We had a great day splashing around at Litchfield National Park.
We started our day relatively early, hitting the road right after breakfast.
Litchfield is about is about 120 kilometres down the Stuart Highway, south of Darwin – about an hour an hour and a half in the car.
The park is about 1500 square kilometres and has plenty of things to see and do. It’s free to enter with nominal fees to be paid if you want to camp there.
We went at the end of the wet season – which runs roughly from October to April – and quite a few of the swimming spots were still closed.
First up we hit the Magnetic termite mounds – there are hundreds of the things – standing about two metres high.
Apparently the insects build the mounds aligned north and south to minimise exposure to the sun and maximise temperature control.
Even more impressive though, are the massive cathedral mounds.
Next we hit up Buley Rockhole. Despite being a Friday morning, the place was heaving with beer-swilling locals and plenty of tourists.
We found a spot between a couple of eskies, dumped our things and hit the water.
We had plenty of fun flailing, jumping in and sliding down slimy makeshift water slides.
We didn’t spend too much time there though, because we had lots more exploring to do.
Our next stop was the double waterfalls at Florence Falls. You can get a fantastic view of the falls from the lookout up near the carpark before trudging down the 160 steep steps to the plunge pool. 
Florence Falls offer much more space than Buley Rockhole and so it seemed less crowded (though it doesn’t look it from the photos). 
There’s a big, shallow rock pool where you can chill out, otherwise you can brave the super strong currents and try to swim out to the base of the waterfalls. We’re not bad swimmers and found it fairly tough, so I wouldn’t attempt it if you’re not feeling confident.
Getting to the edge is a mission and a half, but making your way back is a breeze as the currents send you sailing back towards the pool’s shallows.
We spent a good while flailing at Florence, playing in the pools and carrying on, before climbing back up the stairs and continuing towards Tolmer Falls lookout.
After this we made our way over to Wangi Falls – which are supposed to be the easiest to access and the best place to swim in the park. Unfortunately, due to days of heavy rain in the lead up to our trip, the pools were closed to the public.
Thoroughly relaxed and exhausted from our day playing in the pools – we decided to make our way home.
It should have been smooth sailing – bar a long stretch of unsealed road – but we hit a snag somewhere between Walker and Bamboo Creek(I think).
The river was swollen, rendering it impossible to pass.
I can see now that there are plenty of really great resources online – informing tourists of which roads and tourists spots are open. I’d definitely recommend you check it out before heading in. Had we done so, we might have saved ourselves a couple of hours on the way home, and spared the life of little Joey – the Kangaroo we collected at 180 kilometres an hour.
The Litchfield National Park official website provides an excellent source of information – and details water quality, access and up-to-date road closures.
