Adelaide River and Litchfield National Park - the land of endless waterfalls!!

Charlie the Buffalo (from Crocodile Dundee and Charlie the Beefalo!!

Adelaide River War Cemetery

One of the beautiful ponciana trees outside the war cemetery

Litchfield National Park - a true treasure

Wangi Falls Litchfield National Park

Tolmer Falls Litchfield National Park

Beautiful bush - don't know what it is but lovely

Florence Falls and the plunge pool beneath

FlorenceFalls Creek

Termite mound - and you think you've got problems

Me sitting in the Buley Rockpools Litchfield National Park

Charlie showing he's still got what it takes (he had to bribe them first)

Well we set off from Katherine ever onwards and upwards to Darwin and decided to stop at the quaint little town of Adelaide River.  This town played a major part in World War II as the location for a huge military base with the 119 Australian General Hospital, army camps and thousands of service personnel stationed in the town and surrounding areas.  Following the bombing of Darwin in 1942, Australian and American military headquarters were relocated from Darwin to Adelaide River and it has the third largest war cemetery in Australia.  It was very sad looking at all the remembrance graves and being a mother of 2 sons it actually upset me quite a lot - a lot of these men were just boys really - the youngest grave I saw was of a 17 year old.  I must admit I did shed a tear - it was very moving.

Anyway enough of the serious stuff, Adelaide River is also home to Charlie the Buffalo of Crocodile Dundee fame - unfortunately he is now stuffed having died last year but takes pride of place in the historic Adelaide River Inn.  We had a lovely couple of days there, relaxing in the caravan park, swimming in the pool and having their lovely barra and chips for dinner one night.  See if you can pick which one is Charlie the Buffalo and Charlie the Beefalo in the above picture!!

We then decided enough relaxing we had to get out there and have another adventure so off we went to Litchfield National Park - what a fantastic place.  We visited all the famous places, Wangi Falls but unfortunately there was no swimming there, Tolmer Falls with the waterfall which cascades down in a straight line, Florence Falls the beautiful dual falls and had a fantastic swim in the plunge pool beneath the falls.  It was quite bracing getting in but once there it was absolutely lovely.  We also had a lovely picnic along the creek and a bushwalk so am trying to avoid buying those shorts although Charlie told me the other day when he was walking behind me, that I'm getting there!!  Needless to say he's got a few bruises now and lucky he's still got his manhood!!

We then went on to the Buley Rockpools which are a series of cascading waterfalls and rockholes.  We had a great couple of hours there and Charlie even managed to pick up - I know you are all saying IMPOSSIBLE but look at the photo!!  He had to beg and bribe and in the end I think they felt sorry for him.  I think he wanted his sons to know he's still got what it takes.

We also saw the amazing magnetic termite mounds which stand up to 2 metres high the edges of which point north south minimising their exposure to the sun and keeping the mounds cool. 

Unfortunately because of the big wet this year a lot of the tracks were closed so we couldn't get down to the Blyth Homestead or the Lost City but never mind we will have to come back again.

While we were in Litchfield, it was Territory Day on 1st July celebrating when the Northern Territory became an independent state so there were celebrations and firework displays all over the place.

After a great 3 days in Litchfield we decided to move on towards Berry Springs which is just outside of Darwin and where we will spend a couple of weeks exploring the Darwin area but that will be the subject of another blog.  Until then happy reading and Adieu from The Wandering 2s.