Day 75 Darwin to Lichfield National Park

 About 100 kms south of Darwin is Litchfield national park. It is a small park being only about 1460 sq km . It's a favourite for visitors and locals alike as it is so accessible to everyone as all the popular roads in the park are bitumen so very easy to get around. You can visit places like Florence Falls which can get very busy as we found out as it is the only easy swimming area to get to. There are others such as the Cascades but they are a bit further to walk to. You used to be able to swim at Wangi Falls but this has been closed due to croc sightings. Given most of the area around it is a sacred site , I really think that it won't open for swimming again. The Termite Mounds face north/south to help with temperature regulation and it almost looks like a moonscape. It was an easy place to drive around and just staying the 2 nights gave us plenty of time. 

Florence Falls

Bluey Rockholes

Wangi falls and swimming area

You can stay in the park but the campgrounds have been booked out for ages so we stayed at the Banyan Tree Resort and Caravan Park with "Johnno" our host. This is one of 4 choices just outside the park itself and it was a fantastic place to stay. great shady sites, good amenities and a terrific bar and restaurant area . We went up for happy hour at 5 for a couple of drinks and ended up staying, had a really nice pizza and was entertained by a Scotsman called Connor. He was very good. 

Also has horses and sheep to keep you company.

The other really interesting thing we had a look at was the Zebra Stone Gallery and Camping Ground. Zebra Stone is a very rare stone that can only be found in the NW corner of Australia. It was formed at the time when Australia was still Gondwanaland and the perfectly symmetrical iron oxide patterns were formed by the influence of the magnetic effects of the pole. Amazing stuff to look at . Russ was keen to buy a stone but the sales lady lacked a few basic skills when dealing with customers so unfortunately we left without one. They make them into jewelry but pretty expensive. A very small rock would cost about $50. Earrings sat around the $100.

This rock is 1.2 billion years old

Next stop - Kakadu!