Back in 2010 we had a really great trip to Australia. We made the most of the time there by really getting around the country. We arrived in Victoria and met up with our pals Ian & Linda and then took a big trip first to Adelaide in S.A. and then up to Darwin in the Northern Territory.
Australia is a big place — not just a country, but a continent! From Adelaide to Darwin is 3-1/2 hours — that’s like Chicago to San Francisco.
In the vicinity of Darwin are two great national parks of Australia – Litchfield and Kakadu. We visited both – here are pics of our trip to Litchfield. We went on a one-day guided tour in 16 seater bus. First stop was the so-called “magnetic” termite mounds. They’re not actually magnetic, but our so named because they line up on the magnetic N-S pole line. Why, no one really knows. They’re huge.
We visited the tiny hamlet of Batchelor – one of Australia’s tidiest towns and the Banyan Tree Cafe with its massive banyan tree on its property.
Next we went up into some hills and actually went wading and swimming in the creeks and waterfall-fed pools. Now as a rule I would not go swimming in or around Australia except in a hotel pool. For one thing in most bodies of water going to have crocs. These are the “salties” – not like alligators in Florida, but the kind of reptile that will hunt you for its dinner. While we were in Darwin there were two crocodile attacks. Apparently they have a particular taste for German tourists. In another instance, a fisherman was attacked 15 miles out in the open ocean!
Anyway, our tour guide assured us these water we were in were safe, noting that crocs don’t go uphill. We did visit a beautiful pool with a waterfall where there were apparently crocs floating around and swimming was not advised.
Lastly, we had great panoramic views of this ancient landscape from the massive escarpment that makes up this park.
