The Litchfield National Park boundary is about 70 miles (114km) from Darwin and takes just over an hour to reach. We rented a car for a few days and made a couple of road trips, the first to Litchfield. We’d had a great time visiting the park–the scenery was beautiful, the falls were more active than we were expecting and the walks were easy and enjoyable.
Trip highlights from August 5th follow. Click any image for a larger view, or click the position to view the location on a map. And a live map of our current route and most recent log entries always is available at http://mvdirona.com/maps
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Road train
Position: 131 7.12, -12 46.92
Three-trailer “road trains” are common on Northern Territory highways. We even saw one truck with four trailers.
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Hurtling
Position: 131 7.96, -12 49.77
After travelling so many miles at 7-8 knots, hurtling is the word that comes to mind as we accelerate up to the 80 mph (130 kph) speed limit.
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Litchfield National Park
Position: 130 56.37, -13 1.21
The Litchfield National Park boundary is about 70 miles (114km) from Darwin and takes just over an hour to reach.
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Wheels
Position: 130 50.71, -13 6.14
We normally rent some form of compact car, but this is the high season and many car rental agencies were sold out. We were lucky not to wind up in a Hummer or something really large.
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Magnetic termite mounds
Position: 130 50.68, -13 6.17
Our first stop in Litchfield was to visit the “magnetic termite mounds”. These look like grave stones, but are actually narrow termite mounds aligned north-south to minimize exposure to the sun.
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Cathedral termite mound
Position: 130 50.70, -13 6.21
Australia certainly does have some unusual wildlife. This is a cathedral termite mound nearing 20 feet high that we’re told is about 60 years old.
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Shady Creek Walk
Position: 130 46.97, -13 6.10
Crossing one of the footbridges on the half-mile (1km) Shady Creek Walk to Florence Falls.
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Florence Falls
Position: 130 47.02, -13 5.93
The pool in front of beautiful Florence Falls is a popular swimming hole.
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Above the falls
Position: 130 47.00, -13 5.87
A short track leads up a staircase back up to the parking lot with great views from a viewing platform above Florence Falls.
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Tolmer Falls Walk
Position: 130 42.98, -13 12.35
The Tolmer Falls Walk is just under a mile (1.6km) through scenic sandstone country to the Tolmer Falls lookout. This is the view looking west through an arch above the Tolmer Gorge.
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Tolmer Falls
Position: 130 42.84, -13 12.32
The Tolmer Gorge and falls are closed to the public to protect the resident Orange Horseshoe and Ghost bats. But you can get a good look at the falls and sweeping views of the area from a viewing platform just east of the falls.
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Wangi Falls Visitor Center
Position: 130 40.93, -13 9.80
We had a simple, but tasty lunch on the deck at the Wangi Falls Visitor Center cafe.
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Crocs
Position: 130 40.95, -13 9.78
The sign on the left says that the pool at Wangi Falls is open for swimming. The sign on the right says that freshwater crocodiles inhabit the area and can cause injury, and that fearsome saltwater crocodiles also can reach the pool and people should not swim when the pool is closed. The parks department searches the waters for “salties” before opening the pool for swimming in the dry season. We weren’t planning to swim, but if we were, the signs would have slowed us down a bit.
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Wangi Falls
Position: 130 41.05, -13 9.81
Beautiful Wangi Falls are a major attraction at Litchfield.
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Treetop lookout
Position: 130 41.08, -13 9.96
We followed the Wangi Falls walk from the lookout at the base of the falls up a set of stairs to this lookout through the treetops.
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View
Position: 130 41.14, -13 9.73
The Wangi Falls track had a sweeping view southwest across the park. This was our last stop before heading back to Darwin.
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Click the travel log icon on the left to see these locations on a map, with the complete log of our cruise.
On the map page, clicking on a camera or text icon will display a picture and/or log entry for that location, and clicking on the smaller icons along the route will display latitude, longitude and other navigation data for that location. And a live map of our current route and most recent log entries always is available at http://mvdirona.com/maps. |
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