From Kakadu into Litchfield NP and Douglas hot springs nature park and on to Mataranka


With all the different stories on whether we could take the van into Mary river National park, we did not want to take any chances so we pulled up at the Bark Hut Inn and put the caravan on a powered site to look after the fridge / freezer stuff. The car was packed for a couple of days of camping . Early the next morning we set out into the Mary river NP and found all the way to “ Shady camp” the van would have been fine. There were other people here with cars and vans not as off road as ours. 
 

We stopped on the way at Mistake Billabong , this we would not be able to bring van into.
We parked and walked in and arrived just in time to see the last moments of a Dingo getting his/ her feed for the day. Around the outskirts of the billabong were heaps of small wallabies busy eating the short grass not really taking notice of the happenings of one of their kind. The dingo looks very skinny and took no notice of us walking up the ramp to the bird watching platform. Sorry the photos are not the best they were taken in a hurry incase we disturbed the scene.


This was the only really interesting happening in the park. We had lunch at Shady camp and stood on the croc viewing platform then on the water crossing . This is also tidal and the men were here to fish and so were the salt water crocodiles Not so many here , that we can see, about 10 in view but the tide is out. We decide this place is not for us for the night and we head bark to the caravan. The Bark hut has a swimming pool we can use and tomorrow we can go to the other side of the park.
On my walk to the shower in the dark I find lots of cane toads and a few geckos in the shower. On the way back to the van something flew past my head , I think a bat, and I was to busy looking for it I tripped over grazing my knee again.
 
Our next stop was Windows on the wetlands for a ranger talk and then on to Fogg Dam , last time here we could not get close as the water was on the road and so was a croc cage. They were trying to catch a very large boy.
The talk was by an Aboriginal ranger on the area and how it has changed from when she grew up here, the wildlife and the flood water.
Fogg Dam is part of the Adelaide river catchment, it was built in 1950s to provide irrigation for the Humpty Doo Rice project.The RAAF airfield construction squadron built fogg dam . The Rice growing scheme failed as the water is too inconsistent , lots in the wet season and drying up in winter dry season. Even with the dam they could not hold enough .water for the rice in the dry season so it was made into a Bird protection district in 1959.

 
 

We stay just outside Darwin in a suburb called Coolallinga. I/2 hour from Darwin centre. We do not need to see Darwin again so we only here for shopping and new hinge for the door. Also to try find a new shelve for the crisper in the fridge, our glass one is broken and Larry has glued and taped it together, we do not find one so will try for a piece of perspex when we get to Katherine. This place is full of permanent residents that work here, it is not that clean but has a salt water pool if you can find a spot . 
We went out to Howard springs but the swimming area has been closed for a while because of some bacteria or something in the water. It is still full of file snakes, fish and turtles. We only got photos of turtles.
   
They have built a big shallow water play area for the kids with an imitation waterfall, some big kids were in it but we did not bother.
We move on to Berry springs for the day on our way to Litchfield National park.
Berry springs --we walk their woodland walk then spend time in the spring water pools. There are 2 pools and a small waterfall. 
 
 We leave here and head down the back road into Litchfield, a lot of this road is now bitumen and they are working on a stretch of it which slows us down and makes us very dusty. By the time we get into Wangi falls and the camping area we are very hot and dusty, so as soon as we can we walk the 200metres to a big plunge pool at the base of the falls. Of course these are not flowing with all the water of the last time we were here , but we could not swim then either. This is our base for a few days to go exploring from and each time we come back we swim in plunge pool.
    

One of the places we visit is Florence falls , this is a double waterfall even now at the end of the dry season. The downside is there are 135 steps down and up into swimming area. There is a longer walk round through the rainforest which slopes down slower, we walk this way down as going down steps is hard on my joints and Larry's getting sore joints. We have a nice swim before having to climb those 135 steps nearly straight up to car park, but the day was worth it.
At the top of the steps is the viewing platform , which is the only place we could get to last time here.

Tolmer falls is next but you are only allowed at the top at the lookout as there is a colony of endangered Orange horseshoe bats and some rare Ghost bats in caves at the bottom of the falls. Because the slightest thing could upset their eco system nobody is allowed in the gorge.
We were going to Greenant creek and Tjaetabe falls but we are told by the ranger that the algae in here contains the same microscopic mites as Howard springs. These cause Scrub Typhus so we do not take any chances as at some stage of the mites life cycle it is in the ground.
We had gone to the ranger talk and slide show on Litchfield NP the night before.
The Lost city is formations of sandstone blocks weathered into looking like the ruins of an ancient civilisation.
The cascades and Bluey rock hole. These are not flowing so much and the rock hole looked a bit green but we did get into part of the cascades as we were hot and sweaty from walking and it was nearly 2km back uphill to the car. It was not too inviting but wet and cool if a little slippery.


We set out early one morning to go down a 4 wheel drive road to Sandy creek falls out past the old homestead. High clearance car is definitely needed here for 9km then have to get out and walk a couple of kilometres. As we started walking some people were comimg out and they told us the water was clear so we carried in our masks and snorkels.
Well worth the effort ,clear deep water under the waterfall . We have it all to ourselves for awhile
then five young backpackers arrive , but that not so bad. We have a long snorkel and then a good swim before walking out in our wet bathers to help stay cool.

The last thing we visit is Termite city and the magnetic termite mounds . These are the flat ones that face North/ south so they have only thin side towards the sun. There are also Cathedral mounds here these have chimneys to allow for ventilation.
 


Leaving Litchfield we head to Douglas hot springs and Butterfly gorge for a couple of days.
The spring water comes out of the ground at 60 C , which is too hot for anybody. The area of the springs is Off limits anyway, its sacred land and only for secret woman’s business . We get to sit in the water downstream where it is mixed with creek water and ranges from 40 down to about 20 C. It at the most is knee deep but relaxing to lay in.

We drive further down the dirt road to Butterfly gorge and of course walk into the main pool for a swim . The gorge is pretty and full of common crow butterflies and would be very good early in the season before it got so dry, but then there would be heaps of people too. So its good now.

 
 

After a couple of days its time to move again still sort of heading south all the time.

Pine creek is next,this is were we stopped to get our Kakadu paces a few weeks ago. We stop this time in the caravan park so we can leave the van and go to Umbrawarra Gorge. My first shower here in park and I have this very large green tree frog hop across my feet. I latter learn his mane is Elroy and has been here awhile, there are also white lipped green tree frogs in pipes but they are a bit shy.
 


Pine creek is 198 metres above sea level and was established in late 1800s. Gold was discovered in 1871 by workers on the overland telegraph line. Railway came in from Darwin a few years latter , making the miners life a bit easier, and latter to Katherine. The Ghan comes this way now.
Umbrawarra Gorge -we spend a day out here. On the way there we stop at Copperfield recreational dam , which has picnic tables toilets and you can swim , we did not. We walked the gorge which would be very pretty a bit early in the season. Plenty of birds and butterflies but we did not find any rock wallabies only bigger wallabies ,which they are I am not sure yet. The main area for swimming is through the smaller areas which you have to wade through. We checked depth then put our back packs with cameras etc on our heads and wadded across, parts got to my shoulders but all was fine as long as I did not slip over and get camera wet. Even in the big pool the water was not above my head but it was cool and moving a little bit but the bottom was a bit slimy, so did not disturb it.

On our way back into Pine creek we stopped at the Enterprise Pit lookout. Old gold mine pit full of water . This pit and gold mining ceased in 1994 after 764,00 ounces of gold had been extracted.. used to hold water for town now and gets to 135 metres deep.
 
 
Time to move on and head to Katherine for our car service, we have a day and night to get there so spend the day at Edith falls again swimming in the top waterfall and snorkelling in the bottom plunge pool. The night is spent in a bit of land close to the railway and only 30km from Katherine, other people pull up here too
We have to be up early as car has to be at Toyota at 7.30 am . We take the van to the information centre and its caravan carpark for the day as it is close to the shopping centre. Might have guessed something would not be right, while Larry drops off the car I stay with the van and workers arrive to dig up the concrete culvert and re concrete it.We chose this park next to the very large drain area so we would be out of the way. The workers say its fine but the council man in charge wants to charge us with camping , not allowed. After explaining everything and they have no way of moving us as the tow ball is a safety one and the confection is on the car. The workers are fine they work around us all day. The car service is supposed to take 4-5 hours and it is after 3pm when we get it back , thats 7.30 to 3pm thats 7 ½ hours.
We walked to supermarket and back, then I checked out craft place to get tools and stuff for my new hobby of polishing my stones and gems and wire wrapping them into pendants. This started after I got the Zebra rock. Larry walks along way to find the glass place to get a piece of perspex to make a new crisper cover I the fridge.
When we finally get the car we hook up and head for Katherine Gorge for a few days. It is late afternoon when we get settled so jump in the pool before getting dinner sorted.
Katherine Gorge is Nitmuluk and the camping area and all tours is run by Nitmuluk tours. This is a national park but the government allow these people to run everything so things are getting expensive. Not like the last time we were here we did a helicopter flight over the gorges and landed for a swim at the top of a waterfall. We can not afford that now.
Its a good job they have a swimming pool of sorts as they have closed all the swimming in the closer Gorges . The first swimming hole is 8km walk away, we do walk nearly there but stop at a lookout over the first gorge and the Katherine river and decide to return as it is hard walking and we have already taken 2 hours to get here.

 
 
 
  The next Gorge is 2km but I would have to walk down into it then back up again before retracing our steps back from the lookout. Its hard I have to walk looking down all the time as we are walking on loose stones and rocks of all sizes as well as climbing so to see things we have to keep stopping even for the rustle in the leaves or we could miss seeing a lizard or native mammal . We do see a dingo but he is too quick.
After a couple of days we move on heading south again to Elsey national park. With a stop at Cutta cutta caves.

Cutta cutta caves are a limestone cave
system , the largest cave was found by a stockman in 1900 so it was
named Smith's cave. Latter WW11 service men visiting the area named
them 16 mile caves. In 1967 the caves came under parks and wildlife
and tours started in 1979 and they were renamed Cutta Cutta caves..
These are the only limestone caves open to the public in sub tropical
Australia. Most limestone caves occur in the south part of
Australia.
We were here to try and see the harmless brown tree snake that lives around the entrance to catch some of the 5 species of bat that live here. There is also 2 species of blind shrimp in the water of the caves, with their closes relatives living in Madagascar.
We saw none of these ,only a goanna
just outside the entrance when we were on the walk around outside
,that quickly got out of site, no photo.




Onto Elsey National park for a few
days. This is home to Mataranka and the thermal pools. Elsey station
was made famous in Jeannie Gunns popular novel “We of the Never
Never” Then latte as a movie. Its her life growing up on Esley
station.

There are thermal pools at Mataranka
and Bitter springs. The narrow channels of Rainbow springs at
Mataranka were enlarged and made into bathing areas by some of the
1500 soldiers stationed here in WW11., but they were for officer use
only.
Rain falling during the wet season in
the limestone basins of Daly and Georgina drains down 30-100 m below
the surface and is held at the same temperature as the rock, about
34Degrees c. As it builds up ,the pressure then forces the water up
at faults in the clay , like at Rainbow springs and Bitter springs .
There is swimming in the roper river at
the camp ground during the dry season, but come early september the
people running the kiosk and canoe hire here have left for the season
so the swimming pontoons have been removed. We do jump in the river
for a quick cool off but signs are now up to stop swimming as the
salt water crocodiles will arrive with the wet. It has not rained yet
so hope we are safe, we know there are fresh water crocs here.

We go early morning into Bitter springs
20km away. You walk 250 metres from car park get into water float
down in clear warm water with the current for 250 metres or so climb
up ladder , cross bridge, walk back do it again. We do it 3 times
with snorkels on to see the fish and turtles, fun.
 

 
On the drive back to the van we stop
and visit all the places on the information sheets.

We hear during the night donkeys and
find out latter there is a group of 4-6 with a foal in the park. We
never do get to see them just here them and see their droppings.

The next day we walk to the Mataranka
falls that are more like cascades, its a 4km each way walk.
 

 The thermal springs feed into the
Waterhouse river that feeds into the Little roper river then the
Roper river and on to the Gulf of Carpentaria 350km away.
We are to head south once more but have
to detour back to Katherine as some one has tried to get in the van
and the door handle is broken . Katherine is the closest place to get
replacement, so thats a just over 200km extra . Good job we are not
in a hurry.

We did here that they had to close the swimming area at Berry springs because a big salty was found, we swam there on 6 sept it was found on 18 sept.