Day 33, 3 August 2009, Litchfield National Park

Visited Greenant Creek, Tollmah Falls, Buley Rock Holes, Florence Falls and some magnetic ant hills.

It turns out it's the ants (actually termites), not the hills, that are magnetic. When the little wood-chompers make a nest it's oriented north-south which absorbs the maximum heat during the day and keeps the little guys warm at night. Clever, huh? I'm looking forward to finding 'GPS Termite Hills' and 'SATNAV Termite Halls' later in the trip.
Litchfield is unusal, in that it's in the middle of nowhere, but very crowded. Lots of tourist buses visit the place and the number of places you can actually visit without a four wheel drive is quite limited. The result? At Buley Rock Holes, it took half-an-hour to find a place to park the car. Most of the space at the pools was filled with people collectively speaking a mixture of Japanese, French, German, Indian with a smattering of English thrown in. I was the only one (besides Pam, of course) who spoke like a proper Australian.

All of the above is Pat displaying CC (Cranky Codger) tendencies. We walked from Greenant creek to the falls and plunge pool. The creeks are crystal clear, all the water is from underground springs. As it is the dry season, there may not be rain for up to nine months. The forest we walked through was pristine, and really peaceful. As it was roastingly hot, I enjoyed swimming at the Buley Rock pools, where there are lots of little water falls, and plunge pools, deep, clear water. Pat CCingly chose not to swim, sat on a rock.

Finished the trip at the little restaurant next to the caravan park. It turns out the caravan park and restaurant are all owned and run by the same people, obviously employing backpackers when they're in season. It doesn't matter during the wet 'cause nobody comes anyway. The whole thing's up for sale, at a good price, I'd imagine.
Had a nice chat over a Four X with a young couple from Stuttgart, on their fourth visit to Australia. We watched wallaroos hopping by, very scenic.