Awake early again , next door packed up and left early - before sun up . We rolled over & tried to go back to sleep for a while , with limited success . Up at 7:30 , fed & watered , we headed off to Litchfield again .
First stop was the Lost City , about 10.5 klms off the main road on a 4wd track - 4wd for clearance and a couple of sandy sections - did I mention corrugations , yep had then too . The track wound its way in & out of trees , there were the occasional wider sections for passing . It took us 30 mins to drive in , we were in no rush and it would be difficult to go much faster anyway !
Arriving at the parking area , we found some shade , there was only one other vehicle there , it can be good leaving early !!
Not knowing what to expect , we wandered in , to our right was a cluster of large rocks that had been here for a bloody long time , further up there was another to the left , we looked back to the front and there were more & more rock formations , some fallen down , some threatening to , some others looking like totem poles . They were generally grey in colour , merging into black , in the sheltered spots you could see the orange in them .
These rocks are sandstone , siltstone , conglomerate and ripplestone ( looks like the ripples in the sand at the beach when the tide goes out ) and all of it is so hard - that’s why it is still here & not eroded away .
There are trees & bushes growing in the strangest places , with roots stretching down the rock face and into any crack they can find for moisture .
The walk takes you round in a loop , we did that and then wandered back & forth having a better look at everything - it is hard to take it all in , harder to take photos of it that actually show some scale to it .
Finished looking , we headed back out to Florence Falls , it was nearly lunch time , so we had a look at the falls and the plunge pool below it from the lookout platform . It is a double waterfall , with smaller cascades up above it , the plunge pool below it is extremely popular as a swimming hole . The walk down from the carpark to the plunge pool was over a kilometre , the walk to the lookout ( same track ) was only 100m . There were bus loads of people , drivers rounding them up to continue their day trip to the next destination .
From there we headed back to Buley Rockholes - a series of rock holes in the creek bed that feeds water down to Florence Falls . The rock holes are big enough to swim a little , people were jumping off the rocks into one of the pools - it was a good deep one , we jumped into the next one down - not very long , but deep enough - 2m or so and about 3m across , good enough for us to cool off in - another day of 32 degrees .
Suitably cooled off , we drove down to the Magnetic Termite Mounds . This type of termite lives in the floodplains , where there aren’t any trees - pretty much just grass . There are the cathedral type mounds near them , but always near or in the tree line . There was one giant cathedral mound watching over the magnetic mound in front of it - maybe it needed directions ??? The magnetic ones point north south !!! There was one cathedral mound that is over 5m tall - its massive and hard .
With that complete , we headed back to the park for another swim , and to put the bikes & kayak back on the ute , ready for tomorrow . A nicely relaxed day .
Now , the debate over Kakadu and Litchfield - we’ve had a lot of people say Litchfield leaves Kakadu for dead . We’ve come to OUR conclusion on both of them - they are different parks - Kakadu is large and spread out , encompassing so much more area and diversity and more indigenous heritage , higher escarpments and much more wetlands , also a wider variety of wildlife.
Litchfield on the other hand is a more compact park , all the attractions could nearly be seen in one day if you really wanted to start early and finish late . Due to being that compact , it attracts a lot of people every day . Kakadu being much larger , requires you to take more time to look at it properly.
Well , we loved both of them for the differences between them , and for all the things we looked at in each park .
Our recommendation would be to look at both if time permits , if you are in a rush maybe just Litchfield , then make up your own mind . We have a leaning toward Kakadu , because it’s Kakadu and we felt more connected to it . We will come back to both of them , and that’s a certainty !!!!
Map Link for yesterday & today :- https://www.google.com/maps/d/edit?mid=z1G8gwwxwyYo.kKCK8Ve4hR4w&usp=sharing
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