lovely.
On Tuesday morning we drove about 4km up the road to the Litchfield Cafe where we had coffee and cake - took about our last bit of money but it was worth it. Royce had home made apple pie and cream and I had home made mango cheesecake! This was our treat for the week. We then visited the old Bamboo Creek Tin Mine (interesting) then went to have a look at Walker Creek. There is a nice little picnic spot and swimming area and then you can go on a 1-2 hour walk along the creek which sounded lovely but we weren't geared up for it so will do that next time. We noticed a sign for The Cascades which wasn't on our map so decided we would do that on Wednesday.
Sitting outside at night you would swear you were right by the beach - the sound of the waterfall is just great. Coming back from the toilet block tonight a black bat flew overhead and landed in a tree right by the caravan.
On Wednesday we went out to The Cascades. This is a new area, apparently only opened last year. We followed the trail along the creek - it is just amazing how clear and clean the water is. We didn't get to the Cascades themselves because there was a creek crossing - over partially and fully submerged rocks and I didn't feel confident I would make it without falling. A bit disappointing but we will definitely come back and perhaps we can do it then. We had a look at Greenant Creek and then on to the Tolmer Falls lookout.  An Agile Wallaby visited our camp site this afternoon, which was lovely and we saw two bright multi-coloured parrots land in a tree near our camp. We attended a Ranger talk and slide show tonight at the picnic grounds. That was really interesting. We watched the bats fly overhead for a while (fruit bats).
Thursday morning we headed out to the termite mounds and listened to the Ranger talk on them. This particular area has two types - magnetic and cathedral. The magnetic are built on flood plains and are built with the wide sides facing east/west. This enables them to dry out. The cathedral mounds are larger and fluted which creates temperature control. The cathedral mounds are dug deep into the ground (to the water table) while the magnetic mounds don't have any depth at all (because they are on a flood plain). I think the Ranger said the magnetic mounds are unique to Litchfield. Some of the mounds can be up to 80 years old. We then drove on to Buley Rockhole - this is heaven on earth and the pictures don't do it justice, but hopefully will give you a good indication. We stayed there for a while then drove to the Florence Falls lookout and from there did the Shady Creek walk. The walk is only just over 1km but you pass through monsoon forest and open woodland forest in that short distance.
Friday we reluctantly packed up and left Litchfield NP but we definitely plan to come back. Some of the areas we would have liked to see are still closed and won't open for another couple of weeks.

Wangi Falls

Black bats

Part of the creek that feeds the large fall at Wangi - looking away from the falls

Part of the creek feeding Wangi Falls - looking towards the top of the falls

Bamboo Creek Tin Mine

Tolmer Falls

The friendly agile wallaby

Magnetic termite mound

Boot Hill! Looks like a lot of gravestones.

Termites coming out to repair a hole

Royce with one of the cathedral termite mounds

Maryanne with another of the cathedral termite mounds

Buley Rock Hole (part of)

Buley Rock hole - this part is like a natural spa

I was testing the water at Buley. Less than 30 seconds after this photo I nearly sat in the water! The rocks were so slippery if a chap hadn't come along and grabbed hold of me I would have been very wet

Part of Buley - looking back to the start

Florence Falls

Shady Creek