Darwin was never on our list of places we wanted to visit while living in Australia, but as we started looking for our next destination and talking to a few people, it quickly made it to the top of our list for our winter vacation. It’s the best time to visit Darwin as it’s the dry season and it’s a great escape from the cold! It’s nice going into a vacation knowing that it will be hot and dry every day!
The strangest thing about traveling to Darwin is just how busy the airport is from 12-2am. It’s a layover for many international flights allowing you to arrive in Sydney in the early morning. Unfortunately for us, that meant expensive (but WAY less than the normal flight times) flights that were horrible travel times! We left Sydney after 8pm and arrived in Darwin around 12:30am. The big girls were great falling asleep, but Hallie took awhile and probably went to sleep around 11pm. She wasn’t fussy, just too interested in everything to keep her eyes closed!
We arrived at our home away from home for 3 nights in Humpty Doo (30 min. south of Darwin) close to 2am and the property owners were there to welcome us! Here the girls are getting ready for bed.
The next morning we explored the property and enjoyed chatting with the hosts who live in the other units. This is the back of our unit.
The hosts gave us bread and carrots to feed Monica the cow.
A look into the homestay…
Living room view from Alaina & Kyla’s bed
Hallie and our room off the kitchen
Exterior, but right next door and very nice bathroom
We decided to spend our first day visiting Litchfield National Park.On our way, we stopped at a visitor center in Batchelor and found heaps of bats up in the trees-they were huge!!
A miniature replica of the Czech Republic Karlstein Castle, built in 1974-78 in Batchelor.
Our first stop once we made it into Litchfield National Park was to check out the termite mounds, both Magnetic and Cathedral.
Magentic Termite Mounds-The large surfaces present the least possible area to the sun and can reach a height of 18ft. They all align on a north-south axis and the termites that make them are found nowhere else on earth.
Though termites are tiny individually, together they form a massive army. They fulfill the role of harvesters in this tropical environment. They are a vacuum cleaner removing the natural debris of the ecosystem, the pithead of a miniature mine that brings nutrients to the surface, an incubation chamber, a dependable larder to insectivores, a secure home to a large number of vertibrates and invertibrates, and the lifeblood of the system. Australia has no herds of large animals to eat and recycle plant materials, instead this function is carried out by millions and millions of tiny termites.
Cathedral Termite Mounds-Hollows in the termite nests provide shelter for many animals, such as quolls, goannas, snakes and rats. Cathedral termites build their nests on well drained soils, unlike the magnetic termites, who always build on seasonally flooded black soil plains.
This Cathedral Termite Mound is over 16 feet high and could be over 50 years old.
Our next stop was to Buley Rockhole The cool, refreshing 'spa' waters are some of the cleanest around, good enough to bottle! They originate from freshwater springs just upstream which are replenished every wet season. These waters flow toward Florence Falls where we headed to next. We had so much fun swimming, exploring and rock jumping!
Kyla loved rock jumping…up and down, over and over…SO FUN!!
Alaina also jumped twice off the rocks, but then something upset her and she wouldn’t do it again for the camera.
Our fearless 3-year-old!
We didn’t want to leave this area as it was seriously, the most fun ever, BUT we had more to see and do, so after a snack, we went a little further down the road to Florence Falls-a spectacular double waterfall set amid monsoon rainforest.
The sandstone rock of the Tabletop Range has a great capacity to absorb and store water. Like a huge sponge, the Range soaks up the heavy wet season rain and then slowly releases it over the long dry season, feeding creeks and waterfalls.
Just before all getting in and swimming underneath the falls (it was deep out there, so we were swimming into the rough water while holding onto all of our kids…crazy!), Alaina spotted (& I saw after) a snake slithering into the water right be their feet. AND, we still went in…Australia has definitely changed us!
These signs were everywhere, but we felt safe….mostly.
Last stop in Litchfield National Park was to Wangai Falls. Wangi plunge pool is home to smaller fish-eating Freshwater Crocodiles. During the wet season, larger Saltwater Corcodiles often move in. This pool is therefore closed during the wet season.
The girls and I had a little swim here and Kyla and I braved it to swim over to the waterfall.
We climbed up to have a spa in the little rock pool….it was magical! I wish I had a camera over there!
After this, it was time to head back home. We ventured out a different, supposedly closer way to get back on an unsealed road that should have said 4WD only….we made it back in one piece, made dinner back at the house and called it a night.
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