21/7/14 – Everyone at camp was in bed by 8.30pm. It was a quiet night and a peaceful and relaxing morning apart from a French tourist breaking out in song every now and then.
Today we went exploring to see what Litchfield has to offer and to say we were impressed was an understatement. It’s as good here as anywhere we have been this trip so far. Gorgeous clear swimming holes, with cascading waterfalls. Rock pools with natural spas to soak away the days troubles, stunning. The only thing that has been a blight is a fire that has spread smoke across the park at different times of the day. There are signs up warning about smoke hazard, it does however seem to be worst back at camp with large pieces of soot and ash fall on us as we sit.
First up was the Lost City, a 10.5km 4×4 track into sand stone pillars that look like a city of ruins. It was a popular spot with people coming and going.
Next was Buley Rockhole, which is a series of cascading rock pools that has that wow factor. It’s a short 80m walk, we went for a look first camera in hand but when we saw the rock holes we had to go back and get the swimmers on. Mind you so did everyone else it was pretty busy, people coming and going. Some of the pools are very deep with waterfalls flowing into them. People would jump into the deep holes. We had a picnic lunch there and spent quite a bit of time going down the cascades exploring each rock hole.
We reluctantly left Buley and went to Florence Falls, a double waterfall. It was also pretty awesome and has a plunge pool at the base. The short way is down 135 steps or a couple of Kms the long way. Since we just had a dip we just enjoyed looking at the falls from the viewing platform which is only a short walk.
It is a 400m walk to the viewing platform above Tolmer Falls. All down hill, not to steep to come back up. This waterfall would be incredible in the wet season.
Then it was back to Wangi Falls. We did the 800m return walk to the platform in the trees. Yes it’s in the trees but no view of anything. On the way we saw 2 boars with piglets, one crossed the path in front of us and ran off when it saw us. There are also flying foxes in the trees that make a bit of a racket and smell.
By now we were hot and in need of a swim. So another dip in the Wangi swimming hole.
Back at camp every site was full with people camping just outside the camping area and in the day use area.