Litchfield National Park, Jumping Crocodiles etc

 Today is a full day tour of the Litchfield National Park culminating in a boat trip on the Adelaide river to feed some salt water crocodiles. Departure from the hotel is at 8 am and there are about 20 people on the bus, all joining the Silversea Cruise tomorrow from Darwin to Broome. 

The program for the day includes a 2 hour drive from the hotel to Litchfield National Park where our first stop will be Wangi Falls. 

Darren, our indigenous tour guide/driver and everything else is a real character and has a great sense of humour which made the whole trip very enjoyable. We were given in depth commentary on lots of issues, including the impact of climate change on the mango farming industry in NT. This one came a bit out of left field and was addressed at an impromptu stop at Berry Springs outside the front of a mango plantation. Apparently the mango trees are flowering a month later than usual due to climate change and this has resulted in greatly reduced yields from NT growers. We all listened but not everyone was convinced.


Mango farm at Berry Creek

The vegetation along the route to Litchfield is Eucalypt Open Forest Savanna, a pretty scrappy looking forest that is subject to a regular grassland burning program that prevents major bushfires. All of the species are adapted to burning and regenerate quickly.


Eucalypt Open Forest Savanna

Once we entered the Litchfield National Park (the are no park fees), we arrived at our first destination, Wangi Falls. It is a cool day today, so there were no takers from our tour group to have a swim in the pools under the falls, but morning tea was enthusiastically embraced. 





Most people went for a walk to a lookout viewing the falls whilst Darren busily set up the morning tea spread.


Wangi Falls




Morning tea near the falls



Boardwalk to the lookout area






Our next destination is Buley Rock Pools, a popular swimming area with a series of rock pools down a cascading river.















From here it was a short drive to Florence Falls.





Florence Falls


The next destination is a complete change of scenery where we find ourselves back in open country, surrounded by termite mounds. Both cathedral mounds and magnetic mounds can be seen at the same site.


Large Cathedral mound thought to be around 50 years old

The Cathedral mounds are built on dry ground and are coloured by the iron rich soil the termites use to build it.

In contrast, Magnetic mounds face due North and have flat sides to maximise exposure of the surface area to the morning and afternoon sun. They are black in colour, as they are built on "wetlands" from alluvial soil, and are partially under water in the wet season.


A field of magnetic termite mounds



Their flat sides optimise absorption of heat from the sun

Our final adventure for the day is a boat trip on the Adelaide River to find and feed some salt water crocodiles on a Jumping Crocodile tour.


Boarding our boat

We soon realise that this river is teeming with crocodiles as we have no trouble finding them, and they have no trouble finding us. A chicken carcass is dangled over the side on a bamboo pole and the crocs are keen to get it. First we see a few smaller crocodiles arrive.








Soon we find a very large croc they call the Dominator (many of the crocs have names and are regulars turning up daily for a feed). He is over 5m long and a big crocodile.




We all commented on the safety shoes, the guide said he was saving up for some crocodile skin ones






We drifted down the river feeding many more, with 4 crocs around the boat at one point.





This was another very large croc called "Brutus" he was so old that he had lost most of his teeth and had trouble holding on to the chicken



It has been a long, but very interesting and entertaining day. We arrived back at the hotel at 6.30pm, and whilst the Mindil Markets are on tonight, we have had enough for one day, so settled in to a very nice meal at the hotel restaurant, Pepperberry (reputed to be the second best restaurant in Darwin).

Tomorrow we board the Silver Cloud for our Kimberly Cruise, and as a result of our day out today, have already met a few of our fellow passengers.

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