Lest We Forget

Have to admit that I am loving the timing of the weekends in coming up here to Darwin!  It was yet another long weekend last weekend and so we decided that it was the perfect opportunity to hire a car and head out and about to see the sights.  The merry troupe - Myeself, two fellow housemates and another Flinders meddie headed into the city to pick up a hire car (side note - Bargain Car Rentals ... best hire car place! So cheap for up here! and friendly staff who happily do deals and waive km limits).

However before that the Thursday night was the kick off of the famous Mindil Markets.  We headed down there after work along with what felt like 50% of Darwin's population.  So many people there!  But the sunset was absolutely spectacular!  We wandered around for a little while - but there were just way too many people so after fighting them through we ended up going along and just plain getting some food and beelining it for the beach and claiming a spot of sand.  We ate and enjoyed the food and company and then watched some fireworks officially kicking off the markets :)

Mindil Sunset

Celebrations :)

The next morning and seeings as it was in fact ANZAC Day and the March in the city was at 9am we were perfectly timed to be able to watch the parade before actually leaving.

Ready and Waiting Patiently

..... I think I want one

Hello Sailor .... and Airforce bringing up the rear

Loving the doggies!

And bring in the Marines!

Everyone should have a jet flyover!

Parade shenanigans, and an annoying Asian woman who pretty much stood in front of us the entire time and when we would move ... she would move!

 

We raced down the road to the start point, past most of the officers and those marching all standing ready to head off in formation.  Was amazing to watch.  The parade kicked off at 9am, and the older veterans lead the march.  It was fantastic to watch and so inspiring.  The rest of the armed forces followed on - army, navy and airforce.  Darwin also has a heap of Marines in town for the time being also so a couple of platoons or units or whatever they're called, followed on the end.  They were fascinating to watch.  There was a person out the side who was keeping the march ... but they would use this real sing song voice - was like nothing I'd actually heard before.  Amazing.


From the march it was time to head out of town and down towards Litchfield National Park.  The weather was nice, warm and sultry so we were keen to hit some swimming holes.  First stop however was the termite mounds.  There were both these cathedral ones and also fan ones out and about .. some baby ones and some giant ones!  Looking out across the plain it really resembled more of a graveyard with weird and wonderful tombstones - particularly the fan ones!  Fortunately we didn't see any actual termites mixed up anywhere ... or managed to accidently transport any with us!

Fan termite mounds

Gigantic Cathedral Termite Mound

And its a termite graveyard!

After the termites we went and visited Florence Falls ... Initially we weren't planning on actually swimming here, but the heat and time of the day quickly helped us to change out minds!  It was a lovely spot .... down 100 and something stairs!  The trip down went quite well .. but as for the way back up afterwards ........... thank goodness we were currently nice and cool after getting out of the fresh cool water from down at the falls.  It was pretty crowded down there - what with the sultry weather and it being a long weekend ... however we were also told that it had been that much busier the Easter weekend before.

Florence Falls ... before the walk down!

So cool and refreshing :) and the actual waterfall is just around the corner.

 After cooling down a little we headed off to the next falls - Tolmer Falls.  Beautiful place and the water at the base of the fall looked incredibly inviting - but this was one of the ones where there was no swimming allowed ... and no way down to the water either for that matter ... would have been very much like base jumping! haha.

Tolmer Falls

After the quick stop at Tolmer we moved on to the next spot - Wangi Falls.  It was pretty warm and so we were starting to look forward to hopping into the water again ... and before leaving we had been told that the Wangi falls made for great swimming ....... Sadly once we arrived we weren't allowed to actually swim there for the time being.  Some sign up about crocodiles and hidden currents.  Needless to say we figured that they probably knew what they were talking about and that the whole swimming thing was not work it at that site.  Hahaha.  So instead we stopped and enjoyed the beautiful sight and went for a bit of a wander around to see what we could along one of the walking tracks and then went back to the main area where there was a cafe style thing.  By this stage we were very warm and thirsty and so figured that a nice cool drink would be great.  At the time - the lemon/lime slushy that we had at the place was one of the best ones that I think I have ever had in my life ... melodramatic I know - but at the time - so incredibly sincere.  Gotta love being outside up here with the weather - back to drinking 3-4L/day without blinking.  And a good 600mL of it this time was icy deliciousness.

Sounds Legit ..

Wangi Falls - would have loved to have swum out there!

Next on our list, during the whirlwind tour of Litchfield, was to head to the cascades.  We had also been told that the swimming at this place was meant to be quite good.  After rocking up and checking the signs we were glad to know that swimming was definitely not a problem at this place ... sadly however - it was a 1.7km walk up to the upper cascades, where the swimming water was .... and it was uphill.  We just about died (well ... more closely - I just about died).  Gotta love the puffing and feeling like your heart is about to explode out of your chest as you get to the top of a hill.  But .. once we made it up there it was totally worth the walk!  So beautiful.  Running for the water and jumping in to enjoy it for the little while that we were able to (as the time was starting to get away from us and needed to get back to civilisation seeings as the insurance with the rental was voided if we were driving after dark up outside of Darwin).  We were up at the upper cascades when we jumped in ... and there was just a progressive collection of waterholes heading down to the lower cascades.  While we were in the water we saw some people come wandering up from the lower pools which raised the question as to whether or not we could make our way down to there and then back to the carpark from there instead (sounded fantastic to me as it was only 1.2km back from the lower ... and decidedly less hilly looking).

We made our way down and managed to not die while walking very carefully over all sorts of rocks and wonderfulness - like extreme Stoney Creek ... was all sorts of fun.

Gorgeous upper cascades - worth the walk!

Rocky fun times - just finished walking across a log over the creek back there!

We made it back in one piece and headed back towards Darwin Town.  Fortunately managed to not hit any small and furry creatures!  Watched the spectatcular sunset as we drove back and then went back home to relax before more adventuring on the Saturday/Sunday ... Stay tuned.