Darwin bound via Litchfield National Park

 From Hayes Creek we continued our journey north to the big D. Next port of call was Adelaide River. As we entered the town Angus was happy to see a collection of ' machinery'. We decided to let him investigate and turned into the Adelaide River Historic Railway Precinct which houses a wide array of early railway memorabilia and history of Adelaide River during WWII. After the bombing of Darwin, the Adelaide River area was selected as the headquarters and staging area for the Allied forces response to the Japanese Imperial expansion into the South Pacific. After spending a considerable time going through the various displays we then headed for the Adelaide River War Cemetery which is a poignant reminder of the human cost of war. After a somber time reflecting on the sacrifice made by these servicemen and women, and civilians, we continued on our journey.

We travelled onto Litchfield National Park which is one of the few places you can see magnetic termite mounds. We had gotten use to seeing the soaring mounds of the cathedral termites throughout the Northern Territory. Termites need to be able to regulate their environment especially temperature and moisture. Cathedral termites are able to retreat underground to escape the heat of the day but because the magnetic termites build on the floodplains, the ground is too wet for them to go far enough underground. They build their distinctive shaped mounds to catch the early morning and late afternoon sun. In the middle of the day the smallest profile of the mound is in direct sunlight so reducing the impact of the sun and subsequent heat. They build their flat sided mounds on a north / south axis hence their name ' magnetic '.

We then travelled further into the park where we went for a wonderful swim at Florence Falls where Claire was dismayed to find numerous small fish that were more than happy to swim around your feet and have an occasional nibble. Angus saw this as a challenge and spent a considerable time underwater trying to catch them. After our swim we tried to find a camp inside the park but were unsuccessful. We ended up at the Litchfield Safari Camp where we spent the night.