The Tropics - Litchfield 4/11/07 - 7/11/07

Litchfield National Park 4-7/11/07

Buley Rockholes - Mitchel and Callum could not wait to get into these rockpools. This was Kates favourite place so far and Callum loved jumping from these rocks. These pools are deep and the water is clear.

We went snorkelling in the pools and saw Sooty Grunters (fish) and two Mitchell's Water Monitors (lizard). Litchfield is a tropical monsoon forest, with lots of trees, insects, wildlife and huge spiders. Nearby is the Rum Jungle mine, which was a Uranium Mine in the 1960's.

The termite mounds are about 6 metres tall. There are also magnetic termites who build their knife shaped mounds in lines running north-south. The termites build them this way to control the temperature of the nests. Millions of termites will live in each mound. Mitchel thinks there are more ants in this park than people in the world.

King Richard - Oh, how the mighty have fallen!

Florence Falls has two beautiful waterfalls that feed a deep pool. We swam under the fall and looked for fish. We camped near these falls in a bush camp and spent the night listening to the thunder. In the middle of the night Mitchel and Richard got up and the night sky was alive with fiery stars.

A cool swim on a hot day. Some large sooty grunters live in this pool, and the small ones like to nibble your hair. Mitchel and Callum played a game of spot the dragonfly, ( this is the bush version of Spotto) - Mitch won with a count of 24.



Kate holding a 'Child Croc shield'.

The ghost cicad and the evil twins. The cicads have been around since the dinosaurs, and these could be many hundreds of years old. We had a long walk through the bush and Callum was hot and annoyed.




Wangi Falls - Fresh Crocodiles live in this pool, although we did not find any (and they did not find us). Kate refused to swim. Mitchel and Callum are in this picture, can you find them (you may have to click on the picture to view it in full).











Wangi Falls - not drowning, waving!

There are very few tourists in the parks at this time of year, we had these spots to ourselves most of the time. It's hot, and there are thunderstorms around on most days, but it is a good time to visit.

A female Ta Ta lizard (Gilberts Dragon)

We measured this spider against Mitchel's hand, it was the same size. There were hundreds of these beauties.

One of the two Mitchell Water Dragons, this lizard is about 1 metre in length.

One of the 24 Dragon flies Mitchel spotted!