Windows on the Wetlands



 

28/5/2013 - Wangi Falls Camping Ground

 

Heading towards Darwin, we detoured into Litchfield National Park.  First stop was the magnetic termite mounds.  The termites make them to minimise the sun exposure - they are also pretty tall



 

 

We went to the camping area at Wangi Falls, and got the last camp site.  Set up the van, then went to the water fall and plunge pool for a swim, only to find it closed decause there was a croc spotted in there.  So, we had to jump in the car and went to the Cascades instead.  They were not that good, but there was a nice swimming hole, with a curtain waterfall to cool us off.  We did a bit of walking, and stream hoppingm plus a bit of relaxing

29/5/13 - Wangi Falls Camping Ground

Still in Litchfield, we wanted to go see Tjaynera falls but the 4WD road was closed due to flooding.  We went instead to see the "Lost City", which are rock pillars and structures that remain after the rest of the rocks have been eroded over time.

 

We went to see some other lookouts, and even "Tabletop Swamp", but as you may have guessed, are not that great.  What was great, was Buley Rockhole - These pools were clear and so deep.  Lidia was very happy with her natural infinity pool.

and a bit further down, a spa pool with masaging jets.  We spent the rest of the morning just trying all of the pools and waterfalls to find the best one.  We couldnt believe how deep some of these holes were.








Lidia Florence falls

Now, here is the funny bit.  This photo shows Lidia swimming in the pool below Florence falls.  The black fish like things around her, are freshwater black bream (called sooty grunters).  They really like to eat bread, so Lidia thought she would feed them. Teasing them a bit to make them jump out of the water to take the bread.  Some of these fish would be 30-40cm in length and there were loads of them.  Notice Lidia's blurey hand? and, the head of a larger fish still out of the water? Well, these fish have sharp teeth, and this one jumped out of the water and bit her finger.  Ha ha teaser. (I have other photos if anyone wants to see)









This place was nice to swim, and stay cool so we had lunch and spent a couple of hours just tooling around.  We then went back to campand Wangi Falls, and the pool was open again.  We went for a walk around the pool, and a refreshing swim. Lidia found a private heated spa pool, under the small waterfall and a couple of meters up the rock face.  It was too deep to touch, and only room for 2.

 

 

30/5/2013 - Boomerang Caravan Park in Darwin

 

 Packed up camp, and headed for Darwin. We stopped off at Berry Springs, which was horrible, as you can see from the photo:

Actually, it was beautiful, but what made it one of the worst places we had been, is that the pools were closed for swimming...

We kept driving, and stopped at a caravan park 20mins drive outside of Darwin. We went into Darwin City for a look and walked around a bit, to plan what we wanted to do.  We bought a replacement camera for our water damaged one, but this time it is water proof.  Can't wait to try it out

So stinking hot, but because we had a powered site this time, we slept with the AC on all night.  It just gets so cold we need blankets


31/5/2013 -Windows on the Wetlands

Went back into Darwin, and visited the wave pool.  This is a swimming pool, where they control the waves. They say there are 20 wave types, and they run 20 mins of waves with 10 mins of still pool.  Its good, but the waves are not like real ones,   These photos were taken with the new camera..  works pretty well in and out of water. Lidias sunglasses work underwater too

Next stop



















Next stop was Crocodylus Park.  Educational park where you can learn all about crocodiles.  They were feeding them by putting chunks of meat on a hanger then making the crocs jump out of the water to get it..  Pretty cool












You can poke them with a stick, and tease them with chunks of steak. Lidia really loves to tease animals (not). It's how you feed them.

Then they let you hold a baby salty.









They farm the salt water corcodiles here for leather and meat. The little croc Lidia is holding is on his way to become a handbag when he gets a bit bigger. The pens are jam packed full of crocs, all fighting for their space and position.  We noticed that the bigger ones were missing toes/fingers/feet etc, and the guy said, it is very rare for a corcodile to have all its digits and arms/legs because of all the fighting




They also have a mini zoo, with outher animals.

This photo just makes us laugh

 

and a HI-5'ing wallaby