The Magnetic Termites and Another Waterhole

This morning after breakfast we went to the Termite Mounds for a ranger guided talk. Ranger Sarah was extremely informative and gave us an indepth talk on the magnetic and cathedral termites (these are not the ones that eat your homes!) The magnetic termites build their mounds from North to South, so that the walls face east and west to maintain temperature and humidity within the mound. It does not mean that you can stick a fork against the mound and it will stay there!! 

The cathedral termites build the large and majestic looking mounds, the folds of which help to maintain the temperature and humidity within the mound. 

The Queen is the most important termite within the mound with her sole job being to reproduce, which she does at about 30,000 per day, however when she dies, so do her millions of children, just like that! Then the mound dies too, and eventually will crumble back down into the soil. Ranger Sarah stayed on and answered heaps of our other questions too, so all up it was a really educational experience for all of us!

We returned to camp for lunch then hiked with the Sydney crew to Buley Rockpool. This was a great hike, pretty much concreted all the way, and totally rewarding when we arrived to find around five pools of water, each with a waterfall leading to the next. 

It was so picturesque and very popular. The only thing was it was at this point we realised our waterproof camera is not very waterproof, hence the poor photo quality! The pools were so deep Troy went snorkelling, and found three pairs of sunglasses. One of these was a pair of mirrored Oakleys perhaps from the eighties era! Ronan thinks they're a bit of alright!! We stayed here for ages, then hiked back to Florence Falls for a quick dip there before heading back to camp. 

This campsite we have enjoyed immensely. Complete with toilets and hot showers this has been a great stay at Litchfield National Park.