Long drive to Darwin & Litchfield National Park

Buley rockhole
see all photos »

May 2: Kununurra to Darwin (Mileage: 5620 km)

May 3: Darwin to Litchfield National Park (Mileage: 5785 km)

Phew - we made it!

Dan had to fly out of Kununurra to Darwin at ~7:30 am on the morning of the 2nd, so we got up early to see him off.  Checked in at the front desk of the caravan park shortly thereafter, and found out that the road to Katherine had been opened over night!  Dan called us a few minutes later from the airport having heard the same thing, and asked if he thought he should risk it and drive with us up to Darwin to get on his 2 am flight.  I said I thought it was a bit of a gamble given that the roads may not be good, and we had 850+ km to go to Darwin, but that I was game if he was.  So, he never even checked into his flight and we picked him up and got back on the road to Darwin.

Tolmer Falls from the lookout
see all photos »

We left before much of the other caravan traffic, which was nice so we weren't held up by a bunch of trailers en route.  Pretty typical drive all the way to D, and it was actually quite an easy one since most of the water had receded at least to the edge of the highway.  Tons of evidence of flooding - red-stained roads, debris on fences, etc. - especially in the Victoria River area.  Even the bridge was now a few meters above the water flow, which means the river dropped 6-8m in only a couple of days!  Quite crazy really.

Wallaby at Wangi Falls
see all photos »

Aside from a few forest fires that we drove through (mostly intentional as a preventative measure I think.  This area is prone to fires), the drive was a pretty easy one, and we got into Darwin just before dinner time.  Stopped into the city for dinner and a drink or two, and then drove Dan to the airport just after midnight.

Darwin is a pretty small city, though it takes up a lot of land area.  The center is heavily backpacker oriented (much like Cairns), with tons of hostels, restaurants and pubs (3/4 of which seemed to be Irish for some reason...)  Definitely an ok city, but not one to spend a lot of time in.  It is important as a jumping off point to the National Parks in the area.

Wangi Falls
see all photos »

The next day we decided to go down to Litchfield National Park, just a fwe 100 km south of Darwin on the way back to Katherine.  Wonderful little place that is completely under-rated by travel books.  And surprisingly, free - no entry fee to such a beautiful place.

After a wasted 5 minute stop at the magnetic termite mounds (they point north/south so they maximise sun on the flat faces of the mounds which face sunrise/sunset), we carried on to see a few swimming holes and waterfalls.  First stop was Buley Rockhole, which was a series of swimming holes, cascading with waterfalls that had a very strong current.  Nice little area for a swim, though sometimes had to fight not to be pushed over to the next level!

Wallaby with Joey in pouch
see all photos »

Stopped next in Tolmer Falls and Wangi Falls.  Both were closed due to swimming.  Tolmer due to a series of caves around the pool that hosted numerous protected bats, and Wangi due to high water levels and potential for salties present in the pools.  The wet season was supposed to be over by now, but the cyclone activity had led to high water levels extending into May.  Both falls were very tall and majestic, and flowing at quite a strong rate, which was quite visible from the lookout points.  In fact, at Wangi there was an ambient mist that hung all around us, making everything damp.

We decided to stay in a small park just past Wangi Falls, which turned out to be a great idea.  Pretty new little place, and not really touristed, which meant that the wildlife was still pretty abundant in the area.  On the 5 km drive from the Falls to the camp site, we must have seen ~20 wallabies, including one with a Joey in its pouch!  They were all over around the camp ground, and through the course of the night, I looked out the campervan window and saw them wandering into our site to forage for food.  Quite cool.

The next morning we stopped into Florence Falls for a swim, which was anotehr waterhole with two large waterfalls pouring into it.  The current was again so strong that you could swim hard down the middle of the pool and be stuck in one spot!  Managed to get pretty close to the falls by swimming up the sides of the pool, but once we got into the middle we were dragged back to the beginning.