We camped at Flora River Nature Park over the weekend. It is around 130km from Katherine, 90km down the Victoria Highway towards Kununarra then 40km on a reasonable gravel track to the national park. Pretty good access suitable for a quick weekend camp out of Katherine. The gravel track passes a few floodways and creeks but they aren’t steep and are suitable for 2WDs and caravans. One crossing still had water. As we drove through we spotted a fresh water crocodile, but it disappeared too quickly for a photo. First one we’ve seen, despite having swam in quite a few fresh water crocodile areas. They are elusive. Flora River is not a national park as I originally blogged. I’ve since removed all references to “national.”

Spent most of the time relaxing around camp, Joe did some barra fishing, lost two lures and caught no fish, cooked up another sensational camp oven chicken roast. Joe saw bush tucker man eat green ants on one episode, they are everywhere up here so Joe ate some too. You just grab them and bite off the green abdomen. Green ants taste like lemon juice, very powerful sharp tangy flavour, especially considering how small they are. They are too small to provide a meal, it’s more like having a breath mint. The Flora River is beautiful, fringed with tropical forest, and the campsite is another good one, with flushing toilets, showers and wood bbqs set close enough to the water falls that their rumble can be heard on quiet evenings. There is a boat ramp designed especially for tinnies to launch into the Flora River, we have never seen one like it. Further down the road from the boat ramp, the track becomes overgrown. A few km down it ends at another camping area, but it’s overgrown and unmaintained. We saw wildlife including turtles, brown falcons, kangaroos, wallabies and small fish. We saw some turbo charged little wallabies bursting through the bush, to which Sharni coined the term “flash hoppers” due to their extreme speed. We appreciated the camp after going a while camp free. You miss camp life like relaxing by the camp fire and retiring to the tent after being away from it for a while. I think we may return to Flora River Nature Park during our stay in Katherine, its a nice spot and not too far away, good for a weekend getaway.