My turn to write a little bit: (Sue)
Up at 7 am after the usual sticky night, but it seems cooler this morning after the thunder, lightning and heavy rain in the night.
Phil had the bright idea of hiring a car to go to Lichfield National Park, rather than going on an organised tour and being herded around by the tour operators. As well as having our independence, we saw more than if we had taken a trip.
Features of interest were allegedly the magnetic termite mounds, so called because they are aligned on a N-S axis. Additionally there were large, towering cathedral mounds. There were indeed lots of them.
The best part, as far as I was concerned was the assortment of lovely places in which to take a dip and cool off.
Firstly we went to Florence Falls. On the way down to the pool we saw a couple of rock wallabies, said to be shy creatures. Very cute. After a short walk through the trees we came to the beautiful clear pool fed by a couple of waterfalls, with big black / sooty coloured fish hanging around in the sunny shallows.
Next stop Buley Hole which was a linear series of deep eroded pools connected by water cascading over flat rocks between the pools, deliciously cool and refreshing.
At our lunch stop we saw our first kookaburra.
I wasn’t so keen on Wangi Falls, the third and largest swimming area, having developed paranoia that there might be crocodiles. Phil reassured me that if there had been any crocs there, that they had had all day to fill up on the other tourists and would not trouble me. I sat down on the edge before agreeing that I was unlikely to be croc fodder and got in for another swim. It was only afterwards that I read the warnings in the guide book. It stated that on no account should you sit on the ground because one would almost inevitably contract scrub typhus. Charming! I seem to have survived though I am still in the 7-10 days incubation period.
Lastly we saw Tolmer Falls from a view point, being unable to access the water because of the steep sides of the gorge. On the way back we stopped off at East Point to take in the views across the bay in Darwin, and hoped to see one of the 2000 wallabies that live in this area. It was getting dusky and we saw two. Result!
