Adelaide River isn’t a huge distance from Litchfield so we were in the park by mid morning after stopping at the visitors centre in Batchelor.
First stop was to view the Magnetic Termite Mounds. These wedge shaped mounds are aligned in a north-south direction to allow the temperature to remain stable. The paddock full of them eerily looked a little like a grave yard.
Next we stopped at Florence Falls where we had a swim and a walk then some lunch.
On the way to the next attraction, the Lost City, Jacob fell asleep so I went for a look while Graham stayed with the truck. The Lost City is where the freestanding sandstone blocks and pillar formations bring to mind the ruins of a long-forgotten civilisation.
It was getting late in the day by then so we headed down the southern access track to Tjaynera Falls (Sandy Creek), did the self registration thing, quickly set up camp and decided to got to the falls for rinse off rather than use the horrible facilities. It was around 5pm when we set off on the 3.4km return walk so we took a torch in case it was dark when we came back. Jacob insisted on leading the way and all our attempts to pick him up to go a little quicker didn’t go over very well so to keep the peace we just let him lead the way. There was another couple somewhere on the track behind us so we took comfort in the fact that someone else was silly enough to tackle an unknown track this late in the day.
We had a beautiful swim at the falls, just us and the other couple then headed back with no time to spare. It was dark within minutes of us returning to camp.
There was a lot of biting flies here. Bigger than normal flies buy not as big as March flies. Our camp site had a stash of fire wood so Graham got the fire going and the flies dissipated however the bugs overtook us, swarming any light source they could find. Cooking dinner was a challenge, sitting in front of the fire was a challenge. They were constantly running into your face and crawling on your scalp. We retired to the camper as quickly as we could and decided we would not be spending a second night here as we had originally planned.
The next morning after breakfast we packed up and head back up the track we had come down the day before stopping in at the Blyth Homestead Ruins then we checked out the Tolmer Falls which has an easy 400m wheel chair access track.
Next we went to Wangi Falls, which is probably the most popular falls and campground in the park and also has a café. We had s swim here for a while then went to the café for lunch.
Next stop was the Bamboo Creek Tin Mine, then we headed to Darwin. I was excited especially after last nights bug encounter. On arrival we booked in for two nights at a caravan park only to have the guy next to us come out of his caravan to say to us “are you following me?” It was ‘TAX SUCKS’ as we had been referring to them every time we saw them in WA as that is their number plate. We had seen them at the Grotto near Wyndham, Mitchell Falls and at Pago Mission Ruins. Turns out they have real names, Mark and Erin from Tasmania. We ended up enjoying their company and the relaxing in the pools (park has three) so much that we stayed five nights instead of the original two. We didn’t do a lot, just went fishing (Erin and I were the only ones to catch anything), went on a jumping crocodile cruise, had a look at the WWii Oil Storage Tunnels under the city, went to the Mindil Markets and did some shopping. The rest of the time was spent at one of the pools. Erin and Mark were in a caravan and it didn’t take long for Jacob to make himself at home in their bed watching the tv whilst we had a few drinkies at night.
