The Lost City & Magnetic Termite Mounds

We’ve gotten the hang of the hot weather here. Get up early, go for a bush walk (it’s too hot to ‘hike’), have a picnic lunch at a swimming hole (plunge pool in Australian), then carry on with the walk while we are damp and cool.

When planning our visit to this park, two places intrigued us: the Lost City (pillars of rocks amid an otherwise flat landscape) and the magnetic termite mounds. Having a 4-wheel drive rental allowed us to make the 45-minute drive down the dirt road to the Lost City. It was well worth the bumpy ride, especially since Nance spotted an emu for us in the woods, and it had a young one. It got away before we could get the cameras organized.

The Lost City pillars of sandstone and quartz are the last stubborn rock remains of an eroded plateau — dating to a time when the area was covered in water. There was a nice trail around the formations, and as we’ve done so many times now, we struck up a conversation with a traveling retired Australian couple and their daughter with her baby. It’s great to hear where they’ve been or what highlights they’ve seen, and also to hear about their travels in America, as many have.

After the Lost City, it was on to Florence Falls, for our daily dip. This pool had two waterfalls, and for some reason, one was warm, while the other was comfortably cool like the pool. We had hiked (oops, walked) a loop trail to the pool, and on the way back, Darryl spotted a wallaby in the bush. This was a rock wallaby, that lives among the crevices and caves of the eroded sandstone. Our photo here is using the magnify photo feature to highlight the little critter, so hopefully it comes out okay.

Our last destination for the day was to the magnetic termite mounds. We’d seen many large termite mounds in various places in Australia, but in this location, a species of termite builds its mound more two-dimensionally (tall and flat), oriented with each flat side facing east and west. During the cool parts of the day, it can live on the warmer side of its structure, and when it gets hot, it moves to the cool side. The termite is blind, so it isn’t sensing sunlight to orient its mounds. Scientists think they can sense the earth’s magnetic poles. Experiments were done to artificiality change magnetic north-south and the termites built mounds to the artificial poles. Crazy!

Finally, we retired to our great Airbnb house with many porches and outdoor seating areas to watch the birds around the yard. The Lorikeet photo is courtesy of Nance’s great camera and photo skills.Read more