Litchfield National Park

1^st September – 12^th September 2025

First up, Wangi Falls (I think it’s pronounced wong-eye.) We camped there for three nights, that gave us a minimum of two swims a day in this wonderful swimming hole, just a two-minute walk from where we were camped. We also did the loop walk around the top of the falls offering some great views.

We also did the loop walk around the top of the falls offering some great views.

While camped at Wangi, we drove through the Sandy Creek crossing on the way to Surprise Creek Falls. The deepest and longest crossing we’ve done so far. It was not only long, but as it went around a bend we couldn’t even see where it ended, but Arnie did it with ease.

We also walked to the Tjaetaba Falls lookout. It was further than we thought, in the hottest part of the day, and I got my first and so far, last experience of heat exhaustion. I didn’t like it. ☹

Our next day was a little less adventurous. We visited the Magnetic termite mounds which are quite interesting. They’re not as tall as cathedral mounds but they can reach up to two metres tall; some are as old as one-hundred years, and they always face east – west. The termites only build them in open grasslands, and they are not as common as the cathedral mounds. There was also a Blue winged Kookaburra there.

We had one more place to visit before we moved camp, and that was to the Tabletop Swamp. It was, as the name suggests, a swamp, but it was quite pretty and there were a few birds here and a very hungry little skink.

After Wangi, we moved to Florence Falls where we had what must be the narrowest entry point to any camp site. It’s hard to judge from this image, but our site wasn’t much wider than the van. With much manipulation, Peter got us in.

Florence Falls is another lovely area. The walk to the falls was spotted with little water holes you could have a quick dip in on the way to the main event. Going against the norm, we had to walk down to this waterfall, not up, and on the way down we could see people getting ready to jump in.

Finally, we went to Buley Rockholes, this was super fun.  Florence Creek feeds Buley as it cascades down over the rocks. When not in full flood, it leaves swimming holes on multiple levels and you could just start from the top; enjoy it there, then slide on over to the next hole.  Human white-water rafting. Neither a pretty nor elegant sight, but as I said…fun.

I told you there were a lot of swimming holes. Like most places in the NT, it’s best to visit in the dry season. In the wet, access to a lot of these places is restricted. Roads are closed, the water flow is too strong to swim in and the risk of crocodiles increases.

Again, there wasn’t much in the way of wildlife at Florence, but there were some pretty amazing dragonflies. I must say, I’m becoming rather captivated by Dragonflies and Damselflies. I even know what the difference is now. Dragons are larger and when resting they keep their wings open. Damsels are smaller, slimmer and when resting fold their wings neatly along their back.  I have never seen these gold/orange Dragonflies, and boy oh boy, when the sun hits them, they really do dazzle.

Then there was the Golden Orb Spider and yes, they are as big as they look. Females body length is 4 – 4.5 cm, and their legs can span up to 15cm. The males, however, are a tiny 4 -6 mm. You can see the golden sheen on their webs in the second image.

We still had a few days to kill before going back to Wagait Beach, and we felt due a bit of luxury, so we went to Berry Springs – yes, more swimming holes – and stayed at the Lakes Resort caravan park. The resort had a couple of man-made lakes, with limited access, but enough to get some good shots.

This isn’t one of them. 😊

These are

Lakes Resort was a lovely, well-appointed park. Nice and green with plenty of shade and the hosts there were very welcoming. We extended our stay just because we could. There were quite a few birds here, with ample food and water, they have a pretty good home.

We did go down to the Berry springs, which were very pretty, but I think we’d been swimming-holed out by then, so we just enjoyed the early morning serenity.

Berry Springs is a mere hop skip and a jump from Wagait Beach, we went back for a few more days staying with Richelle, then said a fond farewell and continued on our way towards Kakadu National Park.

See you out there somewhere

On tow and on the go!