The best laid plans...

We keep on ending up in places with either no power or no mobile / internet reception, hence the long gaps in the blog updates.  After leaving Yulara we had planned on going to Chambers Pillar to take a few photos at sunset.  Well a long, corrugated road really put paid to that idea, we figured after about 75 k’s of dirt that we had no chance of getting to our target before sunset, so we headed into Alice Springs instead.  Just as well we did.  The battery that runs the fridge decided it didn’t want to play anymore so we ended up having to get a new gel battery – at $380.00!! My Tom Tom, has caused untold problems since the day I purchased it and has played up the whole trip so I decided to pension it off to the bottom of a bag and bought myself a new NavMan.  Works like a charm.  The Tom Tom was very lucky it did not end up in pieces somewhere along the road, but Mike convinced me that you would like to play with it Jimmy, so it’s all yours.

From Alice Springs we hit the Stuart Highway and ended up in Tennant Creek – a very sad and sorry little town that we were not sorry to leave the next morning.  Next day we travelled about 680k’s up the highway to Katherine.  A long drive but you can really cover the k’s up here in no time.  Unfortunately we had not booked a park to stay in and all caravan parks with powered sites were full.  So we were once again unable to send emails or update the blog.

We had a great day out at Katherine Gorge.  We did the 3 gorge boat trip, we had previously only done 2 gorges.  It was a lovely afternoon out and the gorge is spectacular.  There is so much water flowing and this is the dry season.

From Katherine it was just a short hop of about 300 k’s up the road to Litchfield Park where we have done absolutely everything that is possible to do.

We have visited first up Florence Falls.  The twin falls are spectacular as they explode out over the cliffs and down into a plunge pool – lots of people swimming.  Then it was on to the Buley Rockholes, a series of cascading water over rocks and also very popular with the swimmers.  Later in the day we visited the Lost City – which is a cluster of huge rocks that have been chiselled out by the wind to form various shapes – you have to let your imagination wander a little, but we saw monsters, animals and various people’s heads. We stopped off at the Tabletop Marsh and watched and listened to the birds calling for a while – a very calming place.  The final port of call that day was to the Tolmer Falls.  Again spectacular.  This time the water is channelled out through a tiny chasm, under a rock bridge then falls hundreds of meters to a rock pool below.  Just stunning.

Which brings us to yesterday.  We visited the Wangi Falls, which are the most visited falls here in Litchfield.  Understandably so.  These are twin falls that tumble down into yet another plunge pool.  It looks just like a scene out of a Hollywood movie.  Balihai and all that.  We took to the dirt roads again and visited the Mt Tolmer Tin mine at Blyth Homestead.  The mine is no longer there but the remains of a tin shack are and it is just as it was left back in the 1950’s.  A family of 14 children worked the tin mine and to see where they lived and to read of their life you realise just how lucky we are.  One of the children had a pet 4 ft croc, who believe it or not was too scared to go in the creek because of the other crocs.  Then one of the children had her hand crushed but good old dad reset all the bones, bound it up and she was back working the horses within a fortnight.  Talk about a tough life. And of the 14 children, well a doctor delivered the first two, but dad figured he could do the job just as well himself!!!

Our final activity in Litchfield Park was to visit the Cascades another popular spot in the park.  We decided to do the loop walk of only 3 k’s.  We almost always do a loop if possible.  Anyway, they lied.  It was like 10 k’s, all up hill and it was very, very hot.

The weather up here by the way had been beautiful.  The days are hot (about 30 +), and sunny.  The nights are cool – but we don’t need the electric blanket anymore and the winter pj’s have been shoved to the back of the drawer until we begin the long haul home.

So now we are in Darwin.  We just plant on visiting a few sights and generally chilling out for a couple of days before we begin the long haul south.

Chris, you may be interested to know that we took the same road from Litchfield Park to Darwin as we did all those years ago, fortunately we did not need the services of a fire hose to clean the car!