Litchfield National Park
After parting ways with Pat and Grace, we made our way to Litchfield National Park where we were spending the next couple of days.
Our camp for the night was at Sandy Creek which was only accessible via a 4wd track and several long river crossings. This was our deepest river crossing yet at half a metre deep! It sure felt deep to me but nothing the Troopy couldn’t handle with ease.
Located a small walk from our camp was a stunning swimming hole fed by a tall waterfall. Best of all we had it all to ourselves! This particular site had an active croc trap situated at the creek flowing out of the swimming hole. It was definitely a sobering reminder that the chance of a croc in these managed areas in low, but never zero.
The next day we headed further down the 4wd track to Surprise Creek for a swim. These were a series of super deep holes feeding into each other. It was awesome.
We spent the day checking out more of the waterfalls and swimming holes around the park and on the way back in, I drove the 4wd track this time as I wanted to do the deep river crossing.
The next day we were supposed to meet up with Hannah and Joe but we had no reception in the park to contact them with so ended up exploring on our own knowing we were staying at the same place that night.
We checked out three more different waterholes and ended up bumping into Hannah and Joe at the last one anyways. On our way to camp we stopped in at a zebra rock place and Rein walked away with a specimen for his collection.
The next morning we swung back past Berry Springs for a swim and a float as Hannah and Joe hadn’t been yet before heading to the Corroboree Billabong.
We were at Corroboree because for the third time we decided to hire a boat together. This wasn’t any old boat though, this boat was a bbq barge!
We cruised down the billabong spotting crocs, buffalo and birds while cooking up some snags for lunch. The billabong was stunning and so abundant with life. All the while we were chucking the roads in hoping to catch the elusive Barra (and hopefully the million dollar Barra!).
We still seemed to be in our fishing drought until Rein was on! The line zip and the fish thrashed, we were sure this was going to be a sizeable Barra. Rein reeled it in and I grabbed the landing net. As soon as we saw it on the surface though, we knew, this was no Barra, but a stinky Tarpon. Bad eating and very stinky. It went straight back in.
We didn’t end up catching another fish but we still had a great time and luckily, neither Hannah nor myself had to pee the entire time we were on the boat so we never had to find out how a lady pees off a boat in croc infested waters (and after doing the jumping croc tour, I certainly wasn’t hanging my ass over the side!).
The next few days we were in Darwin. Darwin was a real funky city and we really enjoyed our time there. Highlights were the morning and night markets, going to a rodeo and crocosarus cove. It was insane seeing the crocs in clear water up close, they are absolutely GIANT.
Our time in Darwin marked the end of our time in the NT. We are now headed toward the WA border towards Kununurra. Even though we still have a month and a bit to go, coming back to our home state is feeling bitter sweet as it means our adventure is over soon!
