I had to be up pretty early to set off on my 2 night camping 4WD tour of Litchfield and Kakadu National Parks with Adventure Tours Australia. My iPhone was still on Sydney time so I accidentally got up at 4.30 instead of 5.00am, oops! There were 14 of us in the tour group and our tour leader Luke was awesome and really knew his stuff. Plants, crocs, snakes, birds, geology, aboriginal rock art...he was a bit of an expert in all things Northern Teritory!
Our first stop was the Termite Mounds. Magnetic Termite Mounds are made by particularly clever termites that somehow always build them pointing North to South. I'm still puzzling over how a termite can possibly know automatically where magnetic North is...always. Clever little beasties! We also learned about Cathedral Termite Mounds and licked Green Tree Ants on their green bum, it sounds a bit perverted now, maybe you had to be there. The guide told us to try it because they taste acidic, a bit like licking a battery (Dad if you are reading this I never licked batteries either).
Next we stopped at Wangi Falls. This was going to be a swim stop but it was a bit cloudy and not that warm so instead we took pics and walked up to the look out above the waterfall. We saw some little bush fires on our little trek. Luke told us that since it's only just getting into the dry season these fires don't have to be reported as they shouldn't cause too much trouble. We stopped for more bush tucker, this time in the form of Rosella Flowers, the red leaves taste a bit like gooseberry and apparently they contain lots of vitamins.
Buley Cascades was our next stop and by now the clouds had burned off and it was hotting up so we all swam in the rock pools. The freshwater was amazing and I jumped in a few times posing for photos.
We stopped for lunch at Mrs Macs Cafe and Luke served up hot dogs. We went down a really bumpy road called Marikah in our 4WD truck and through streams. I got airbourne a few times which was pretty exciting.
The afternoon mainly consisted of a cruise on the Mary River Wetlands. We saw lots of Salt Water Crocodiles (the ones are more likely to kill you as opposed to the more placid freshwater ones) and a huge variety of birds. The lady driving the boat got us really close to the crocs for pics and was great at maneouvering the boat to get us all a good view. She did have to remind us a few times that dangling camera and arm over the side of the boat probably wasn't a fantastic idea since the croc would be fairly happy to relieve us of both in one snap!
Our camp site for the night was at a pub. Woop! The Bark Hut Pub was home to some Adventure Tours ermanent tents so we had camp beds with basic mattresses, a kitchen tent and shower block etc. Pretty comfortable camping. We dumped our gear and took a stroll up Cheese Hill to see the pretty views whilst Luke fired up the BBQ. Tea was marinated kangaroo steak, buffalo burgers and coleslaw. Proper Aussie Tucker!
It would have been rude not to head to the pub after tea since we were staying on their grounds an all that. We played a pool competition and the staff at the pub and other guests got involved. I was told by local folk I mustn't have another Sav Blanc and instead had to try Red Bundaberg and Coke. Smoother tasting than normal Bundaberg apparently, all I know is it resulted in me playing Rodeo on the saddle in the middle of the pub. Fun times!
