What is as big as a foot-long Subway and always faces North?

This is a “chimney” on a Cathedral Termite Mound

Well to tell you the answer to that, I need to give you a little more information first.

Continuing on from my previous blog about Jumping Crocodiles on our day tour with Litchfield Escapes in the Northern Territory, our next stop was the Giant Termite Mounds.

Magnetic Termite Mounds have their thin edges facing north to south.

We saw two different types – Magnetic Termite Mounds and Cathedral Termite Mounds.

The Magnetic Mounds (let’s just call them MM’s for short) stand up to 2 metres tall and can be over 100 years old – so taller and older than any of us! They are named MM’s because every single mound is built with their thin edges pointing north to south, which keeps the temperature inside regulated all year.  Pretty clever little buggers! 

They are very impressive to see, and when there are a few together they look headstones in a graveyard.

Now, let’s move on to the Subway connection.

The Cathedral Mounds (now called CM’s) can be as tall as 4 metres high.  The difference with these mounds is that the mound acts like a chimney and all the little critters are underground in a honeycomb tunnel system.

The workers in both the MM’s and CM’s are very small. They chew grass and then stick it with dirt, their saliva, wee and poo to make the mound.  The Queen termite lives a long time and because she is protected from fire, drought and floods and the temperature is always at 22 degrees, she can grow up to the size – you guessed it – of a chicken teriyaki foot long sub with sweet onion sauce. 

Magnetic mounds look like headstones in a cemetery

We were told that the indigenous people would make a hole in the side of a mound and put their food in, then the termites would seal up the hole and the food would be kept nice and cool until it was needed.

The farmers liked the little fellas too, because they kept the grass down and aerated the soil. Win win all round the mounds!

Who knew that termites could be so interesting.

I will have more on day out with Damo adventure in the next post - and answer that $64,000 question - are there any croc free places to swim in Litchfield National Park and was lunch as good as Damo said it would be?

Had to get the cheesy tourist pic in front of the gigantic Cathedral Termite Mound.