Day 11 - 8th August - Litchfield National Park: Wangi Falls (Part 2)
Next was Tabletop Swamp.
Map of Litchfield. The places accessible by dotted lines were 4WD-only. Another place that sounded interesting we had to miss out on was the Bamboo Creek Tin Mine.
A true swamp
Tabletop Swamp
More of the swamp
I didn't notice the birds that were supposed to be there - it was just a swamp.
Next was Wangi Falls.
Area Map
"Disabled Shared BBQ (sic)"
How considerate
Nice crocs vs nasty ones
The pond at Wangi Falls was very civilized:
Infrastructure
Wangi Falls. It sure beats Kota Tinggi
Not quite Ursula Andress
On the walk and viewing platforms
We set off on the Wangi Loop Walk.
On bats
On fishes
Spider on the Water
Plunge pool
As a good economist, I believed that if there were saltwater crocodiles in the pool, they'd have had attacked someone already.
Wangi Falls
On the Monsoon Forest
Path
On Golden Orb spiders (this is why I walked behind MR on the trail)
Noisy rainforest
Flower show
Pigeon tucker
We climbed up the platform to view the Canopy
View of forest below from above the falls
"The upper section of Wangi Falls can be dangerous. It is also an important Aboriginal cultural site. You may not enter this area without a permit"
No prizes for guessing which reason is more important
River feeding Wangi Falls
Rock pools
Link Walk sign
Mini waterfall
Bricked stream
At the end of the walk, we found a food stand that the guy at Mt Bundy had told us to avoid.
Chicken is cheaper than the vegetarian option hmm
This read like "LitchfieldAffairs.com.au". Also the open top was a recipe for sunburn
I found shoes with swimwear amusing
After the trek, I took a swim in the Wangi Falls pond. There was a woman swimming in a bra and women swimming with sunglasses.
I tried out the waterfall jacuzzi and it was very shiok. However I couldn't go directly under the main flow of the waterfall as its fullforce was too strong.
We next proceeded to Litchfield Cafe for:
"Our World Famous Homemade Mango Cheesecake"
There was a German girl at the counter who was, of course, on a working holiday. She said it was mostly French and Germans on them (though I saw a lot more Germans than French on this leg). I speculated that the tourist industry would collapse without them.
"If you do not have a book to exchange do not take any. English only. No romances"
People can't follow instructions
Sadly the cafe was out of crocodile, so I settled for kangaroo again.
"Wimmers Double Sarsaparilla"
This was alright on the first sip, but I soon found that it had a flat middle- and aftertaste. It was also a bit flat and lacked complexity, and tasted a bit medicinal. Perhaps a single would've been better. The reason they lasted 100 years: there was no Sarsi as competition (I acknowledge A&W Root Beer is an inappropriate comparison as it's not in the same category)
Lunch. This was the small chips serving and everything cost $25.50. The 'salad' being iceberg lettuce in the burger. And the kangaroo was bland like my previous kangaroo.
The place was really expensive - even more so than Kings Canyon (the kiosk) if you wanted chips, in fact. It'd been recommended by the guy at Mt Bundy instead of the food stand earlier - maybe he got commission.
"World Famous" Mango Cheesecake. I bet no one not from the Litchfield area knew about it. That said it was quite good, almost as bursting in flavour as Orchard Hotel's Mango cake, though not as light (but it was cheesecake). There was also a $1 surcharge for takeaway ($7.50 in all - not as overpriced as the other things, methinks).
Victim blaming!
Ghost bats sign
"Rocks created in water"
"Homes amongst the rock"
There were some birds flying into the car. How come wallabies were smarter?