Litchfield National Park

Litchfield National Park is only 115 km south of Darwin and while not as large as Kakadu it has lush rainforests and waterfalls which cascade off a sandstone plateau into pools which are safe to swim in and croc free at this time of the year. We spent 2 days there and visited the 3 main falls and swam in Buley Rockhole. It has been very hot and sticky and swimming has been at the top of our agenda. The park is also well known for its magnetic termite mounds. These clever creatures build mounds which are up to 2 metres tall and stand in a north-south orientation which gives them an inbuilt temperature control as only one surface is exposed to the sun at any time. The termites move from side to side depending on the heat of the day!
We are presently back in Katherine for 2 days and last night caught up with Tony C, a previous work colleague of L, whom he hadn’t seen for about 15 years. Tomorrow morning we leave for Kununurra so it’s a long drive west but we gain 1.5 hours.

Mount Isa, Barkly Homestead

We left Cloncurry (where Australia’s highest temperature of 53.1 was recorded) and drove west through beautiful countryside of tree covered green hills to Mount Isa. The Isa is a mining town, the mine being owned by Xstrata a Swiss company. The company produces copper, silver, lead and zinc and the copper mine goes down to a depth of 1.8 km. We would have been happy to spend more time in the Isa but it is rodeo week and all accommodation booked out. So we headed another 450 km west and have now left Queensland. Our Northern Territory overnight stop is at Barkly Homestead Roadhouse, a petrol station/camping ground/shop/restaurant, the next town is 200 km away. The route we followed is the old cattle droving way, the cattle are now moved by road train if we see one coming we move right over and stop. There are plenty of wide open spaces and the termite mounds are taller than I am! Since we have been inland the nights are cooler but day time temperatures still about 27!