When we arrived in Batchelor mid morning of the 22nd, decisions needed to be made. As they constantly do! Would we stay in Batchelor as we'd planned, or go closer to Litchfield National Park and stay at one of the three caravan parks, which are just on the edge of the National Park? The other CP's were only about 15kms from Batchelor, so we stayed with our plan and booked into the Big4 which is under new ownership. Nice park and we have been happy with our choice. It was heaven last night! So peaceful, no aeroplanes!In the afternoon we decided to go out to the National Park and visit a couple of the tourist attractions. In hindsight we didn't really need to do the 80kms round trip. We could have left it all until today. But we did meet up with John and Esme Ley and Sue and Monty Smith at the 'Termite Mounds'.  We chatted with them for half an hour or more and held them up from the cafe they intended to find for their lunch. I think it might have ended up being more like afternoon tea before they got to the cafe! They are off to Darwin today for a week. We shared our 'Kakadu Tourist Tips' as they are considering going there.  At the 'Termite Mounds' one of the display boards was on the types of termites that live in the 'Mound'.  'Alates' are the reproductive termites.  Then there are the 'Soldiers' who are the defenders of the colony.  The others are the 'Workers', 'Larvae' and the 'Nymphs', which are the immature reproductive termites.  The 'Queen' lives at the bottom of the mound, producing eggs for the colony.  There seems to be different opinions about the alignment of termite mounds and the following was on the display board:   A Cosmic Alignment - So how did the little termite work out this cosmic magnetic alignment and learn to build north to south?The termite mound builders are the little 'Worker' termites.  As they are completely blind, scientists can be sure they do not use the sun to guide them in building to a north - south alignment.  It was suspected that they have an in-built compass to guide them.  To test this theory, scientists artificially changed the direction of the magnetic field using magnets.

Florence Falls Litchfield NP

  The termites dutifully followed and built repairs to their mound in the alignment of these magnets and not the earth's magnetic field.The 'Batchelor' story begins with the farm area which was selected in 1911. It was one of three areas earmarked for agriculture.  This area produced some good crops, but ultimately failed to prosper. The farm was named in May 1912, after a South Australian politician, Egerton Lee Batchelor.  He was the Minister for Education and Agriculture.  In the 1930's an aviation area was developed and then extended in1941, to enable larger aircraft to land. In the same year the Commonwealth resumed the whole of the farm. The heavy duty airstrip played an important role as the base for 'General MacArthur's' bombing force from December 1941. Thousands of troops were stationed here during WW2.The discovery of uranium in 1949 led to the development of the townsite on an area previously comprising part of the wartime camp, which was within the original farm area. 1049 acres was resumed from the farm land for the town area.  It was not until 1977 that the name 'Batchelor' was officially declared.  Uranium mining ceased in 1971.The waterholes and waterfalls in the 'Litchfield National Park' are very picturesque and extremely popular for a cool off and swim. No doubt camping at 'Florence Falls' for the weekend would be very popular with Darwin families. Popular for tourists as well! There is a sign at 'Blueys Hole' that says "If the carpark is full, it means the holes are full of swimmers too. Come back later"!  We did do that and went on to 'Florence Falls'. We managed a carpark the second time around!  Later in the day we went for a drive around the little town of 'Batchelor' that won a 'Tidy Towns Award' in 1999. There is a large 'Bicentennial Park' which the town is centred around.  A Post Office and General Store, a couple of pubs, pretty much makes up the town centre.  There is a camp school, primary school and a large indigenous education campus.  Peter's relative that we have not been able to catchup with in Darwin, has worked at the 'Outdoor Education Camp' in Batchelor for many years. We decided to check out the 'Rum Jungle Bowling Green'. The sign says it was the first bowling green in the Northern Territory. There were a couple of blokes having a roll on what looked like a very ordinary bowling green! They were just finishing. We talked with the fella who was leaving, who we thought was perhaps a tourist. Later we found out he was actually the local who was having a roll up with the tourist.  The 'Ron the Tourist' was giving the bowling green some TLC while travelling in the area. Ron is the Nollamara green keeper. He came to Litchfield a few weeks ago on his way to Darwin for the bowling carnival. The locals try to manage the green maintenance as best they can.  Ron offered his services for a week. Understandably the locals were very grateful. He is now back from Darwin, staying for another week to give the green some more TLC and he is passing on some tips to the locals for the future care of their bowling green. Great story!  We even saw Lee Farrell's name on the board.  He came second in the competition obviously.  We have found out that he was CEO of 'Coomalie Shire' of which the offices are here in Batchelor.  He left at the end of last year, so he has been gone 7 months.  He got the club playing penants again.Peter and I decided to have a roll. We haven't played since Kevin and Val left us and it seems Val is getting the 'bowling bug' now they are back home. Jenny has had lessons and has been to a Wednesday social afternoon too! I think we had better keep up a bit of practice! I have to say we were pleasantly surprised with the green and it certainly goes with the adage 'You can't judge a book by it's cover'. Apart from being a bit heavy, which Keith or Ross, told us it would be, it played very well. We played 6 ends and Pete blew me away on the last end when he got three, to win by that many!   We have been invited to go and play on Wednesday night, which we are seriously considering.   Today we have been to all the water holes in 'Litchfield National Park'. Walked some of the tracks and others we decided against when the rating was 'Quiet and Peaceful', rather than 'Spectacular'. We put our feet in the water at 'Walkers Creek' and the gentle running creek gave Peter's leg a 'Roxy Massage', neighbour.  Didn't need to worry about 'Seniors Discount' either!  We drove as far as the other edge of the National Park. At that point we were about 90kms from Darwin.  If you were to travel that road it would be mostly on gravel. We also called into 'Bamboo Creek Tin Mine' and did the walk into the old mine.  Plenty of shiny bits of tin glittering in the shavings and sunlight.  The two falls we have been to today are 'Tolmer' and 'Wangi'. 'Cascades' was a long walk along and across a creek bed, so we gave that a miss. We have given 'Litchfield and Batchelor' the big tick. Great area to come to for a camping and swimming holiday. We took the bathers with us, but they are still dry in the bag. We both decided we didn't need to have a swim.   It would have only been so we could say "We had had a swim at Litchfield National Park". For us we have enjoyed a couple of days of scenic and spectacular sightseeing and we have put another tick on the 'Bucket List'.Yay! I'm satisfied now about midge biting or rather urinating!  We called into 'Rum Jungle Lake' which was down a dirt track not far from Batchelor. There were some kids there with canoes on school camp from Palmerston in Darwin. We talked with one of the teachers and that 'Pharmacist at Casuarina' does need to do some research on midges! The local told us "They do urinate on you". The answer is to put repellent on late in the afternoon and once you start to scratch, wash the urine off. Once you keep scratching you spread the urine. I'm satisfied now! I'm going with the local and what 'Delma' had told me! She definitely wins the 'Minister for Tourism' award! 

We did end up going and playing bowls tonight at 'Rum Jungle Bowling Green'.  They made us very welcome.  There were only 16 players and it was very casual.  We were asked to put the message out to invite fellow travellers to join them on a Wednesday night.  Maybe they need to put a notice up in the caravan parks.  I think there was probably only about 4 or 5 of us that had shoes on.  The rest had thongs or bare feet.  Anyway we did enjoy the evening.  Peter played well, but I need lots more practice.  I did bowl a couple of reasonable ones that will bring me back!  Not necessarily to 'Rum Jungle' though!  12 photos