Saturday 27th August 2011 Litchfield National Park

cathedral termite mound

A family day out with picnic lunch - we haven't done that with Jennifer for such a long time and this time we had Heafy too.


Litchfield is south of Darwin and is a national park. It's about 100 km trip. We wanted to check out the van parks here because this is our first stop on the way back to Adelaide. We also wanted Jennifer and Heafy to see some of the bush while they were up here.

Large groups of termite mounds are a feature on the way in. They look like grave stones or a frozen alien army (Dr Who fans will know what I mean). 

The towering cathedral mounds are so different to the magnetic mounds but both are impressive when you think of the tiny creatures that work as a team to make these structures.

board walk near plunge pool and water falls

CD selection was loaded and the singing began. I think Heath had his own music happening with his phone so he didn't have to suffer. 

The landscape soon changes. This area has several water falls with plunge pools and they are a popular place for people to swim (apparently there are no crocodiles - I'm still not convinced as there are warning signs and information about crocodile management).


Paths have been built so that access to most of these spots are accessible to everyone. Some of the walks from the falls may be harder.

magnetic termite mounds

From lookouts, spectacular gorges with cascading water falling from many metres to a pool below is not what I expected to see. It's difficult to imagine how much water would be here in the wet season with the amount flowing now.

 The water was icy cold but there were heaps of people of all ages swimming in most of the accessible pools. One spot had several tiers with pools dotted along the way. The rocky bottom varied in depth and the rocks looked very slippery. 


Cooling off by standing in the water was enough for us. Most of the swimmers said that it was lovely after the initial shock.  

burn off in the park