We are off to attend the Gold rush festival in Pine Creek but want to spend a few nights at Coomalie Park, at the entrance to Litchfield National park, and maybe do a few of the tourist highlights while we are there. Its just under 100k's from Darwin to Coomalie Park, so arrive just after 11am, and its nothing more than a big field with some primitive amenities (why it only costs $20 a night) so we book in for 2 nights. I get the dinner ready while Tommy installs the reversing camera screen and some of the cabling to the car. After dinner we have a walk around the camp site and explore the wee creek behind us but are scared of going too near the water in case of crocs. When we get back we watch a video while I get into my crocheting.... yep an early night again.
Next day we decide to take a drive to the Magnetic Termite Mounds everyone has told us about. All through the drive up the centre we have seen termite mounds of various size and shape(some dressed up too!) but have been told the ones at Litchfield are amazing and are in their hundreds in some parts. We take the turning for the termite mounds and discover there is a lookout just before it and park and walk to the boardwalk.... Awesome! Its like a giant cemetery.... ok that doesn't sound awesome but when you think about it, this is giant mounds made of mud and tiny ants saliva(some 6 to maybe 10 feet high), it truly is awesome! You can see from the photos that the sun was pretty much down when we are taking photos but it made it even more spectacular with al of the shadows.
The tourist books say "Built by termites, they are amazing architectural feats complete with arches, tunnels, chimneys, insulation and nursery chambers. The mounds are aligned north to south to minimise the exposure to the sun. You will experience seeing numerous Termite mounds when you visit the Northern Territory, but Litchfield National Park and especially the formal viewing board walk and platform is a perfect place to see both specimens."
Then its back to camp and we get ourselves all packed up ready for an early off to get to Pine Creek for the festival.
The tourist books say "Built by termites, they are amazing architectural feats complete with arches, tunnels, chimneys, insulation and nursery chambers. The mounds are aligned north to south to minimise the exposure to the sun. You will experience seeing numerous Termite mounds when you visit the Northern Territory, but Litchfield National Park and especially the formal viewing board walk and platform is a perfect place to see both specimens."
Then its back to camp and we get ourselves all packed up ready for an early off to get to Pine Creek for the festival.
We are up and off by the crack of dawn, about 7am, but didn't reckon it was quite so far so don't arrive at Pussy Cat Flats until 8.30am! Thats the name of the caravan site we have organised to meet Carron & Pete at, its an old race track just a few kilometers from Pine Creek. We are parked just along from them and just as we are setting up we spot a cowboy walking his horse. Caron & Pete tell us its a family with some horses(grazing in the centre of the racetrack) who live in a huge bus which includes a horse box big enough for their 3 horses and a pony. We get parked up and go to have a cuppa with them before heading of for the Gold mining festival.
Pine creek is a small gold mining town now with a few tourist attractions and old mines to check out, we head for the park just before the centre of town where they have setup the market and the Gold Panning competitions. There is a creek running through the park and they have setup some cordoned off places in the creek for the guys to get in and pan for some gold. All around there are remnants of the old way of obtaining gold, pumps, steam engines tanks etc all around the park the event is taking place in. Tommy loves all this stuff and has a great time telling me what they are and what they would have been used for. Tommy paid for a shot at the Gold panning, wasn't long before he had found some small specs of gold! They had setup a long trough with water filled half with dirt from the creek and had added some flakes of gold to make sure you got a taste for finding it.... Tommy loved it and had tried it at Ballarat, so was pretty good! He now has a wee tube with some gold at the bottom!
Pine creek is a small gold mining town now with a few tourist attractions and old mines to check out, we head for the park just before the centre of town where they have setup the market and the Gold Panning competitions. There is a creek running through the park and they have setup some cordoned off places in the creek for the guys to get in and pan for some gold. All around there are remnants of the old way of obtaining gold, pumps, steam engines tanks etc all around the park the event is taking place in. Tommy loves all this stuff and has a great time telling me what they are and what they would have been used for. Tommy paid for a shot at the Gold panning, wasn't long before he had found some small specs of gold! They had setup a long trough with water filled half with dirt from the creek and had added some flakes of gold to make sure you got a taste for finding it.... Tommy loved it and had tried it at Ballarat, so was pretty good! He now has a wee tube with some gold at the bottom!
We had a look around the market stalls, then watched the creek gold panning competition and had something to eat. Pete & Caron left early and we had another look around then set off to have a drive to the old open cast gold mine. It was now a lookout and tourist attraction so we wanted to have a look. Tommy had also been told that the road up to it could be used for gold fossicking so we wanted to see what it was like. It was a steep drive but we made it ok! It was a lovely view across what now looked like a beautiful blue lake but was actually the mine filled with water, it said it was 135m deep! There are also some old mine shafts around so had to be careful where we walked.
Drove back to Pussy cat Flats and made some dinner then over to the camp site bar to show my jewellery etc around. There are around 20 or so people and sell some cards, jewellery and bag holders. Early night as Pete and Tommy plan to go Gold fossicking tomorrow.
The boys leave early and Caron & I have said we will meet around 9am fora coffee. I get some washing done, tidy up and she pops over around nine and I cut her hair after coffee. We then head into town to see what the local market is like. Disappointment! There are around 3 stalls so we just turn around and go back to camp. We decide to do our own thing and relax, I ended up taking a cycle around the race course to take a look at the termite mounds around the edge of the track... fascinating! As you can see from the photos the track is really just dirt and only used occasionally.
The boys leave early and Caron & I have said we will meet around 9am fora coffee. I get some washing done, tidy up and she pops over around nine and I cut her hair after coffee. We then head into town to see what the local market is like. Disappointment! There are around 3 stalls so we just turn around and go back to camp. We decide to do our own thing and relax, I ended up taking a cycle around the race course to take a look at the termite mounds around the edge of the track... fascinating! As you can see from the photos the track is really just dirt and only used occasionally.
Tommy & Pete arrived back around lunch time all smiles and stories to tell! They had done a bit of 4 wheel driving to some sites from an old map Caron had found on the net and had great fun. They had gone to Margaret diggings, an Oasis near Mt Bundey,an open mine which had been flooded and of course visited a pub called The Ban Ban pub!
Lots of stories but not much to show! A button, a knife and a nail! Pete found some bullets and a horseshoe!
They were sunburned and tired so they took a nap and we got ready and went to dinner at the pub as its a Sunday roast tonight. Had roast Lamb dinner and a beautiful apple crumble and custard sweet! Yummo! We had a great laugh and sat around chatting till 9.30 then off to bed as Caron & Pete head off in the morning.
Lots of stories but not much to show! A button, a knife and a nail! Pete found some bullets and a horseshoe!
They were sunburned and tired so they took a nap and we got ready and went to dinner at the pub as its a Sunday roast tonight. Had roast Lamb dinner and a beautiful apple crumble and custard sweet! Yummo! We had a great laugh and sat around chatting till 9.30 then off to bed as Caron & Pete head off in the morning.
Next day we were up early to see Caron & Pete off and then ventured into the town for some supplies before we take off tomorrow to Kakadu. That night we are having dinner outside the van when we heard the camp site dog whimpering and crying. we looked over to where it was lying in his bed and he was looking out towards the centre of the Race track. Then we heard a kind of thunder and felt some vibrations... next thing we look to the right of our van and in the darkness we can just see the outline of around 6 wild brumbys! We get some apples and take a slow walk towards them and get quite close but they are spooked and gallop off... was still a wonderful experience.