Things have been going great, touch wood, having an AMAZING time, you wouldn't be dead for quids!! so here we go with whats been happening since our last blog.
SUNDAY 24/7..... we packed up and left earlish at Springval Park, as there were people lined up waiting to go on our sites!!! We travelled through Pine Creek,which is a nice little town, then onto Douglas Daly Van Park, which is close by to the Douglas & Daly Rivers.......really!! After setting up we went for a drive further along in the park to a number of campsites beside the River.
One place is called the Arches, it says no swimming due to croc's, not the freshwater ones but the mean salties, anyway Kath, the lady at the Park, says its safe & been passed for swimming, but you can imagine the discussion between the boys and the girls about swimming!! We wern't allowed until another group of oldies jumped in..... so John & Rans went in BUT they weren't allowed to go toooooo far from the shore!! After a quick dip we then made our way back along the river and came to a spot they called the thermal pool, well John made the fatal mistake of going straight in, thinking it wouldn't be too deep, hadn't even taken his glasses off... he just disappeared, completly went under & he come up spluttering, still with the glasses on.. thank goodness!! Laugh, Rans went in too but was ready for that first step ! MONDAY..... we headed off to the Douglas Hot Springs . The water in these springs can get to over 60 deg cel.
They are very warm and in some places very very hot. It was enjoyable not as good as Bitter Springs at Mataranka. We then return for lunch & then the Bewells & Ransleys went for a drive along a road to the Daly River. Well what an experience we went from river edge, to open plains, to cattle, to swamp lands, to rainforest, to fields of watermelons, hay & creek crossings & then finally the Daly River.
When we get there, we see a croc over on the other side of the bank (thank god ! he was a good size) It was a great drive. On the way back we saw wild pigs and then when we almost got back we saw Terry fishing off the bridge, but when we pulled up, we also saw this HUGH python on the road, (between Terry & his car) it was approx 12' and Terry wouldn't return to his car until it had well & truly gone. (he hates snakes)
TUESDAY.... We packed up & left taking the scenic route north going past the Adelaide River township, which was nice clean town. We then set up in the Litchfield N.Park at a park just outside Batchelor, it is a nice park with plenty of shade which you require as its getting quite warm 30-33deg most days. We set up and then went for a drive to the Termite Mounds,
The walk was well worth it, with beautiful cascading falls into ponds, we all went for a swim with the girls staying in the water longer than the boys, we then went for a drive to the cheap camping spots in the park but let us say they are not worth it, very small, no shade etc, We then went to Wangi Falls where we met up with the Butlers for lunch, we weren't allowed to swim here as the level was too high for the undertow near the falls and also allowing crocs into the pond. We then drove to Tolmer Falls which would be the best to see during the wet season & its also the best to see at sunset. We then drove to Buley Falls which is a great spot for swimmming with a number of ponds cascades/falls, Rans & John had a quick swim & then we returned to our site for happy hour.We sat outside after tea and watched the stars which were AMAZING. THURSDAY.........We got early and headed off to Florence Falls which is near to Buley, both of which get very busy during the day. It is a short walk down to Florence Falls which has a large plunge pond at the bottom, just as John & Rans was going to jump in we noticed a large python sitting on a rock on the waters edge, the boys did have a swim but they kept one eye on the python which moved around a bit.
We then went to Buley for a swim, it wasn't busy so we had a pool mostly to ourselves with the 3 girls doing bombs into the water, which was very deep, we stayed there for over an hr as it then started to get busy, so we went back to our site and then into town to do Internet stuff etc.
We parked under some big trees near the cricket oval & it was great, cleancool area, we then went back and had a baked dinner for tea...yummie FRIDAY.... The 5 of us went out early to Blyth Homestead, it's a homestead out in the middle of nowhere, which took us 20min to get to from the main road, where a couple brought up their 14 children, its next to an old tin mine, but the home would be lucky to fit 4 people. We then continued on through a 4WD track until we came to the carpark for Sandy Creek/Tjaynera Falls,we then walked 1.7km into the falls, which is a beautiful area, with 2 falls,cascading into the pool, John & Rans went snorkelling and they say it was very deep and eerie as it was so dark under water & they expected a croc to come out and take them !! A fish came from the dark at John & he did say it gave him a bit of a fright,.
The girls had a swim close to the edge !! we then returned to the car & decided to go to a picnic area close by but we made a wrong turn and ended up near Wangi Falls, so we decided to have lunch there, which turned out to be a great decision as they had just opened the falls/pond for swimming an hr before, so we had some lunch and then the boys went swimming and got up under the falls. It was a great day one of many that we have been having. SATURDAY..... An easy day, we headed into Batchlor as they had a Festival on, with stalls music etc. They also had a game of AFL between to college teams of aboriginals, we set ourselves up under those huge trees again listened to the music playing, watching the footy, it was a good arvo.
SUNDAY... We headed off to Berry Springs, set ourselves up at a c/park. We have come this way as we are heading to Dundee Beach on Tuesday, for just over a week, at Paul Smedleys place, a bloke Rans & the Butlers know from Woy Woy. Once we had set up ,we went for a drive into Coolalinga for shopping then back to the Berry Springs for a swim. These are warm springs but with a lot of rocks between the falls & main pond, but still a nice area with picnic tables etc. We all went in for a swim which was enjoyable. It is here where the lady last week was bitten on the ear/head by a salty,it had snuck in past the traps.... the croc was shot. We then went for a drive to a fish farm and then back for happy hr again!!!!!!!! Monday....... Rans, Carol & Di went to Berry Springs Nature Park, it was great, they have it set up so well, we enjoyed all the exhibits, they really made it feel like the wild, Carol even went onto the Sandbar & hand fed the Whiprays ( type of stingray) she really enjoyed it.
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