Litchfield National Park

According to our guide book, the town of Batchelor was a 'major centre' with 'good shopping'. So we stopped to pick up our mail, which hadn't arrived, and buy food for the next four days. The 'town' had a little supermarket with huge prices. A few hundred dollars later we checked into the caravan park. There are bushfires burning almost every day nearby, and ash falling constantly.

We visited Buley Rockholes which was lots of fun- jumping into the deeper holes and climbing the small waterfalls. After lunch we drove to the Lost City, a collection of large rocks in the middle of the bush. Back at the caravan park we swam in the pool, where Archie managed to swim for the first time without his bubble. Yay Arch!



We then camped at Wangi Falls for two nights. It was lovely but very crowded with tourists. We had a rare moment of self directed creativity- Isaac and Darcy initiated painting seed pods and then invented a game to go with it. The kids spotted a Water Monitor- a big lizard, sunbaking on a rock. There were lots of noisy bats in the trees that flew about at night crashing into each other. Isaac explained about their echolocation. A Great Bower Bird had made its nest right near our campsite. It had categorised all the white things it collected- bones, shells, rocks and rubbish. The midges (tiny flies) at night were very bad and we all got bitten a lot. An abandoned tin mine was nearby which we went to, although the kids are a bit over mines unless they can climb into them. On the way to Berry Springs we looked at the enormous magnetic termite mounds.


A greenant nest- they use a sort of web to join leaves into a ball where they live.


Finally we spent two nights at Berry Springs. The thermal spring fed waterhole was lovely. Greg got bitten by lots of fish, even though they didn't bother the rest of us. We shopped for fruit and veg at a 'farm shop' which was a new experience for the kids. The caravan park we stayed at had pet freshwater crocodiles. It was a bit cooler in Berry Springs compared to Leliyn. Probably 32 rather than 35+, still a bit much though!