Day 33 - Litchfield National Park

We had a slow start today as with the time difference, it is too cold to go swimming at 9am, so we were all happy for a bit of a sleep in.  We left at about 9am to go down a 26km 4WD track to Surprise Creek.  It had some awesome river crossings and was a pretty rough road so we had worked on it taking about 1 hour.  On the way we stopped at Blythe Homestead, which was a little outstation that had been built in 1929 where the oldest of the 14children, of the Seargent family, where sent, in order to mine tin and run the cattle, about 25 km from the main homestead. This explained why the little shack was so small as they were only children living there.  Our children were amazed that the kids living here were only as old as Shannae and Tori's and maybe a couple of older siblings as well.   We tried to imagine what they did for food without a fridge, shops, washing machine etc.  Quite remarkable what kids were expected to do in those days!!!!

Anyway, we continued on, I saw a little croc scuttle off the river bank as Glen assessed the situation before entering Reynoldson River, no way was I getting out if we got bogged!!!  We also passed hundreds of termite mounds, these things are amazing, many over 2 m tall.  And one breed of termite in particular, has worked out that if they make really tall skinny mounds that face in a north/south direction, they won't heat up so much.  Clever 'ay???.....at some places we could just see dozens and dozens of these things all facing the same way, it looked like a cemetery!!!

So Surprise Creek was awesome.  Glen found this fantastic rock hole that him and the kids proceeded to spend all their time swimming in and doing bombies from, we pretty much had the place to ourselves.  I was on croc and snake patrol!!!!  I had the "Heeby jeebies" and wouldn't go in here!! 

We eventually dragged the kids away and headed back to the main road.    We stopped at the Litchfield Tourist Precinct which wasn't too exciting.  The kids saw their first "cane toad money purses" and they weren't too excited about them.  Next stop was "Cascades" a 2.4km return walk to a lovely water fall and pool.  Very refreshing as it was getting a bit hot by this time.  Very tropical in places and lots of signs to say "crocodile management" had taken place in the area!!!  I just hope they had done a thorough job!!!!

Anyway, back to camp and time to relax by Wangi Falls again, Glen and I with a refreshing drink this time.  And wouldn't you know it, we decide to do the Treetop platform walk just to finish off the day, "It's only 400m to the top"  says Tori, she failed to mention is it was about the same amount of steps!!!!  Forgot I had quads.......I have now remembered that this muscle group does exist!!!