Day 37: Litchfield National Park, bonus vehicle update

Today we took on the less famous sights in Litchfield, then when it got too hot, we just sat on a rock in the pool under Florence Falls for an hour or two.

The Lost City 

 

First up was a rough 4WD track out to the Lost City, then a walk to Tolmah Falls, then a longer walk to Tjaetaba Falls. Then we went to find Litchfield Café (at the end of the road) but it has closed down. We dropped into Wangi Falls Café for a Gaytime then headed back to camp, got changed and sat in the plunge pool under Florence Falls until the campsite was in enough shade to prepare dinner.

Tolmah Falls

Tjaetaba Falls

Vehicle update: 

I have now seen a few new Defenders (all full-size 4-door versions), and more than a few old ones. I saw a very dirty new one in Kununurra that looked like it had just done the Gibb River Road, another that was towing a caravan in that direction, and one today that was just wrong. It was the luxury version with ALL the options (snorkel, roof racks, recovery boards etc.) but had the big alloy wheels (not as good for serious off road) and because it was the luxury version, it probably had carpet (ours is plastic all the way through so it can be mopped out), and – it was so clean! Typical NSW driver – probably never took it off the bitumen. 

Now that the speeds have slowed down (80 around the parks and I stuck to around 100 coming in from Nitmiluk) and I have access to premium petrol, my fuel consumption is back to what it used to be – below 11L/100km. I am sure it is all about wind resistance (i.e. speed) because when I was trying to drive around 120-130 (NT limit is 130) it was noisy, felt like driving with a parachute, and my fuel consumption was around 16-17.

 

Having a petrol engine (and one that takes premium petrol) wasn’t as bad as I thought as nearly every station had petrol and the only places we sometimes couldn’t get premium were on remote dirt roads (Oodnadatta, Tanami, Gibb River) but a little octane booster and the engine never missed a beat (even without the booster a few times). And the little engine had more than enough power to overtake road trains at over 130kph without any trouble. I still have it booked in for a “check-up” in Darwin – I am hoping they will offer to clean it for me.

My recommendation for a vehicle for this trip is still a Toyota (in any form, but I am surprised at how many Prados there are around - nearly as many as the full version), mainly for reliability and easy servicing and parts, but I have noticed that by far, Isuzu is the next most common make. I don’t know much about them, but based on the number of them, they must be pretty good value for money and/or reasonably reliable. I know that Kim recently bought one, and he knows what he is doing. If, like me, you love Land Rover Defenders, then get the 100 (4-door) and the base diesel version. The extra half metre boot space in the 4-door makes it much more practical when it comes to lugging things around and having more than 2 people on board. The only advantage of the 90 (2-door) is that it turns tight, is easy to park and looks much cooler. And the diesel, mainly because you can drive it 20% further without filling up, and it is easier to get fuel in remote places. Apart from that, all these modern engines have great power and torque and if you drive steady like I do, you won’t notice the difference between them. Although if you were towing a big caravan, I would probably get the petrol or diesel 6 cylinder, not the 4-cylinder 2 litre petrol that we have (even though it is rated to tow 3,500kg).