Litchfield & Kakadu - Day 1

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When we woke up this morning there were buckets of water falling from the sky. I suppose this is what they call a tropical rain...my God! there is no umbrella that can stop all this water!

Certainly not what you would expect at 6 am...

Our first stop of the day was at a local cafe close to the entrace of the Litchfield national park. Both our guides (yes we had two on this tour, one learning the other being the main guide) had to get changed, with the rain that was falling when they picked us up they were, still, completely soaking wet.

Yes, that's right. Sunny day! :-) it was only pissing at 6 am, after that it cleared up...that's the tropics for you.

From there we went to see the Termite cathedral mounds, if you are wondering what the hell is that, here you have a couple of pictures

It's hard to believe this was made by ants, isn't it? day by day, bit by bit...

These mounds were formed by termite ants over many years...these two are the highest in the region...and they do look the part don't they?


Next stop were Florence falls our first chance to have a swim. :-)

As always like with everything else in Australia, the warnings...whatever you do, just remember, you can DIE!! and now go and have fun...

Nice! although there was a strong current and it was hard to get closer to the waterfall but it was quite nice...


Next one was Buley Rockhole. What? you thought there would be only one? :-)

Then it was time to have lunch so we went back to the cafe where we had our first stop, by the time we got there they already had some hot dogs ready for us which we dealt with in no time, except for the veggie ones...they were disgusting...nobody had the bravery to finish those, not even the veggie of the group. :-)

The name of the cafe had to do with a plant that grows around here. The local specimen is 200 years old!

I thought you would be able to read from the picture but that doesn't seem to be the case. So this is what it says:

This Banyan is a remnant of coastal monsoon forest vegetation which once covered most of the peninsula. Birds feeding on the small fleshy fruit of the banyan depost the undigested seed on other trees, the seed may then germinate and eventually develop long aerial roots in order to obtain nutrients from the soil as well as support its heavy crown. The Banyan finally strangles its host.



Then we went to meet some local aboriginals who would give us a little tour and explanations about their way of life.

Meeting point

Stephen our aboriginal guide, blessing me, apparently after that no harm would come to me on that land...I can't say the blessing didn't work so who knows. :-)

Then he showed us some of the local plants and their main uses.

 
From there we went to meet some other members of his family. This was didgeridoo time! :-)
With my vast experience from last night playing the dodgy didgeridoo, when I was given the chance to try again, on a proper one, I didn't hesitate!...however I must admit that the sounds out of the instrument sounded better in my head than in reality... but an improvement over last night nonetheless...

Then how they made bags, baskets and ornaments...it takes quite a lot of work...more than what it looks...

I thought it was all quite interesting but the walk we did from the meeting point up to the last place were we sat was really hard due to the intense heat, it probably was only 1 Km or so, but the heat and the humidity were uuberable...

Then it was crocodile time!, yeap, a small cruise through the river looking for crocs.

While waiting for the boat look what I found! aren't they cool?

Regarding the croc cruise, we didn't see many crocs but the billabong where we were navigating was really nice (Billabong is the local name for a place with permanent water).

And this was the only croc we saw

It's a freshy though. Not very dangerous unless you piss him off.
Not sure whether I've mentioned in a previous post the difference between freshies and salties.

They call freshies to the fresh water crocodiles, these are quite shy and won't attack unless they feel threatened.

Salties (salt water crocodiles) on the other hand, are very agressive and will have you for breakfast if you give them the chance.

More photos. I think the cruise is worth just for the views even if you don't get to see any crocs

Then it was time to head for our accomodation...and the road was flooded at some places

The camping where we were staying had a lot of neighbours. :-)

No bad for a first day. Tomorrow we'll be heading towards Kakadu National park.



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