Travel to Australia

Day 19 Alice Springs - Darwin - Litchfield N.P. (100+232 Km.)

(in 50 Km.) West MacDonnells: We take advantage of the couple of loose hours we have before taking the plane to visit two nearby attractions of the West MacDonnell: Simpsons Gap and Standley Chasm. At the exit of Alice Springs we pass in front of Flynn Grave where from the same road we see one of the round rocks of Devil's Marbles. Simpsons Gap is a crack of the West MacDonnell at the base of which there is a pond where they come to drink the colony of wallabies that live in the area. In Standley Chasm we find another of the cracks in this mountain range, which is accessed through a road parallel to a small river. The crack of eighty meters high formed by the erosion of the rock is so narrow that the Sun only enters it around twelve o'clock.

(in 50 Km.) Alice Springs: We return to Alice Springs to drop off the car at the airport and take the plane to Darwin, where we will do a trip through the so-called Australian Top End.

(in 100 Km.) Batchelor: This town is located at the entrance of the Litchfield National Park, which surrounds the Tabletop Range, a plateau lined with springs from which several permanent and easily accessible waterfalls flow. The whole park is a destination that many people access as a recreation area. As it is not inhabited by crocodiles (which does not happen in the other two parks in the area), you can swim freely in its different rivers and waterfalls.

(in 34 Km.) Magnetic Mounds: A few kilometers from the entrance of the park are the "magnetic mounds", an extension full of magnetic or meridien termite mounds. They are all perfectly aligned so that the sun always touches on one side of the termite mound while the other stays cool. It was here the first place where we began to "enjoy" the conditions of the Top End: A sultriness close to 32 degrees (nothing despicable considering that we are in the middle of winter) and hundreds of flies flying around us.

(in 21 Km.) Wangi Falls: The most famous area of the park is that of the Wangi Falls, at the base of which there is a natural hot spring lake heated by the sun near the base of the waterfall on the left. You can take a walk along a path that leads to a walkway in the tropical forest that goes up to the top of the waterfalls and down the other side through a viewpoint. From this area you can go south with a four wheel drive car to other nearby waterfalls: The Sandy Creek Falls and the Surprise Falls.

(in 5 Km.) Tolmer Falls: These waterfalls can only be seen from a viewpoint in front of the upper part of the waterfall, as the lower part of the waterfall is closed to the public because there is a cave where lives the orange horseshoe bat that wants to be protected.

(in 12 Km.) Florence Falls: On the return trip we pass again in front of the detour to the Lost City (only with a FWD), which is a set of stone columns to which erosion has given them very curious shapes. Finally we pass the Buley Rock Holes, which are ponds on the rock of the river in which we can cool off. The river continues to Florence Falls. There, a viewpoint allows you to contemplate the twenty-meter high waterfalls that can be reached through wooden walkways that lead from the top of the parking lot to the base of the waterfalls.

(in 38 Km.) Batchelor: We will sleep at the Jungle Drum Bungalows where we were fantastically served. But before reaching the town we stopped just in front of a termite mound of just over four meters high. These striated mounds have a totally different shape than the "magnetic" ones and are called "cathedral" type.