Our next planned stop was the Douglas Daly Hot Springs called Tjuwaliyn by the traditional owners of the area – this was a sacred womens only site however the Traditional Owners now welcome all visitors to enjoy the hot springs…lucky for Andrew.

Camp at Douglas Daly

After leaving the gorgeous camping at Leilyn Falls it was shock to arrive at the dusty dry sunny hot camp grounds at Douglas Daly however out of the camp ground and down to the springs and you could forgive the camps short comings the springs is a natural hot spring feeds into a creek that has some really hot patches up to 45’C and some cooler patches where it was pleasant to just sit and relax.

The warm water was really relaxing but in some patches too hot to sit down! We all enjoyed a relaxing afternoon in the warm. The children met some girls in the pool and they had fun painting their faces with mud.

Back at camp whilst cooking dinner we met the neighbour and he turned out to be an Australian Champion stock whip cracker…’Crackerjack’ he pulled out his two stock whips and showed us some of his tricks – you meet all sorts of people on the road. Aaron was very impressed and had a go at cracking the whip.

Crackerjack teaching Aaron to crack his whip

After packing up we all had another brief soak in the hot pools before heading to Butterfly Gorge only a short walk and supposed to be home to many butterflies but the gorge was stagnant and very green. We saw a few butterflies on the walk which was a lovely stroll along the river through a tall stand of paper barks. Then it was on the way to Litchfield NP.

Butterfly Gorge

Butterfly Gorge too green for swimming.

A huge termite mound at our lunch stop