25th March, 2022 Mataranka Homestead Resort, Mataranka to King River Rest Area, south of Katherine, NT (exploring Mataranka, Bitter Springs thermal pool)

 Overcast and cooler this morning. We walked down to the croc trap in the Waterhouse River for a flick. No croc in the trap, just the smelly ‘bait’. 

No Barra just rubbish and a fire where someone had killed and cooked three turtles.

We put the camper back onto the truck then headed down for a swim. Chatted with the two guys of Wild Aussie Adventures. They had been down for a swim last night with a torch and camera and spotted more turtles then a water python eyeing off a little turtle for breakfast. He said it wasn’t in the main pool but further up towards towards where the spring is. I will be keeping an eye out any case.

Had a cuppa and washed my hair as the water isn’t very soft on it. Back to the highway then south to check out the Elsey Cemetery. We turned off the highway into Warloch Station and there were a few signs warning trespasses not to shoot etc. 8km later we came to the cemetery but we continued a bit further to the site of the homestead.

Back to the cemetery. This sign is not in good condition but the other ones are great. We wandered through to the end to where Aeneas Gunn is buried and his wife’s memorial plaque is.

Headed back - two wallabies had a near miss with our front wheels as they darted out of the long grass beside the narrow road.

Back to Mataranka where we topped up the diesel from the other service station that gives a 5c/l discount if you have stayed at the Homestead. Shame we didn’t know about this the other day as that was the big fill-up. 

We parked and wandered over to the Museum which is $3 to enter. They have added more exhibits recently. I picked up a free copy of another book about Dolly Bonson. They had a book for sale with both “We of the Never Never” and ‘The Little Black Princess” so I bought that too.              

I learnt something new - the squiggles on the furphy water tank are shorthand. Mum would have been able to read it. We found diaries where she had written everything in shorthand.

Another room had old furniture etc.

An old truck from WW2 and a bomb and canteens. Steve remembers having those canteens as part of his hiking stuff in Boys Brigade that he bought from the army surplus stores. There is also a train carriage and information about the importance of the railway in the war.

The statues from ‘We of the Never Never’.

In another room was more WW2 info and photos.

Interesting to read that Rainbow Spring was dug out by the soldiers to make the swimming pool. They had called it the Officer’s Pool. Steve remembers the pool being smaller when we were there 30 years ago and the chap there said the National Parks had made it bigger by going further down the creek.

Lots of things on display too.

And we think we have it tough on the road!

The railway - had to take a photo of this engine, named “Leaping Lena”.

Last section as we head out. We are learning more about our country - didn’t realise NT only got its right to self-govern in 1978. Great photo of a helicopter mustering - skilled pilots.

Across the road is a ‘termite mound’ that isn’t made of dirt.

As we walked back to the truck I spotted two birds. I asked one of the locals sitting under the tree what type of bird it is and she didn’t have a clue. She asked one of the others and they are Brolgas. I didn’t realise they had the red stripe across their heads. They certainly weren’t worried about people as there were plenty about sitting under the trees - calling to each other etc. They found a puddle of water and had a drink.

We had lunch listening to all the ‘conversations’ and watching the antics under one of the trees. It looked like a bit of gambling was happening as there coins being thrown onto a rug etc. One boy walked up to one of the brolgas who stood his ground and stared back at the boy. The brolga won as the boy got told to leave it alone.

Further up the road is an art gallery and cafe that doesn’t look operational. A statue of ‘Fizzer’ stands outside.

Across the car park was the site of the railway line.

A big fence is around the Stan Martin Park and it is an alcohol free zone. There is a lovely big strangler fig (Banyan tree) in it.

At the other end of the park are the bronze statues from We of the Never Never and one of an aboriginal stockman. They were watering this area so I couldn’t get in.

Steve had walked back and got the truck so picked me up and we continued down the side road to Bitter Springs. It is on the northern end of the Elsey National Park.

All the palms appear to have been burnt recently and of course all the frongs are pushed around the bases from the recent flood.

We walked out onto the first platform and read the info boards. There is a lot more water flowing from these springs but it doesn’t appear to be moving here. It is a bit smelly too but the lilies like it. The water is so clear.

We walked to the steps down into the water and chatted with a couple of guys who are going to Darwin to work on a pearl lugger.

I hopped in first and sat on my ‘noodle’ and drifted down the creek. It is not as nice as the other one but of course more natural. Had to keep moving the ‘scum’ away which wasn’t so pleasant. I got to the first landing and got out but didn’t have my thongs so had to carefully walk back over the rocky path to the other platform where the concrete path starts at the bridge. Back to Steve so he could float down.

I walked around the path to meet him. He kept going to the second steps near the bridge. The creek narrows from here and disappears under the pandanus palms. Zoomed in on one of the fruit - Terry had told Erica these were pineapples when they were dating.

We followed the path around to another lookout platform. Had to believe this had a big flush out 3 weeks ago as the scum etc seems to have been here for ages.

I had on my ‘poncho’ that I made from a sarong Erica and Terry had used occasionally in their caravan as a tablecloth. It had the same one but orange with white geckos. I decided to make it into a poncho to wear over my togs - works well.

As we headed back to the truck we realised we hadn’t walked over another bridge to get over the water so we back tracked through the bush to where we could hear water flowing in rapids. We found a small area where the water was seeping out and bubbling out of the ground and we could hear a bigger rapid on the other side but it was too mucky to get across. We had passed a lagoon on the way here near the caravan park so the spring must start further up.

As we drove out we noticed lines of red ant hills along a fence line, like the owner planted them there. I got a photo of these before they disappeared and then the ant hills became a lighter grey.

Steve commented on the water tower as he had read in the museum how they had to take down the powerlines etc to get it down the street.

We headed north again on the Stuart Highway to King River Rest Area. It is named after the river a bit to the north of here. We stopped here in Dec 2019 on our way home when it was very hot. No cold water in our tank for a cool shower either. Washed our togs out as the water smelt quite sulphurish. Had a cuppa then relaxed. I wrote some more blog up. Been a busy time.

Cooked dinner then played a few games of Rummykub till the bugs drove us nuts. It is amazing how they can wiggle their way in through the fly mesh. I gave the screen a spray and that kept them at bay for a bit.