The Most Beautiful Place on Earth (so far).. and toad tales

Hello dear blogsters, tonight's blog begins with the tale of a sweet girl, a grandmother with a mean wacking arm and a little dead cane toad.

Danni was heading off to the loo last night when she spotted her first cane toad. She called us over and Mum sprang into action like a woman possessed. She grabbed a stick and set off after the toad. Uncle John tried to keep up to provide light with his headlamp, whilst sweet little Danni stood back shrieking "KILL IT KILL IT". Every time mum thumped at the toad, it hopped a little further ahead, until finally Mum and Uncle John got co-ordinated and Mum delivered a few dastardly blows. The cane toad promptly turned up its toes. But Mum wasn't to be fooled. It's still alive, she declared, as she poked it with her stick. Danni continued to yell, "KILL IT KILL IT". Eventually the poor toad managed to recover enough to roll back over - but Mum wasn't to be outdone. She wacked with all her might and finally the toad was vanquished. Mum held aloft the poor squashed beast for all to see. Danni recovered her wits and remembered some buddhism at the last minute and muttered something about hoping it gets a nicer life next time. Then Mum and Uncle John performed a funeral service over the rubbish bin..... ashes to ashes, dust to dust and all that.... before dumping the terminated toad in the bin. Not sure what this whole episode says about Mum, Danni or Uncle John - but at least the Northern Territory has one less cane toad to deal with.

Anyway, moving on to this morning. I was feeling decidedly unwell this morning - so took a little while to get moving. Dad was still battling a cold, so he and mum decided to just putter around Batchelor and have a quiet day.

Uncle John kindly offered to drive and he, Danni and I set off to explore more of Litchfield National Park. We headed out on the Sandy Creek Road - interested to see what the first creek crossing would be like as we had been told it can be a bit deep. I was quite glad we were in Uncle John's car - Fred doesn't have a snorkel and I don't think he would have coped. The crossing was good - about 70 cm deep and a good solid base. We got through all right, though a little bit of water did come in the door. The following photo shows the level of the water on the car.

We drove on out to the Blythe Homestead. This fascinating old house (a very generous description of the building) was home to some of the 14 children of the family which owned this station in the early 1900s. The father left the children to live at the house and work the tin mine. He lived back at the station house with his wife and ran the cattle part of the property. Every now and then he went out to take a load of food to the kids - but otherwise they were on their own. The children working this mine started as young as 10 years old. What a hard life!

After exploring the building, we set off for the Sandy Creek Waterfall. On the way, we stopped to look at the giant termite mounds - some of them are just huge!

We set off to walk to the Waterfall - the walk was delightful, following a crystal clear stream alongside some beautiful, tropical forest. On the other side of the track was more open woodland which had recently been burnt. It was fascinating to see the ancient cycad palms beginning the process of regeneration.

When we finally reached the waterfall, we were confronted with one of the most beautiful scenes I have ever been lucky enough to see. The waterfall cascaded down the rocks into a deep, clear plungepool. Danni was into the water so quick she almost left skid marks on the rocks. I soon joined her and we enjoyed being the only two people in this gorgeous pool for a while. Uncle John didn't take too long to get in either. The water was so clear and cool and extremely deep. Danni and I swam out to near the crashing water and enjoyed laying on our backs and looking up at the waterfall above us and the blue, blue sky. It really was a blissful experience. Even Paddy got into the action for a while!

We walked back along the track and drove back through the crossings. Stopping to take some photos of the cars in front and behind us driving through the water.

We stopped off at Greenant Creek for lunch and then went for a look at Tolmer Falls. We really enjoyed the walk up to the head of the falls (golly we should be fit with all this walking).

By the time we got back to the car, we were pretty hot, so we headed down to the Bulgey Rockholes. This wonderful set of cascades and plunge pools were such fun to swim in. Danni and I sat under the waterfall and enjoyed the back massage. Danni also tried to do a salmon impersonation and leap up the falls - without success. This swim ended a really enjoyable day out!

Hi to Ed and Jenny - great to hear from you - thanks for the email.

Hello also to Kerry and Katelyn, who are following Danni's trip from Bellingen.