Darwin Day 5

Up bright and early this morning to head off to Litchfield National Park, a place I had heard so much about and was very keen to visit.

After a drive down the highway, no I did not sit on 130 kilometres an hour even thought I could have, we turned into the park to discover what it had in stall for us.

We started by going into Florence Falls, with a short diversion into Buley Rock Hole to have a look at the rock pools. As soon as we saw it, Josh and I immediately thought that it was time for a swim even though it was quite early but it would have to wait, but not for too long.

We then went to Florence Falls, which had a plunge pool at the bottom and did not look suitable for the kids to swim in. I was very tempted but knew that it was not fair on the others so held back the urge to climb down and jump in.

As it was now morning tea time, we decided to return to Buley Rock hole, have a swim and have something to eat and drink. What can I say, it was fantastic and a pleasure to swim in such fresh water, no it was not too cold either. One of the rock pools was very deep and so after I dived in a few times, Chels and Josh wanted to be in on the action as well. Three of us happy and jumping into the water, what a morning!

After we finally got out of the water, we headed off to Greenant creek with the notion of another swim in another water hole at the top of the Tjaetaba Falls. It was fairly long walk, and by this time quite warm so it was very nice to have the incentive of a swim at the top. When we got there it was picture perfect, a small hole at top of th falls to jump into and get refreshed in. This is the life! Of course the only problem was that we then had to walk back and get hot on the way. Oh well, it was worth it.

After this it was a walk and look at the Tolmer Falls which were as spectacular as the last but did not provide a swimming hole and so Josh and Chels were a little disapointed! The Falls were good anyway.

Next stop was Wangi Falls, the most popular swimming spot and largest plunge pool of them all. It was such a great feeling to swim over to the base of the falls and sit under the water crashing down on. It did hurt a little and so could not stay under it for too long. Even Skinny made it over to the falls eventually, slowly making her way over on a surf mat, Josh made it over quickly, while Skinny seemed to be going backwards. Oh well, she enjoyed it anyway.



We decided that the highlight of the day had been Buley rock and so we returned there for another swim on the way back to Darwin. Yes at 5:30pm, we were all still sitting in the rock pool, sitting under small waterfalls, thinking of our freezing friends in Melbourne, but not with much sympathy.

A day to remember today and the first day that I could repeat over and over again, this is not to say that I have not enjoyed everything that has gone on before, but I really enjoyed being able to swim in the waterholes.