It was sad, but we were finally leaving Kakadu today.  However, leaving Merl this morning there were sighs of releaf coming from the car as we waved goodby and good riddance to swarms of mozzies that tried to follow our dust as we left.  There was unanimous agreement that this was voted as the most unpleasant camp sites so far.

Today was a travel day as we made our way to Litchfield National Park. There was a quick stop at Mamukala Wetland, a bird hide overlooking water plants as far as the eye could see.

On the map the shortest way to Litchfield involved taking the Marrakai Road between Arnhem highway and Stuart Highway.  There was not much info on the condition of the track.  The best Google could give me was that the Marrakai River crossing was a good spot for fishing but 2 years ago there was a 4 metre salty with three legs lurking in the pools. Sounds a good spot for a lunch spot. The track ended up being a well graded dirt road with a couple of ankle high water crossings.

We made the National Park with the aim of a couple of nights at Florence Falls.  For those that are thinking of camping here the campsite with 4WD access only has a small number of sites (8 or 9) and has bollards every where.  This campsite was full so we made our way to the adjacent 2WD site and luckily got the last one (also only 12 sites but atleast it does not have the stupid bollards).  

After setting up camp it was still 30 deg at 5pm so we made our way down to Florrence Falls for a swim. Walking down the 135 steps to get to the base of the falls you enter a beautiful tree lined creek with the sound of crashing water echoing against the rock walls.  At the end is a cascading wall of white water and a crystal clear deep pool at the bottom. 

Being late in the day we had the pools to ourselves as we dove in to the cool water to wash off the dust and sweat and sooth the mosquito bites from yesterday.

A quiet camp fire and bed.