Daly Waters, Mataranka, Katherine

Devils Marbles  30/05/12

We had a bit of a leisurely start to the day, with one last jump on the jumping pillows for Braydon. We then made our way out of Alice Springs heading for the Devils Marbles again. We stopped at Ti-Tree for lunch before arriving at the Devils Marbles at 3pm. It is just amazing how many caravans are starting to head north. We had 40 caravans and campers jammed into the camping area, which is one of Braydons favourites. We had time to again climb over all the rocks and have a look around. The resident dingo was also hanging around again. The weather has finally got a little warmer at 22 deg, with the wind finally starting to drop down. We travelled 404km today, and it cost $6.60 for the night.

Banka Banka  31/05/12

We left the National Park by 10am and headed up the road to get fuel at Tennant Creek ($1.75/L). After refilling, we drove a little further and had lunch at the Three Ways Roadhouse. We then had a short drive up to Banka Banka (camps No. 91), which is a cattle station that lets caravans stay on a grassy oval for $20 a night. There were about 26 campers in the station, along with a Japanese man who is pushing a kart with all his possessions, who is walking around the world. So far he has spent 3 years walking, and he does about 80km a day walking from 5am to 5pm. He camps in paddocks along the road at night. We passed him while we were driving today, and he is on the way to Darwin. There is no power, but plenty of water at this camping spot, so everyone, including Craig, were washing their cars and caravans. It was actually pretty funny to see. There was a community camp fire at night, which we all sat around after dinner until the kids had to go to bed. We travelled

Daly Waters  01/06/12

We left Banka Banka at 9am & headed for Daly Waters. There is a little bit more water starting to appear in the creeks and waterholes which we haven’t seen for a while. There are still lots of caravans on the road heading north. We saw our Japanese friend walking along the road, & he had done 22km in about 4 hours. We stopped at Elliott for morning tea, which is a town that is very scary with a lot of houses without any doors, windows or anything else. The caravan park had barbed wire around the fence; not that we stayed there. We arrived at Daly Waters at around 1.30pm, which is just a really old quirky pub in the middle of nowhere, but it has got a great reputation for their meals and evening show. The caravan park attached to the pub filled up pretty quickly with about 50 caravans coming in. We booked our evening meal at the pub, and had a look around the pub which is covered in hats, bras, panties and other odds & ends. Every spare position on the walls and ceiling was covered. We had our evening meal - the speciality being Beef and Barramundi. We both had what they called ½ and ½, which was a good size bit of steak along with a good size fillet of Barramundi. They then had a buffet style salad bar with an amazing range of salads and some damper, all for $27 a person. This would have to be the best meal Craig has had in a long time (no offence to Di’s cooking). We stayed for a little while at the show & really loved it. The guy was a typical Aussie drover, & had a fantastic sense of humour. He also sung some songs with his guitar. It cost $24 a night to stay there, and we travelled 306km today. We had a shower of rain overnight – our first lot of rain so far.

Mataranka  02/06/12

Today we had an easy run of 169km. We left Daly Waters at 9.30am and arrived about lunch time at Mataranka. We stayed at the Territory Manor Motel / Caravan Park which cost $30 a night, which is a nice park with grassy sites & power and water. There were peacocks everywhere. Twice a day they do fish feeding in their dam where they have some huge Barramundi which they hand feed. In the afternoon we went to the Mataranka thermal pool, which is in Elsey National Park. It is a naturally heated spring that they have dammed into a pool that is springfed at a lovely 34 deg. It is a magic spot as the pool is surrounded by palm trees. We all had a fantastic swim, and Aaron had a great time.

03/06/12

This morning we caught up with the washing and the usual chores. We were having lunch when the peacocks came around and Braydon had much delight in feeding them. We then blew up Braydons Big Red Wiggles Boat ready for a swim at Bitter Springs (also in Elsey National Park). This is another natural thermal spring that flows at a nice leisurely pace along a palm tree lined stream that is about 5 meters wide and about 2 metres deep, with a white sandy bottom and crystal clear water. You hop in the stream at one end and float downstream a couple of hundred metres through beautiful scenery of palm trees and reeds, only to hop out & walk back and do it all over again. We had Braydon and Aaron in the blow up boat and Di and I floated along with them. A couple of times Braydon floated down on a blow up ring. We must have done it about 5 times, all loving the experience. We then decided to go back to the Mataranka thermal pool, about an 8km drive away, to have one last swim in this pristine place. On the walk out we saw a 3m Olive Python making its way next to the path. We have all had a fantastic time at Mataranka.

Katherine  04/06/12

We had a very leisurely drive this morning, as we left Mataranka at 10am and we were at Katherine by 11.15am. We only had to do 112km today, which seemed to not take much time at all. In fact the kids didn’t even get through 1 DVD. We set up camp at the Big 4 Katherine, which is about 7km out of town, but it is nice and quiet as it is not on a main road like some of the other parks. It cost $45 a night. Katherine is a lovely clean town with all the conveniences. We set up camp, and then did some grocery shopping, and then came back & had a look around the park. It is amazing how you run into the same people time and time again at these parks. You might not see them for a while, and then you run into them again. Unfortunately there has not been a huge amount of kids at these parks for Braydon to play with, but Braydon makes friends with anyone. We booked a tour for tomorrow of Katherine Gorge.

05/06/12  Katherine Gorge Boat Cruise.

We booked the Katherine Gorge 3 gorge, 4hr boat cruise for today. We booked the 1pm tour so Aaron could have a sleep in the morning. So we travelled 27km in to Katherine (Nitmiluk) Gorge National Park. We had a picnic lunch at the gorge so we were ready for when the cruise started. It was another beautiful day with not a cloud in the sky. We boarded the boat with about 30 other tourists, and made our way up the first gorge with the tour director giving a commentary on the area. After a few kilometres the river came to some rapids, so everyone got off the boat, had a small walk on a path past some aboriginal rock art (with the tour guide explaining the meanings), and then hopped on a different boat to go up the second gorge. The second gorge was a little shorter than the first. When it came to an end, the same process was repeated; we went on a short walk to the third gorge & hopped on a different boat. The third gorge was shorter still (there are 13 gorges altogether). On reaching the end of the third gorge - another impassable rocky area - the boat turned around and let us off at a waterfall and swimming hole. Some people went swimming but the water was too cold for us. We had afternoon tea there, and then after about 30mins we hopped back on the boat and went back the same way we came. It was a fantastic cruise with lovely scenery, & we had the added bonus of seeing 4 fresh water crocodiles. They still had traps out to try and catch saltwater crocs from the wet season, as they come up when the river is in flood. The gorge river is closed to swimming and canoeing for at least another week until the ranges are confident there is no longer a risk of saltwater crocs in the area. During the wet season the river rises about 15 meters, and the tours are by power boat that takes 40mins instead of 4hrs.

06/06/12 

This morning we had a look at the Springvale Homestead, which is the oldest original homestead in the NT. After lunch Braydon went for a bike ride to practice again riding without his training wheels. Finally he has enough confidence to do it, & came back and said that he didn’t need them anymore & wanted to put them in the bin. So Craig happily obliged. We then took him to the park to play on the swings, & then headed back to the National Park to do one of the walks. First of all we had a look at the Nitmiluk Centre - full of interesting facts & information about the area. We did the Baruwei Walk, which is a 1.8km return walk that takes you to a lookout with lovely views of the Katherine River & Gorge. There were 3 boats that went past us while we were at the lookout, & Braydon was pleased to receive many waves from the tourists. On the way home we had a Maccas icecream as a reward for Braydon being able to ride his bike without training wheels. Katherine is also filled with smoke at the moment as there are bush fires to the south of us being fuelled by big winds.

07/06/12

This morning we caught up on washing – again, & Braydon practiced riding his bike. This afternoon we went to the Katherine Hot Springs. They comprise of a number of crystal clear pools winding through the trees at a constant temperature of 27deg.  We had a great time there relaxing and swimming in the pools. We bought Aaron his own little floating chair, so he also had fun. On the way home we filled up the car with fuel at $1.52c/L which was a bargain. Apparently fuel is cheaper at Katherine than it is at Darwin. We also booked some accommodation for the first time in Darwin as the V8 Supercars are there next weekend, and we have heard that all the accommodation is filling up fast. We have booked in for 8 nights at the Free Spirit Caravan Park. We had dinner at the caravan park restaurant tonight as they put on a guest singer every night and the meals are quite nice.