Day 11: Newcastle Waters to Mataranka

Today we only had a three hour drive. First stop was the Daly Waters pub. There were quite a few people having breakfst there even at 9:30am. Has a lot of character and apparantly good barra and steaks at night.  The pub has a great collection of bras and T-shirts hanging from different places - too early in the day to have a beer.

We also visited an historic tree near the pub where explorer John McDougall Stuart was supposed to have carved an 'S' in the bark back in the late 1800s - not much to see.

After Daly Waters, we passed through Larrimah where there is another historic pub and finally got to Mataranka around 11am. You have a choice ofd staying at two van parks or Mataranka Homestead. Two of the van parks are on the Bitter Springs road and we stayed in the one about 3km from the Springs because it had plenty of green grass and shade - 'Territory Manor'.

After lunch we went and had a swim at Bitter Springs - it was flooded within the last couple of weeks but it was still nice - warm water at 32 degrees with a beautiful green colour caused by the local limestone. The spring is surrounded by palm trees. We got in the shaded water and drifted on our noodles for 10 minutes before walking back along the path and doing it again.  One thing- the area smelt - a bit like Rotorua in New Zealand. I think it always has a fragrance but it was accentuated by the rotting palm fronds and vegetation after the floods.

Upon our return from Bitter Springs, we had a cold spa in the spa pool in the caravan park.

We are staying two nights here which gives us a bit of a break. Tomorrow we will swim at other thermal pools in the area. (Elsey Station.)

We have again changed our itinerary. After staying here two nights, we are then going to head into Darwin for 4 nights. Hopefully Gary & Joan will join us for a week!!!

Filled up with fuel - $1.79/litre.

Daly Waters Hotel

Caravan Park Mataranka - feeding the barra

Mataranka

Bitter Springs

Bitter Springs