Wednesday 16th July

Today was our goodbye to Darwin. Before we left, I had phoned a Caravan air conditioning agent but was unable to have it sorted. He told me, very nicely, that he is overwhelmed with work. That was confirmed after my conversation with the massage therapist yesterday. I also phoned Kimberley Karavans in Ballina and the most helpful Sharon contacted me during the morning with details of someone that may be able to help in Kununurra but when called was told to call another fellow. I have done that but had not heard before we entered Litchfield National Park.

As we left Richard and Rita’s home in Darwin, we went and had a coffee at a most interesting garden centre, Finlay’s’ Stone Masonry and Landscape Centre at Palmerston, which included a very nice Cafe. Also part of this place was “The Sticky Beak Centre” which had an incredible array of indoor and outdoor furniture, antiques, curios, pots and so much more. As Prue said”I should have been here earlier!” So much to take in with little time.

We left there driving on the Stuart Highway to the turn off to not only Batchelor but particularly to the Litchfield National Park. So many have said this is nicer than Kakadu. We will know by Friday for sure. We drove through the small town of Batchelor and will check it out on our way out on Friday.

Our first stop was at the magnetic termite mounds. They are massive especially when you get close to some of them. Numerous mounds are higher than 4 metres but most of them are around 2 metres high. They are closely aligned in north-south directions so as to take advantage of the heating and cooling during the sunlight. The least amount of the mound faces the north and so avoids the intense heat.

Next we drove onto Florence Falls. We chose to camp in the four wheel drive camp. As it turned out, this had the easiest access, 450 metre walk, to the magnificent falls and swimming hole at the bottom. The water initially felt a little cool but with such a warm day it soon became very pleasant. There were many people swimming but soon the tour groups disappeared and it was again very pleasant. Prue has taken quite a number of photos in this location.

Slowly, we walked back to the camp to enjoy the evening. Before it became too late, Prue had another swim in the creek nearby.

Our dinner was precooked in the wonderful Dreampot. We had corned meat and vegetables, Swede, turnip, carrot, onion and sweet potato, along with some salad. Of course we had several nice red wines to help it down! It, again, was a magnificent meal. I think that all the items that were cooked in the Dreampot are just so nice and maybe they are all bad for us!! No, I believe it is just the slow cooking, in this case from 0830 to 1830.