I'm starting to get quite excited for a couple of reasons. I'm off to Mataranka to spend some time in the thermal pools that everyone tells me are amazing...plus my daughter and her family are going to be joining me in a few days time and I'll have the next couple of weeks travelling with them 😍
It's now 28th August as I leave Daly Waters and drive the 180kms to Mataranka. I parked my van at Bitter Springs Caravan Park 3kms from Mataranka, in the Elsey National Park close to Bitter Springs thermal pools.
I'd exhausted my supply of contact lens and had arranged to have a new supply delivered to Katherine PO, so as soon as I set up the van I continued on to Katherine, 100kms up the road, to pick them up. Whilst there I did a big food and alcohol shop as there has been very limited availability over the past week or two and Mataranka hasn't got a lot to offer in that regard.
I'm currently listening to some really intriguing audio books so the time driving passes very quickly and driving without the van hitched was quite relaxing. The roads are excellent and straight for quite long stretches.
When I arrived home I walked down to the springs and...
This is what greeted me...as I stepped into the water with my noodle to float down the river about 200 metres...ahh...bliss 🤩
The kids arrived a couple of days later and stayed at Little Roper Stock Camp about 12 kms from me. The stock camp was ideally set up for families and there were lots of fun activities for them. Feeding squirrel gliders, being up close and personal to a menagerie of animals including pigs, cows, horses, dogs, cats, pythons, lizards and snakes and being provided withJohnny cakes by the caravan park owners around the camp kitchen for breakfast. They were also very close to the Mataranka thermal springs swimming pool. 😀 We spent the next few days swapping between the Bitter Springs and Mataranka Springs swimming pools and sightseeing around the area.
Mataranka Springs main pool
"King Karl", Little Roper Stock Camp's pet olive python. It took some coaxing to get Kate there 😟 !!!
The caravan Park owner who does all the activities with the kids...a real NT character!!
Feeding the Squirrel gliders.
We saw the Nathan "Whippy" Griggs whip cracking show at the Mataranka Springs Caravan Park which is a free event and it was amazing. Nathan Griggs is a young Aussie larrikin who holds a number of world records as a whip cracker and makes a living making whips and doing the show 6 nights of the week. He's hilariously funny, very very talented and it was extremely entertaining. He sells his whips and merchandise and hands a busking hat around after the show. John and Sara bought a whip for the girls and they are all doing a cracking job!!!
Nathan holds the "Guinness World Book of Records" for cracking the most whip cracks with two whips in a minute (697) and for cracking the longest whip (329ft 7.5in) 😱
On September 3rd, after 4 days in Bitter Springs, I hitched up the van, drove 100kms north and parked my van at the Riverview Tourist Village caravan park in Katherine. I am still with Sara, John and the girls and this time we parked side by side. We were walking distance to the Katherine thermal springs swimming pool so we donned our bathers and took off to explore the pools.
The family enjoying Katherine thermal pools.
We only swam there the once preferring the CP pool as the weather is starting to get quite hot...around mid 30 degrees and the water wasn't cool enough to refresh us southerns who are used to cold water swimming. The pools were shallower that Bitter Springs and Mataranka and quite crowded. That said, the thermal pools are quite beautiful and there's a peaceful feeling about just relaxing on a noodle and letting the current take you along.
Over the next few days we explored "Nitmilik National Park" doing some of the walks and swimming in the waterfall pools. Edith Falls is around 60 kms from Katherine at the northern end of Nitmilik National Park and is stunning.
This was one of the easiest pools to access and was magic. It was situated close to the Edith Falls car park. We swam across the pool to the falls with snorkels and pool noodles. (everyone has pool noodles with them)
From there we headed off up to the top of the gorge on the Leliyn walk to the Bemang lookout.
Me and Sara at Bemang lookout
We're on our way to the upper waterfall you can see in the distance to the right of Sara's head. You can't get to the main gorge waterfall, which you can see to the right of her shoulder. We then continued on to the upper pool for a swim under the waterfall before continuing on to the Leliyn Lookout on our way back to the car park.
To get to the waterfall we had to get in and swim around a large rock to a beautiful secluded waterfall pool. I've created a new name for a waterfall massage 🤣Sitting underneath the waterfall, I felt like I was being smashed (in a fun way!!) and had a wonderful "smassage" from the water pounding on the shoulders and head with quite a force. It was FABULOUS!!!
I was able to take a photo of the pool from the top of the cliff as we started our walk back to the car park
This was the view of the countryside as we came over the top of the escarpment on our return to the car park
We also spent some time in Nimbilik National Park about a 1/2 hour west of Katherine at Katherine Gorge and took a walk along the gorge escarpment.
A view from one of the lookout points along the gorge
One of the highlights of Katherine was taking a scenic flight in a helicopter over the Katherine Gorge with Sara. The experience was new for both of us and a little scary considering the chopper had no doors. I sat in the front seat and was instructed not to put any part of my body out the frame of the door as if i had a camera in my hand it would be whipped away for ever😱That freaked me out a bit, but overall it was a sedate flight with a fantastic commentary from the pilot. As the pilot explained, the water level in the gorge is fairly low and the terrain is extremely dry so we were not seeing it in it's wet season glory, but it was still an amazing experience
About to take off.
Our flight was 15 to 20 minutes and took us over 8 gorges.
And gave us an amazing panorama of the region
Taken straight out the open doorway. Our pilot made it clear if I lent out to take the photo the camera would get sucked out of my hand!!!
And a quick selfie in the chopper before disembarking
It's been so wonderful spending time with the three girls. They have been taking turns sleeping in the van with me and while we were in Katherine we had a day painting. Nellie had sculptured a crocodile from some clay when she was at Lawn Hill NP (I think it was at Lawn Hill) and it has now set hard and she was keen to paint it. She knew I had paints with me so I got out my painting materials and we had a lot of fun for a few hours. The girls are so creative. John has since glued the painted crocodile onto a rock and it looks fabulous. I thought I had a photo of it, but can't seem to find it. I will add it to the blog if I find it.
One of the great things about being with the family is that I am doing a lot more swimming in gorge pools and venturing further afield with walks. Hopping into water or walking alone on a rocky bush track when there are not a lot of people around can be a little daunting on your own. It is also so much more fun and rewarding to do it with the family and see the enjoyment they are getting out of the trip.
The date is now September 7th and I'm going to close off this instalment here. We are packing up the vans in Katherine and heading for Litchfield National Park just South of Darwin. There's been a lot of fires in the area, but it appears all roads are open and it's safe. I'll get the next instalment off in a few days time. Until then...
Enjoy the journey.