Litchfield National Park

To follow my insta puns and regular cliches, I completely disregarded TLC’s advice on chasing waterfalls. Litchfield National Park is full of them and I wanted to see and swim in them all.

A way smaller park than Kakadu at 1,500 km (compared to almost 20,000), everything was closer together, allowing us to explore in just 1.5 days while still feeling like we weren’t rushed.

All in all, we saw 4 waterfalls. My favorite was our first, Wangi Falls. We spent our first afternoon swimming here, then after two short hikes to first a small plunge pool at Walker Creek and then the Lower Cascades, we returned to camp for the night.

The campsite was only a 5 minute walk from the falls, so it was a starlight swim kind of night. Jo thought it was too cold, but I can’t pass up an opportunity to be in the water so I went solo while he hung out on the shore. Insert “A Whole New World” and “When You Wish Upon a Star” (yes, stars inspire my love of Disney).

The next day we started our morning at Tolmer Waterfall, just a quick walk to a viewing platform where the falls could be viewed in the distance. You could take a longer track that led around the falls, but without actual views of the water so we opted out. Instead, we went for a swim at Buley’s Rockhole, then walked along a creekside to Florence Falls. I loved the walk between the two - peaceful and among the ferns and forest.

After driving around the center of Australia, you become very used to the sight of large termite mounds. Which really when you think about it is a weird thing to get used to! These magnetic termites are a species endemic to northern Australia. They build mounds always facing North and South to avoid the heat of the sun and can get up to 4 meters (13 ft) tall. HUGE.  It’s a regular occurrence to see them dressed up in old clothes along the road, easily confused as people especially after 6 hours of seeing only one other car on the road. 

After being slightly disappointed in Kakadu, Litchfield was an amazing relief. Waterfalls and swimming galore, a huge win from me!