We get up early and get a taxi into the Avis office for 9 am. We must have the only taxi driver who doesn’t know his way around but at least he gives us a discount on the meter price to make up for the roundabout way we arrive there.
We get an upgraded car and set off along the Stuart Highway, bound for the Litchfield National Park. The weather forecast isn’t promising for the day but it’s good to be off the boat regardless. We pass some of the famous ‘road trains’ – these are lorries which pull up to three trailers (they used to take ten but aren’t allowed to any more). You get stuck behind one of those babies on a one lane highway and you know all about road rage. Luckily the ones we see are at traffic lights and we can get past them easily.
Once we are out of town, the highway goes through a strange landscape, one that has obviously been burned relatively recently, but there is new growth everywhere. Every tree trunk looks black up to about 8 feet from the ground which looks really weird, like someone’s been at them with a paint brush.
The other thing is, there’s just no traffic. Anywhere. I have never seen so much empty road. Main highways (motorways if you like) are one lane each way with passing places. Do Australians never go anywhere?
We take a turn off to see the reservoir behind the Manton Dam and it’s like being transported to another country – England – think Constable and lily ponds. If it weren’t for the ferocious ants milling around and the most determined flies (why do they always want to be in your face?), I would completely forget where I was, although the noise of the jet skis and the smell of barbies helps give out clues.
Photo: The lily pond
We pass through the town of Batchelor, a ‘one-horse town’ if ever I saw one. It’s meant to the the gateway to the national park but appears to only have one shop and a take away. As we have been told that there are no restaurants in the park, we try to buy something to eat for lunch and end up with the nutritional feast of chocolate, crisps and ice cream. Honestly, that is the best they have! The take away looks even less wholesome.
It’s not long before we start to see termite mounds along the roadside and I stare in awe at these huge monsters. But these are nothing, just a taste of what’s to come.
There are different types of termites and they all build different types of nests. Some are relatively small and rounded, and you find the hugging the sides of trees. Some are huge brutes, with towering columns all joining in the centre, and some are really weird, built by magnetic termites. These creatures build flat mounds, like slabs of granite raised towards the sky. These tall, thin mounds are usually oriented north-south. This is thought to help the termites regulate temperature more efficiently under an intense tropical sun. These termites are apparently able to sense the earth's magnetic field. Amazing, and soon we come across a whole field of them, all in lines, hundreds and hundreds of them. What a sight, in fact, put them all together and these slabs resemble memorial stones in a graveyard.
Next stop is one of the many waterfalls, Florence Falls. Being the dry season, we don’t expect the falls to be as spectacular as they can be, although the torrents of yesterday, if they fell here too, would have helped. It’s a mercifully short walk to the viewing platform. The temperature outside the car is almost 40 degrees and there are signs everywhere about heat exhaustion. I can understand why.
At the base of the falls is a beautiful swimming hole but it’s nearly 150 steps down (and therefore back up) so we give it a miss. Next stop is another waterfall whose name escapes me and is far less spectacular. (I think it might be Tolmer Falls but I am not sure.)
The walk from the car park is sweltering. Evidence of bush fires is all around and the smell is strong so it must have been relatively recent. You can’t get down to the waterfall as the area is preserved for two kinds of bats. No problem to me – I’ll stay at the viewing platform thank you!
We pass incredible rock formations, huge slabs of rock which look like they have been strategically placed, but as there are no signs anywhere, we presume that they are natural.
And that’s it for the National Park. With so little time and without a 4-wheel drive, most of the natural spectacles are unavailable to us. I wish we had more time but we have other chores to do before returning the car. On the way back we stop at Mindal Sunset market so I can buy the lovely knitted clothes that I saw on Thursday, but disappointingly, that is one of the only stalls that is not there. Still, we have some nice food then head to the supermarket and do some more provisioning while we have the transport.
The fun part is getting it all in the dinghy, me in the dinghy, and the dinghy in the water without any catastrophes. I’m still amazed we manage it especially as the dinghy needs blowing up again and is deflating rapidly as the sun goes down and the air cools a little.
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