Soaking the days away at Litchfield NP

Florence Falls, Litchfield National Park, NT 

Tuesday 15th - Friday 18th August

After leaving Kakadu we spent one night at the Purple Mango Cafe & Brewery, where we enjoyed woodfired pizzas and cold beers, then one night at Darwin doing the boring but necessary jobs (laundry, groceries, emails etc), before we headed back to Litchfield National Park (we spent a week here at a similar time last year).

This time we'd booked a campsite at the Florence Falls campground. We'd scouted the place out last year and found the perfect campsite, and luckily for us it was available. It was a beautiful, spacious camp spot that opened out onto the bush with views of the distant mountains. We had an absolutely delightful 3 days relaxing in the picturesque surroundings and soaking ourselves in the nearby waterfalls and rock holes. It was only a short walk to both Florence Falls and Buley rock holes, two of the most popular places at Litchfield NP. As we were camped so close we had the luxury of going for early morning and late afternoon/early evening swims, so we didn't have to endure the crowds that populate both of these places during the middle of the day. We spent our days in a gorgeous deep pool that we had found on our walk to Buley rock holes. It was quite secluded so we had the place to ourselves most of the time.

Another highlight was seeing a water monitor basking in the sun before he jumped right into the top of a waterfall and stood there letting the water run over him. We also found a bower bird nest close to camp and we even got to witness the male bird doing a mating dance to the female bird in the nest. 

We reluctantly left after a blissful 3 nights. We still squeezed in an early morning swim in Florence Falls (after walking there an alternate way which took us through the surrounding bush and along a creek) before we packed up, then on the way out we stopped at Walker Creek to enjoy one more swim. 

Enjoying a mango smoothie while waiting for his chicken and mango woodfired pizza and the Purple Mango Cafe & Brewery

The kids had a pet for the evening.

Getting her hair washed by a waterfall in one of the water holes between Florence Falls and Buley rock holes.

We spent heaps of time at these rockpools as we had them to ourselves most of the time.

Another swimming hole we found on the trail from Florence Falls to Buley Waterholes

One of our early morning swims at Florence Falls- the best time to go to beat the crowds.

Jackson, Emilia and I are in behind the waterfall.

Jackson perfecting his 'model' pose in the waterfall!!

The kids loved diving & jumping into the deep plunge pools we found.

Jackson showing off his new jumping move!!

The 2 bower bird nests we saw- we have only seen a handful in all our travels so it was unusual to see two in close proximity.

I spent a lot of time getting waterfall massages......

....whilst the kids continuously jumped off the rocks into the deep water.

I love Emilia's face in this one.

The water monitor that lived in the swimming hole we frequented. We saw him both days we went there.

This rock hole was like a natural spa - the water was coming down the waterfall so hard it created a lot of bubbles. It was so hard to get much closer to the waterfall as the water was so strong.

Daniel and the kids had fun blocking off the waterfall so it spilled over the edges instead, when they got up a huge torrent of water gushed over the rocks.

Exploring the rock pools (I am killing a march fly! There were a lot of them and they particularly liked us whenever we got out of the water with wet rashies).

After some cajoling and a bit of coaching the kids finally convinced me to do some jumps with them- they gave me lots of tips but I still felt very awkward! It was fun though, except for the wedgie I got each time!!!!