Post trip - exploring Litchfield

This was our last view of beautiful Coral Bay from the deck of the Seven Spirit Bay Lodge last Monday morning. We had an 8.30 start from the lodge - on our way back to Darwin.

It was back to the Vashon Head airstrip for us - we were in the first group to leave Cobourg Peninsula today. Our little Cessna 12 seater had to have its freight load unpacked before we could get loaded. Mia was our pilot and chief cargo handler - just one more of the many young women (mostly under 30 I'd say) who have been the backbone of the Outback Spirit operation here in the NT. They have been amazing, driving trucks, boats, planes, guiding, cooking, everything!

While some of the guests relaxed in air conditioned comfort in the terminal.

We crossed over the waters of Van Diemen's Gulf on the 45 minute flight back to Darwin - and across the southern coast of Melville Island.

Our tour group was booked into the Hilton Garden Inn on Darwin Esplanade and a sunset harbour cruise was on offer on our last night as a finale to this fabulous tour of Arnhem Land.

Darwin turned on another sensational sunset for us to enjoy as we dined on beautiful seafood and enjoyed the customary Outback Spirit open bar hospitality.

Having David and Ro with us on this trip has made it really special for us. We're gonna miss them - as they're heading straight back to Cairns after this.

We all have enjoyed this trip so much - seeing such a unique and remote part of Australia, being so well looked after by Outback Spirit and our EXCELLENT tour leader/driver Dave. We were also lucky to be in the company of very good fellow travellers, most of them rather elderly like us but pretty fit and spritely with it - mostly.

So we set out on our own yesterday...... picking up our Sixt hire car from Darwin Airport and then heading south to Litchfield National Park. It felt quite hard travelling without someone organising our morning tea, lunch and dinner, afternoon drinks, organising our guides and outings and sorting our washing too!!

We'd been to Litchfield on a previous visit to the NT many years ago but couldn't remember much about the details. Our first stop was Wangi Falls on the far western loop road of the National Park. It's a stunning stop but popular with visitors these days (there certainly weren't as many people around on our previous visit).

This very cute lace monitor wasn't fazed by all the people about.

We decided to do the steep climb to the top of the falls despite the whole of the loop walk not being accessible today because of repair work. The climb was pretty tough for us - very rough, uneven footing and quite steep too. We were very careful especially coming back down.....

The view from the top was pretty amazing though.

Coming back down, this view out to the carpark in the distance shows how high up we were.

This section of monsoon forest was a welcome respite after climbing so high in 30oC heat.

We drove back then towards the eastern entry to the park - deciding we only had one more walk in us today. This was to Florence Falls......... where it was an easy walk to get to the lookout.

........ but 135 steps down to the waterfall plunge pool - luckily they were beautifully constructed this time, very safe to navigate, very even.

It was lovely to sit and relax here for a while beside the pools of gurgling water as the impact of the hot day and the after effects of a pretty hectic (but highly indulgent) two weeks hit us.

We drove back to our basic cabin accommodation at Pandanus on Litchfield around 4pm. Luckily the a/c worked well and after a rest and cool down we were ready to go looking for our dinner at nearby Batchelor. We're heading for Katherine tomorrow.