After packing everything away, we left the park at about ten. We had to go to the post office so we parked in the road outside Casuarina Square. On the way out of town I saw a sign for a boat and caravan spares shop so I decided to stop. As we were on a dual carriageway, it took several loops before we finally reached the place. I was struck again by the cost of "freight" added to the normal price of things up here, in this case $45 worth of stuff for $62!.
We stopped for lunch at Noonamah and arrived at Coomalie Creek at about three. There is a NO CAMPING rest area by the creek and a fairly primitive but pleasant caravan park nearby. It is reasonably cheap so we settled in for a couple of nights so that we can explore the Litchfield National Park in the Little Motley on the morrow.
After breakfast we prepared a picnic lunch, packed the day bag and set out for the park.
The first place we stopped was at a termite mound site. This is quite extraordinary. Most of the termite mounds around here are made by Cathedral termites whose mounds are tall rounded and buttressed. At the designated site, there is a corridor along a watercourse where the termites are of a different species called Magnetic termites because they build tall narrow, blade shaped mounds all of which are aligned in the same direction. The biologists say that this species is adapted to areas which flood in the wet and which get very cold at night and very hot during in daytime during the dry. The shape of their mound allows them to live above the flood level in a fairly constant temperature with the east side of the blade heating up quickly in the morning and centre of the mound staying relatively warm through the afternoon and the night.
Wangi Falls has a beautiful rock pool at its base with water so clean that you can see the bottom right across the pool. Sadly, there were many people there and this took the edge of our enjoyment. We had lunch with some people from Adelaide one of whom works as a remote area nurse at Jabiru. We had a pleasant and interesting conversation with them before we moved on.
Tolmer Falls are viewed from a platform perched high on a small rock outcrop in front of the falls which tumble many tens of metres (yards) into a rock pool way below. Very impressive. Jean was not impressed as it stimulated her vertigo just thinking about what was underneath her.
We visited Tabletop Swamp because it is reputed to be a haven for water birds. We saw only crows and egret in the far distance.
We stopped to take the standard "me standing beside a termite mound" photo.
Being all walked out, we returned to the comfort of the Motley.