Blogs from Mataranka, Northern Territory, Australia, Oceania - page 3

Day 9 – Sunday 8th July. Tennant Creek to Mataranka Several hours and a few stiff necks later we woke up from a less than deep sleep to an atmospheric sunrise in a rest area next to the Stuart Highway. We just caught the end of the famous Ghan train passing us on its way up to Darwin. With no tent to pack up and no showers to be had we hit the road early on our way to Mataranka. Our breakfast stop was at the BP centre at Tennant Creek, which proved to be a much larger place than expected. Pies, bacon and egg muffins and coffees kept us going until we arrived at the sleepy little town of Mataranka at around 3.30 in the afternoon, a good 500 kms. Harry Potter and ... read more

Mataranka was a pretty sweet camping spot. In the morning as Majeed prepared our morning coffee, he noticed a funny looking branch that turned out to be a Tawny Frogmouth bird! And his partner one branch up! They are these really amazing birds that become still as a branch, and look just like the branches except for their crimson red eyes. After sharing our discovery with fellow campers, who all came by to "ooh and aah", we headed out to the Mataranka natural hot springs. They weren't really hot, just warmer than you'd expect. We brought our snorkelling gear and did half of it face down and half of it floating with our heads out of the water. It was beautiful and cleansing. After walking back to the car and changing into our dry clothes, we ... read more

Spent the morning at Mataranka swimming in the natural thermal pool. It almost looks like a real man made pool. We had the whole place to ourselves! Stopped over at Katherine for the night to meet the homeowners of our next house sit. They very kindly have offered to baby sit Maxie for us while we go to Darwin. He has a little friend to play with while we are gone, a black labrador (Sheba). It was a bit weird leaving him behind but we'll see him again soon.... read more

Daly Waters(DW) to Mataranka(M) (4864 km to 5032 km). We're up with the warm weather and the waters warm too. Loved the spring and found it hard to have any swim less than an hour - maybe the last morning. CADES DIARY- Days 21&22 Mataranka and Bitter Springs are thermal pools with 34oC and crystal clear. I got to feed a barramundi at Territory Manor.... read more

Sunday 31st July - although we didn’t have a long journey today we were both up and about early. The very early mornings now we’re some way south of Darwin are usually lovely - the days generally start nice and cool and the heat intensity gradually builds up through the day. It doesn’t start to cool down again until the sun goes down and then there is another period when the temperature is usually very pleasant. I got on with the sandwiches while Graham packed up the ‘outside’ things. He expertly reversed the car and just needed the one go to be correctly aligned to the caravan tow-bar. The couple next door, however, needed five or six attempts to line theirs up but we weren’t smug about it (much). Then unfortunately, their brake lights didn’t work ... read more