4 August - Relaxation

4 August 2016 – 181 767

Relaxation

This morning everything outside was covered in very fine ash; however, the fire did not appear to be significantly closer.  We went to a Ranger talk this morning on Termites – he explained the differences between the different types of termite mounds observed within the park.  The cathedral termites feed on grass and build cathedral shapes mounds up to 5m high. The magnetic termites are only present in the top end and build there mounds in floodplains with a north south orientation that can be confused with strong magnets.  They also eat exclusively grass.  The wood piping termites eat trees out from the inside, creating didgeridoos.  The road to the Lost City is still closed due to fire, so again unable to do this.  Instead we had an afternoon nap, followed by a swim at Wangi Falls.  The fire has moved much closer and the ash is raining down onto the waterhole, with significant smoke.  We can now hear the wild fire from the campground. This evening the rangers came around to reassure everyone that we were safe to stay and there was a significant fire break between us and the fire.  Throughout the night I could hear trees falling and the sounds of the fire.
https://nt.gov.au/leisure/parks-reserves/find-a-park-to-visit/litchfield-national-park

2 August - Wangi Falls, Litchfield National Park

2 August 2016 – 181 557

Wangi Falls, Litchfield National Park

We woke up to a 5:30am alarm and packed down.  We wished to camp the night at Wangi Falls in Litchfield National Park, and had been advised that there are only a small number of caravan sites and they fill very early, so wished to be there between nine and ten am in the hope of getting a site. https://nt.gov.au/leisure/parks-reserves/find-a-park-to-visit/litchfield-national-park  As we ran out of gas this morning we stopped off in Adelaide River to replace it – and they had run out.  So we headed to Batchelor and stopped there to replace it – and they had run out – but they were able to refill our bottle, problem solved.  We arrived at the Wangi Falls campground just before 10am and were able to find a site, close to the falls and the amenities – yeah!  When I went to pay for the site there was a sign stating that camping was free as the ablutions were not working – toilets seemed fine and I don’t think showers will be a problem with the amount of swimming we plan to do.  After setting up camp we headed over to Wangi Falls for a swim (we had to walk 300m, what a walk J) – the water was cold in some spots, cool in some and had a hot layer on top in others.  We swam across to the far side to climb up into a warm rock hole, and then to another area to go under the waterfall – it was very noisy and strong.  After lunch we had an afternoon nap – it is a hard life – before going for a walk (about 2km) up over the top of the escarpment above the waterfall, and another long swim before dinner.  There is a lot of smoke around as there has been a wildfire burning somewhere on the Tabletop Track for the last few days, closing that track.