TWENTYFIFTH DAY – MONDAY 2ND AUGUST
Continued north towards Katherine. Stopped at Bitter Springs and walked to look at it – a couple of people swimming in it. It smelt like rotten egg gas and in some sections had a slimy scum on the surface. As we continued I noticed that the ant hills were multi-coloured – awesome. We arrived at Katherine and checked out the info centre where we gathered up some info sheets, sat down and looked at what they had to offer. We were in two minds as to what to do – stay in Katherine area and go to Katherine Gorge or go further north to Litchfield National Park. We were drawn towards Litchfield so that was our destination. We checked out some of the shops opposite and then off we went. We continued north and stopped in at Pine Creek – off the main road – to look at the old disused open cut gold mine. It is now full of water and very deep – about 135 meters deep. It now supplies Pine Creek its water and that would explain the lovely green grass and lovely gardens down the middle of the town. From here there were tall trees and open bushland with lots of rocks, flowering shrubs and palm trees dotted everywhere. It was hard to get used to seeing the palms just growing throughout the forest. They almost seemed out of place. We had to remind ourselves that we are actually in a tropical climate. Just before entering the road to the park there were bush fires and there were two helicopters helping with water dumpage and several fire trucks and people trying to put out the fire as it was getting close to some buildings and houses. We saw several other fires along the road on the way up but no one seemed too worried about these as they did not pose any threat to homes or people. We arrived in Litchfield National Park about 5pm and headed towards Buley Rockpools. We first stopped to look at the most amazing Magnetic Termite Mounds. Now I thought I had seen big ant hills but as we had headed further north they seemed to get even bigger. However the Magnetic mounds were something else. Sorry to go on about ant hills again but these mounds all face north/south. They are flat on both sides and well over two meters tall. Most I would say were 3 – 5 meters tall. They are exclusively built along a grassy valley – and there are maybe a couple of hundred of them. Yet only meters away in amongst the trees are the usual big termite mounds they call cathedral mounds. Yes – I will call them termite mounds from now on! As I have learnt that there are several kinds of mounds according to what type of termite has made them – not just any old ant! We finally got to our destination at the rockpools. First we parked and walked down to the pools to check them out – well – they are beautiful, they are a series of small rockholes and waterfalls along the river. We then went and found ourselves a campsite just up the road from the rockpools. We set up camp and then decided to go for a swim in the pools. We could easily walk there from our camp site. When we arrived there were only four other people as it was already six o’clock and they were also campers. All the other people that were there earlier were day trippers. We basically had it to ourselves. We tried several water holes and Graeme was more adventurous than me and climbed over rocks to check out some of the others. The one I liked was a little bit deep and had a waterfall going into it that you could sit under like a spa – relaxing. The water was the perfect temperature – it was actually warmer in the water that out. You could feel the heat radiating out of the rocks all around. We stayed there as long as we could and left before it got too dark to see our way back to camp. It was incredible to be able to swim in this environment and enjoy the beauty that surrounded us. We cooked dinner on the fire that Graeme made and I even made some more damper – which was a little more like scones. Tomorrow is another day of discovery and adventure in the Litchfield National Park.