Litchfield National Park

After a very exciting visit to Uluru (see: getting engaged), we decided to celebrate by immediately spending 23 hours sitting separately on a Greyhound coach to Darwin, on Australia's north coast.

The outback was extremely hot but also very dry, so surprisingly bearable. Darwin, on the other hand, is tropical. It's the wet season up here, so still pretty hot, and at least 80% humidity. Much sweatier than the outback.

Luckily, this time we hired a proper camper from a more serious company, with proper equipment and functioning air conditioning that we can plug into the mains to keep us cool overnight. We then drove straight to a campsite with no mains electricity hookup, and had to sleep in our own sweat just like before, with the dead A/C unit mocking us immediately over our heads.

Litchfield National Park is beautiful, and very quiet in the wet season. We visited the famous Termite Mounds (capitalisation per the tourism signage), which we were impressed by, though several local teenagers were not. Our campsite at Florence Falls meant we could cool off all day in the pools, after quadruple checking the crocodile safety guidance. Plenty of other spots in the area were off limits due to recent sightings, but we had a clever trick: wait until other visitors have swum around for a while, as bait, before deciding whether to get in ourselves. When there was no one else about, Chelsea urged Dan in first. Just in case.

(What even is a ‘Crocodile Management Area’ and how do they maintain it?!)

We used the Falls as a backdrop for more engagement ring photos (some more serious than others). And we also discovered that Chelsea has never learned how to shoot a water spout from her mouth. This from someone who spends all of their spare time in a swimming pool 🤔 apparently that's what happens if you spend your childhood reading.

Next stop: Kakadu...Read more