Asia Trip - Day 21

Litchfield NP - Darwin


We drove to Litchfiled park to see the magnetic termite mounds. The fact that it had safe swimming holes had nothing to do with anything (that's me you can barely see swimming between the waterfalls).


The termites build their mounds in a North-South alignment to maximize their exposure to the morning and afternoon sun. With many of them in a field, it looks like a graveyard.

Our next stop was Tolmar Falls. We saw a massive waterfall from a lookout point on the other side of the canyon. Next we saw Wangi Falls. It is a large double waterfall. Usually you can go swimming there, but during the wet season, it floods below the falls and crocs can access the pool.

After we enjoyed the termites and two waterfalls, Shannon let me go swimming. There are two pools open this time of year. The first one we went in is called Florence Falls. There are two waterfalls, side by each dropping into a large pool. There were a lot of people, however, they mostly stayed in the shallows, so there was lots of room to swim up under the waterfalls. Even though the falls weren't as large as the others we'd seen, it still caused quite a current and gave you a good battering as you swam under. When Shannon finally dragged me from the water, we went to the Buley Rockholes. These are circular pools caused by shallow rapids. Somehow we managed to have them all to ourselves for an hour.

Walking back to the car dried me off and then we were on the road back to Darwin for Bec's birthday. After a good party, we headed to the airport for our overnight flight to Melbourne. I have yet to convince my charming wife that an overnight flight does not count as a rest day.