The Adventures of the Amazing Octobus Begin...
Trip Start
Feb 12, 2011
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40
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Trip End
Nov 19, 2011
Litchfield National Park, Northern Territory, Australia
Tuesday, March 22, 2011
Not long after our departure, the intermittent rain started and we realized just outside of Litchfield, we still needed gas for the grill. Fortunately, Batchelor had what we needed, as it is a tiny town just outside of the park that many people stop at for last minute supplies before heading in. While there, we met a strange lady who had open sores all over her body and was traveling like a vagabond with her two small children, with no real plan of where she was going. And, interestingly, the gas station clerk informed us he had about 200 acres outside of Batchelor he lived on because the town of Batchelor, at 100 people, was "too busy for him".
Happy to arrive at our first stop in Litchfield, the Magnetic Termite Mounds, we got out of the car and were met with a stifling and sticky heat…the park is located in a tropical jungle. The termite mounds were an impressive site to be seen as some of them reached over 20 ft. and others were plate shaped to capture the heat during the day on the eastern side while keeping the center cool.
Buley Rock Hole was our next stop and to our delight had several refreshing spring fed pools to cool off in. We met two lovely retired couples in the pools, one from Australia, and one from California. They had been friends for 15 years and spent every other year vacationing together in the States or Australia. We followed them to Florence Falls, another great swimming spot in a much larger pool fed by a even larger waterfall. We, once again, reveled in the fact that we had both spots almost completely to ourselves, thanks to it being off-season.
Wangi Falls was our final stop for the day and our campsite for the night. On the flip side of enjoying a relatively empty national park due to off-season, some things were inaccessible due to it being the tail end of the wet season. Sadly, Wangi Falls watering hole was extremely flooded and closed due to crocodiles having been spotted just days prior to our arrival. We hiked on the trail that took us over and above the waterfall and didn’t see another soul that hour.
After picking a spot to camp, we started assembling our cooking needs and setting up our seating arrangement, as I kept noticing a foul smell coming from the campground. I asked John if he could smell something but he brushed the comment aside as I have been known to have an over-exaggerated sense of smell.
We made our first duty free cocktail and cooked up our dinner of chicken sausages and fresh veggies on, what we would come to realize was standard issue at campsites, a well designed and maintained gas grill, or Barbie, drenched in sweat. We ignored the sweat as we were enthralled with our first sighting of a wallaby near the grills.
John Writes: At this point in our dinner preparation, sunset had long past and blackness had enveloped the park so it became critical to use my flashlight. Being of a curious nature I kept looking around with my flashlight to see if there were any more interesting creatures to look at and about 5 yards behind us I saw the flash of a long line from a spider so I followed it. The line ran from a tree near us to another stand of small trees and bushes nearly 30 feet away and at the other end was a large black spider, with long legs black legs, each of which looked like they could be used as spears, and a large black abdomen the size of a golf ball. The spider had strung two 10 yard lines and was diligently weaving a web between the two at about head height, and moving faster than I’ve ever seen a spider move. Just as Erica asked what I was looking at, I saw another, even nastier one race across the blackness like a Nolan Ryan fastball, stringing its own 30 foot line. Although fascinating, it sent cold chills down my spine as I’ve never seen such a nasty looking creature in the flesh. Erica is deathly afraid of spiders so I pretended that I saw nothing, but she knew better.
As we retreated back to our campsite, dinner in hand, we found our table and cocktail covered with hundreds of gnat size insects. We attempted to get rid of them and eat our dinner but it was nearly impossible as one after the other committed suicide into our piping hot food as we pretended to enjoy the extra protein. John finally conceded that maybe my nose does come in handy sometimes and there was a weird smell and just maybe something was rotting at our campsite! We quickly gathered our gear up and moved to an almost bug-free site, finishing, what started as a lovely day, with another fitful night of sleep in 95 degree heat and 100% humidity.
