Leeches and termites

Okay, I know this is a terrible way to headline one of the most beautiful parts of the Territory, but it's better than 'Leechfield', which was a contender. (Well, I thought it was funny.)

Litchfield National Park is about an hour's drive south-west of Darwin. It's owned and managed by the Territory government, whereas the other big, well-known NT parks (Uluru and Kakadu) are federal parks.* Oh, the waterfalls and rockpools! Litchfield is absolutely stunning. And because it's the tail end of the wet season, there is water, water everywhere — all drinkable.

Florence Falls is a double waterfall. Can you see the rockpool at the base of the falls? It's a magical place to swim. The current is so strong from the waterfall, though, that you have to sit on a rock (or your partner) if you don't want to be pushed downstream.

Let's get the unpleasant, bitey stuff out the way. No, there are no deadly saltwater crocs, because the rangers ensure they are kept out of these spots. There may be freshwater crocs ... but we toss our heads and scoff at freshwater crocs. There are leeches — not in the water, but in the wet undergrowth as one brushes through it. We did see some people pull the odd leech off between their toes. (This is the tropics, people! Wear closed shoes!) But we escaped all bitey things, apart from the odd determined mosquito.

Buley Rockhole, a series of natural plunge pools, was next on our swimming agenda. There was a boisterous crowd of youngsters on a school outing (better than a museum, hey?) who were a joy to watch and hear. Lots of teenage courage/folly too. I, on the other hand, sat sedately in a peaceful rockpool, with fresh water swirling around, and counted my blessings.

The rockpool at the base of Wangi Falls (pronounced 'wahng-guy') was closed for swimming as it's still the wet season, and the flow of the river is so strong that it's considered dangerous for swimmers. There's also a likelihood that the odd saltwater croc is lurking somewhere in all that water. We walked a few hundred metres into the neighbouring forest and discovered hundreds of fruit bats chittering away loudly as they hung in the trees.

On to termites. Termites are the cleaners of the bush; without termites, dead vegetation would pile sky high. Cathedral termite mounds in Litchfield are about 5 metres tall. They're built by the termites with 'wing' structures so that they catch the wind and funnel the cooling breezes into the centre of the mound — natural airconditioning.

We've seen cathedral mounds before in Kakadu, but the magnetic mounds were new to us. Termites that build magnetic mounds build them with a north-south orientation, to control the temperature within the mounds. They're flattish, to minimise the surface area exposed to the sun, and are smaller than the huge cathedral mounds, but they're even more intriguing when you see them en masse, row by row, parallel and oriented magnetically.

Clever little suckers, aren't they.

*Consequently, Territorians think that Litchfield is much better managed than Kakadu.