Wednesday 29th November – Litchfield National Park and Florence Falls

Not the most productive sleep.  We awoke grumpy and sweaty from a disturbed night.  We needed a spa day and we were in exactly the right place for one.

Heading back to Florence falls we took the stairs down to the jungle floor and were greeted by this idyllic sight:

  

We attempted to get some 'under the falls' footage but as you an see, it's not easy!

The water was cooling, clear and pure.  You could drink it as you swam along and washed off your bad night’s sleep.  Heading to the two waterfalls themselves, the power of the water spray was such that it took your breath away as you neared.  We managed to swim against the current to pass behind the larger of the two. It was invigorating!  There was only one other person there. We felt like we could have stayed for the day. However, having had our rainforest shower, it was time for a back massage.

Moving on to Buley Rocks, a series of interconnected natural plunge pools with boulders separating them.  Still in our swim gear, we found one with no other bathers present and leapt back in to the cooling water.  We’d found the best pool.  One where you could sit atop a large boulder and have the water pummel your shoulders to just the right pressure:

We forced ourselves to leave about 1130am for the drive to Darwin.  There we recce'd the place we’re picking up the RV on Friday, booked a motel for one night within walking distance and headed to Charles Darwin Park.   There was less going on there than we expected, but we had some lunch and got a view of the city.  We stopped off at Traveller’s Autobahn to ask where we need to go to find a carwash to allow us to clean their van for them tomorrow.

Onwards to the VC where we got tips for where we could find free parking by the Royal Flying Doctors Museum, which was well worth a look.  

This one plane ferried over 7500 patients in its 20 year life span

It was like a museum of the future – everything was high Tec, from the Virtual Reality headsets that gave us an 8-minute experience of the bombing of Darwin in February 1942, to the interactive holograms that we could ask questions.  It was a combined museum about the Royal Flying Doctors' Service and the bombing of Darwin in WWII. 

Memorial to the bombing of Darwin which resulted in 292 fatalities

The initial and most destructive bombing of Darwin in February 1942 signalled the arrival of WWII in Australia and the terrifying and real risk of a Japanese land invasion gripped the nation.  Darwin was Australia' northern defence post and a place where Australian and allied ships and aircraft could stop for refuelling and restocking - making it a worthy target for the Japanese.  This map shows just how close the Japanese came  in 1942. 

We had intended to stay close to the city tonight to experience the ambience, however, it seemed that many attractions had closed for the season and, the campsites were back out the way we’d just driven in!  We had rung and booked onto a ‘Top campsite’ (10% off), but were now running short of time to get there by the designated 6pm.  Especially as, when we exited the museum to check out the quay, we found a Sea Shepherd vessel moored there, the Ocean Warrior:  

In summary, this is a ship belonging to a fleet of extreme anti-whaling activists.  When Greenpeace thought their tactics too severe, Paul Watson broke away and formed the Sea Shepherds.  They try to thwart the Japanese whaling fleets by any means necessary. The crew risk their lives employing tactics from helicopters, water cannon and dragging lines to try to stop the Japanese fleets killing whales whilst falsely claiming that they are doing so in the name of scientific research.  Simon and I were both massive fans of the Discovery series, Whale Wars, following the successes and failures of these environmental heroes.  I was in awe to see a Sea Shepherd vessel moored here in Darwin (very far North for them!) so couldn’t stop myself from saying ‘Hi’ to members of the crew who emerged.  It turns out they have been docked here for two months but are to finally set sail on Monday in an undisclosed direction (the marine biologist I was chatting to couldn’t tell us where, or he would have had to kill us).  We wished them a safe and successful voyage and just checked that they didn’t need any last-minute crew (though you need a stomach of iron to withstand the roll of the south seas in these vessels).

We headed to our ‘Top’ campsite for our last night in Ozzie before we return him tomorrow.  Once parked, we opened all windows and doors for the evening and did a mass washing in advance of the next leg of our adventure.