We All Scream for Ice Cream

One of things I like about Singapore is that while it is one of the most modern cities in the world with its over the top architecture and efficient transportation systems, it still keeps on with a little of the old ways.  One of those throwbacks is the ice cream sandwich carts. 

In many high traffic pedestrian areas, like along the Singapore River of by the Marina, you see these carts with their umbrellas.  Usually run by an Uncle (who makes the ice cream sandwich) and the Auntie (who is responsible for taking the money), these carts are SO Singapore.

Unlike an ice cream cart in the US where the attendant would reach into the freezer to pull out a factory made, soggy graham cracker with vanilla ice cream wrapped in foil, the Singapore sandwiches are made fresh and to order.  That means you get to choose the flavor of ice cream you want, along with the type of bread.  For bread your choices are the traditional soft rainbow colored bread, or a crisp wafer cracker (my favorite).

I usually go for a chocolate chip ice cream filling.  The Uncle pulls out the ice cream brick and cuts off a 1 inch slice it his knife.  He quickly slips it between two wafers and hands it to you in a piece for wax paper.  While he was doing that, the Auntie was collecting the $1.50 SGD (about $1.15 USD).  You are quickly on your way.

As you can imagine with the heat of Singapore, you must eat it pretty quickly as you walk along.  Usually it is gone in less than five minutes, but those five minutes are wonderful as the cold creamy ice scream contrast with the crisp wafer.  It will put a smile on anyone’s face.

Litchfield Provided a Rich Field of Sights

The “Top End” was not a phase that I had heard of prior to planning our Chinese New Year’s trip to Darwin.  Everyone said it was the wet season, that it was hot, and what was there to see there anyway.  Well, Singapore is hot and wet this time of the year so we are used to it (not to say that we like it or have adjusted to it, just that we are used to it).  As far as seeing things, we found out about Litchfield National Park, a couple of hour drive south from Darwin.

Our first full day in Darwin, we headed out to see what Litchfield NP was all about. After an easy drive through Darwin we ended up on the Stuart Highway.  This 4-lane divided highway was a breeze to drive, especially considering in Australia, like Singapore, you drive on the wrong side of the road (i.e. the left).  Another thing that was different were all of the small billboards dotting the shoulder side of the road, one right after the other.  But when the road turned to a two-lane highway without a divider, the road signs ended too.

The other odd thing that happened at this point was that the speed INCREASED.  The nice divided highway had a speed limit of 100 kph (62 mph), but the narrower highway with just a white line separating oncoming traffic has a speed limit of 130 kph (80 mph).  One observation though is that people pretty much follow the speed limits exactly, no 10 mph margin of error like in the US.

After passing Bachelor, we entered the Park.  There was a sign, but no formal gate or even a park fee.  As this was the wet season (aka low season) there were few cars at our first stop, the magnetic termite mounds.  Right next to the car park there was a wheelchair friendly path eading to a platform surrounding a cathedral termite mound.  Immense is the word that came to mind—this thing was huge, about 5 meters high.  Nearby was another one which you could get right up to.

Turns out these are about 50 years old.  We had seen quite a few on our drive, but none as big as these.  You could see the termites scurrying and working everywhere.  I was expecting these termites to be the larger wood boring ones we have in the US, but these actually looked like medium sized ants. And the mound was somewhat reminiscent of drip sandcastles we built as kids.

On the other side of the car park was what we came to see—the magnetic termite mounds.  These are completely different from the cathedral variety.  They are not as tall, about 2 meters high, and instead of being a 3 dimensional “blob”, they are like giant wafers or tombstones.  And there were probably close to a hundred spread across a large, green grassed meadow.  In the distance it had a kind of Stonehenge visual quality.

Hats off to the Australian National Parks (would that be Men Without Hats?) for fencing off the area to allow you to view them without people or their impacts.  The park has created an elevated boardwalk to be able to view them well and in the right way.  At this time of the year it means these dusky gray mounds set in a sea of long, green grass.  Beautiful.

The mounds are all oriented in a north/south pattern.  This is to minimize the heat gain from having the hot, Australian sun beating down on a large exposed slab, building up heat inside.  The thing is, the termites that build them are completely blind.  Researchers have found that these termites are able to detect magnetic north and use that ability to orient their building efforts. (Note: researchers tested the theory by placing a large magnet nearby a mound and the mound construction began to alter to this “new north”.)

Back in the car we headed further into the park and wound up at Buley Rockhole.  Like almost all of the pathways in Litchfield, much of the way from the car park to swimming hole was wheelchair accessible making it an easy walk.  In this case there were some steps at the end, but still a good surface to walk on.  And this car park was filled with cars and kids in swimsuits, carrying swimming noodles.

When we got down to the swimming holes we saw a chain of swimming spots, all being enjoyed by kids of all ages.  One had a rock above it that was a popular jumping off spot.  It was a mellow, family experience for a hot day.

We headed up a little further to Florence Falls.  Again there was a good, paved trail leading to a spectacular overlook of the falls.  The falls were flowing into a swimming hole at the bottom.  And the swimming hole was being used by about a dozen people, paddling right up to the churning water.  (We skipped walking down and up the 135 steps from the platform to the swimming hole.)  The falls were surrounded by mixed vegetation, both monsoonal forest with palms and other water intensive plants and cypress pines that prefer a more arid environment.

Now it was time to head to Tolmer Falls.  Tolmer Falls is a long, slender waterfall that falls into a secluded plunge pool that is off limits to people to help a preserve bat nesting area.  There is a nice boardwalk trail (of course) that leads to an observation area.  Besides a good view of the falls, you can look out across the outback, a spectacular, yet subtle view.  We watched as a thunderstorm approached, its rain bands falling.

I always seem to keep a weather eye.  Whether this is from sailing many years ago or from spending a lot of time backpacking I don’t know.  But in this case, it paid off.  As we walked back to the car in a light drizzle I made sure we didn’t dally.    Just as we got to the car we began to feel hard drops beginning to fall.  Seconds later, after we were in the car the skies let loose with a downpour.

As we drove to our next destination it continued to rain hard and the windshield wipers struggled to keep up.  In the US we are always told NOT to drive through water flowing across a road.  In Australia it’s different.  Here there are “Floodways” marked by signs where water is known to flow over the highway.  In addition, there are markers at the low point showing the depth of the water.  They are either 1.4m or 2.0m high which means A LOT of water can collect.  It also means that the Australian attitude is “use your best judgement”.

We didn’t have any significant water to drive through, but there were spots where it was a few inches deep and I was glad that I had rented a full-sized SUV in case things got worse.  When we arrived at Wangi Falls it was still coming down.  We decided to spend some time snacking and try to wait it out.  Julie had caught a glimpse of the falls as we drove through the car park, so at least we could say one of us had seen the falls.

We decided to give up and began to leave when Julie caught another view of the falls.  Then too, the rain stopped almost as quick as it started.  So we drove back through the car park and re-parked.  The paved trails still had a couple of inches of water on them in some places, but it was an easy walk to the falls.

We passed warning signs about being “Crocwise” and they aren’t fooling.  Crocodiles like the water as much as people do and that is not a good mixture.  The water level of the plunge pool was quite high and in case anyone thought it a good idea to ignore the warnings, the rangers had put up temporary fencing to separate the plunge pool crocodiles from would be waders.  This helped make sure that there were no Darwin Award winners in Darwin.

The raised boardwalk path was just a few inches above the water and the falls were thundering from the waters just pouring down.  A heavy mist and wind was in our faces as we stared at the wonder.  There were even small waves, maybe a foot high, generated by the crashing waters.  Spectacular is the only word than can describe what we saw and it is not enough.  We took pictures and a little video, but it still doesn’t capture what we experienced. 

When we got back to the car Christopher, who didn’t want to brave the possibility of getting wet so stayed in the car, told us while he was sitting there he saw a kangaroo hop by.  The kangaroo evidently stopped for a while not realizing he was being watched.  Christopher got a great look.  Leaving the car park we saw a few more along side the road.  These weird animals are common, but fun to see.

It was getting later and we were hungry, so we decided to head back to Bachelor for lunch at a pub there.  As we entered town, we saw a blue miniature castle on a corner.  We actually stopped and looked at it, but for some reason we didn’t take a photo.  Well, the next day we found that it was in the Atlas Obscura website, one of our favorites.  But trust us, we were there! (The other site in the Darwin are was the Darwin Oil Storage Tunnels which were closed for Australia Day when we went to visit them.)

What we did take a picture of on the way back was the giant boxing crocodile in Humpty Doo.  A town with the name of Humpty Doo is just asking for us to drive a few kilometers out of the way.  Add a giant boxing crocodile and there was no way we could pass it up.  It taking the time to do the little things that makes travel so memorable.

We enjoyed exploring The Top End.  Our final night in Darwin we headed to Mindil Beach Casino and Resort.  We normally aren’t casino people, but it was Australia Day and we knew lots of the “regular” restaurants would be closed so we opted for here.  As we sat at the Sandbar sipping our drinks, watching the sunset on the Timor Sea, we talked about our 3 days in NT. 

Bottomline, we had fun.  It wasn’t a must see when you are looking for a place to visit.  But Litchfield NP was a place to see, if you are in the area and love the outdoors. And Darwin had its own history to learn about, especially surrounding WWII and its bombing by the Japanese.   We were happy we went.