Day 62 23/05/2011 Litchfield National Park

Day 62 23/05/2011 Litchfield National Park – Walker Creek, Florence Falls and Buley Rockholes.



Walker Creek , well worth the walk.



WOW what a big day we had, we got going early and with lunch packed we headed to Walker Creek.  The information sheet described a moderate walk of 3.5km’s that included a walk up a crystal clear creek with a swim at the end. The kids were highly motivated by the possibility of a swim so they walked without complaining, well almost.  When we got to the plunge pool we were greeted with a gentle waterfall and the crystal clear plunge pool.  We weren’t the first visitors to the pool this morning but we soon had the plunge pool to ourselves!!  The kids and I had a great time jumping into the water and swimming around.  Pete played lifeguard.  It was with great reluctance that we eventually got the kids out of the water to walk back to the car…..I only succeeded by promising them that the next stop also included a swim and lunch.



Florence Falls, an awesome place to swim and we
climbed under the bigger waterfall.



We arrived at Florence Falls right on lunchtime and sat beside the creek, I’m not sure who got more to eat the kids or the little fish that they insisted on feeding their bread too!!!  The walk to Florence Falls took us through monsoon forest and open woodland, we also worked up a sweat and we were looking forward to the plunge pool.  Well what a surprise we got, Florence Falls plunge pool was huge and packed with people.  So far most of the swimming spots that we have walked to have had very few other people present and we have certainly been spoilt by this relative exclusivity but Florence Falls is an easy stroll on a well maintained track so almost anybody can visit.  But we were hot and sweaty so we plunged right in with the masses.  It is an enormous pool fed by two waterfalls, given the amount of people present I was surprised by how clear the water was.  With lots of effort we managed to swim against the falls current and got in behind the falls, the kids were very happy with this effort!!  Pete again played lifeguard, his phobia of cool water was becoming very apparent today.  He promised he would get into the water at the next stop. Leaving Florence Falls plunge pool we climbed up 135 stairs to the lookout over the falls and then headed back to the car, oh my, we were sweaty again!!



Buley Rockholes - after all the tourist had left for the day!



Our third and final stop was at the Buley Rockholes. We were very excited about this spot as we had heard so much about it from people at home who have been here before.  The kids were excited because it was only and 80m walk from the car park to the Rockholes, the ease if getting to the Rockholes also meant that it was very popular with the grey nomads and international tourists and of course us!! As I got out of the car, I grabbed my hat and forgot the camera was in it.  Needless to say it dropped out of my hat and onto the road surface.  I picked it up and it looked OK so off we went. Eventually I turned it on to take our happy snaps, that’s when I noticed I’d smashed the LCD screen.  Oops, that’s our second camera for the trip, just when I was getting used to it to.  Anyway, the Rockholes is an amazing place and hard to describe but here goes: the creek meanders down a gentle slope and there are small rapids and at the bottom of the rapids are deep rock holes, therefore it was possible to swim in a number of rock holes slowly working one’s way down or up the creek. The depth of many of the rock holes meant that the kids were able to practise their bombing techniques and because there were so many places to sit they didn’t splash water on those just reclining and enjoying the cool crystal clear water.



Florence Falls from the lookout.



If I said it was easy getting the kids to leave Buley Rockholes at 5pm I would be lying and there was a distinct moan of disappointment when they realised that they would not be able to come back tomorrow because this was our last day in Litchfield NP. I made some loose promises about finding other fabulous places to swim during our adventure. 

In the car on the way back to the caravan Callum advised that “today had gone to no.1, it had displaced Crocosaurus Cove as his most favourite day so far on the holiday” Claudia announced “it’s my no 1 day as well” and for Zac it is was his “no 2 my favourite is still the barramundi fishing trip even though we didn’t catch any barramundi”. I’m not sure anything will displace the fishing charter for Zac as his no 1 experience.