I felt a good old spoonerism was a good title for the Litchfield National Park visit. As we were coming up the west coast we were umming and ahhing about whether to go straight past the upper bit where Darwin is or not. We were keen on going to Katherine Gorge but I thought we might just continue west and south from there. But of course you get talking to other travellers and see those glossy brochures with the persuasive text and you start to get that ‘fear of missing out’ feeling but that has to battle with the ‘can’t do everything’ feeling. And they fight and wrestle and you say ‘Well why you guys are doing that I might just turn left and check this out.’ It’s always going to be something amazing, because you can’t scratch your behind without running into amazing places in Australia it seems.

Just a quick side track down Timber Creek lane first. Timber Creek was our first stop in the NT but it was just an overnighter at a roadhouse/hotel. It’s a lovely little creek but I was most impressed by the freshwater croc that was lazing on the edge of it. Maybe the caravan park people had organised it for us stunned interstate visitors.

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It is very busy in this part of the world right now as they have hit peak tourist. So rather than cross our fingers and arrive at one of the national park campsites (that have very few spots big enough to accommodate our monstrosity) we ended up booking in at “The Banyan Tree” which is about 9kms from the entry to Litchfield National Park. It was quite rustic but met our needs well enough. We did day trips into the park from there. Our first day was spent at Wangi Falls; a huge waterfall and swimming hole that you walked 20 metres to. It was very well set up for visitors, which is just as well, because there ended up being plenty of them. We got there early and were nearly the first ones in. The temperature was fantastic as half the water pouring in was running over warm rocks up on the plateau.

The next day, before you know it, Florence Falls, but it only makes sense that someone should help her get back up. and Buley’s Waterholes

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Next fall wasTjaynera waterfall at Sandy Creek. Was a four-wheel-drive adventure.

We stopped at the termite mounds on the way back. The magnetic termites always build north to south so that there is a cool face. Just like me because I always have a cool face, or perhaps I should say ‘I am the face of cool.’

Our last day there we went to Darwin and visited cousin Matthew on the way home …but that’s another story.