Day 118 - Litchfield National Park

I was picked up at 7am to do a tour in Litchfield National Park. The first stop was Howard Springs to see some barramundi fish. This area was closed for swimming due to the bacteria content in the water. It was lush and green.

The next stop was the Jumping Crocodile Cruise and I ended up holding a 7 foot olive python. It was beautiful and really soft. Unfortunately there were flies EVERYWHERE. I thought I had escaped from them in Asia. No, I was wrong there are more flies in the outback than in all Asian countries put together.


The crocodile cruise was really interesting. There was a bucket of water buffalo bones that were going to be used for bait. Over the course of about 1 1/2 hours, quite a few crocodiles came up to the boat. These were estuarine crocodiles (salt water crocs living in freshwater) and were quite big. About 5-6 approached the boat and bait. By far the most impressive was the one male who was over 100 years old and 6.5m long. It was extremely big. So big that the bait stick was rigged with 3 large chunks of meat instead of just the one.. This thing was a monster. Apparently he was seen a few weeks ago with another crocodile in his mouth.
All the crocs jumped out of the water at the bait.

The termite mounds were next. These were damn cool. It takes a decade for the termites to build 1 meter of their mound. We saw both cathedral mounds and magnetic mounds. They were huge.

The rest of the afternoon I went swimming in various waterfalls. The first was Buley Rock hole that consisted of a series of shallow waterfalls and pools. The next place was the Florence falls that consisted of 2 large waterfalls that ended in a pool you could swim in.

The last waterfall was called Wangi Falls and was populated by crocodiles so swimming wasn't a good idea. This was the largest and most beautiful of the 3 I saw today. Rainbows were forming in the mist created by the falls. All the trees to the right held a huge population of fox bats. There were hundreds hanging from the trees. It was amazing. They were huge. Next time I come out here, I'll definitely have to schedule time to go to Kakadu National Park as well.