OUTBACK ODYSSEY - KATHERINE TO RENNER SPRINGS

---

Day 7 - Katherine to Renner Springs

Today we headed off to Mataranka just after breakfast in order to catch the 9.30am barramundi feeding session at Territory Manor. Territory Manor is along the road to Bitter Springs and looks like a great place to stay - lots of grassy sites!! They have a dam with a couple of reasonable size barra which they hand feed. The barra obviously know what's happening and come out for a free feed, one by one. The guy feeding them is obviously a keen fisherman himself and he is the one who has caught the fish (legally) and brought them back to the dam. He told us how they are all male until they reach about 50 cm and then some of them will turn into females (but only when they are in the wild, not in captivity). He also explained a little about what they eat and how that affects what they taste like. It was really interesting and well worth seeing. After the show, we had some scones and coffee and relaxed in the cafe, watching the peacocks strut past.

We decided to have a look at Bitter Springs as we had been told that some bats had made Mataranka Springs their home and because of that, they were a bit on the nose. As it turned out, Bitter Springs was only a few minutes drive down the road from Territory Manor. It's about a 500m walk to the springs from the carpark (and toilets). The thing that really struck me about the springs was how clear the water was and how strong the current was. It was a stinking hot day and the water was just the perfect temperature - even I went swimming! You enter the springs/creek via a ladder at the upstream entry point then you can swim/float downstream to an exit point where there is another ladder. It was very hard to leave but we knew that we had quite a few hours drive ahead of us so we reluctantly dried ourselves off and jumped back in the car.

There's nothing much to see or do along the stretch of road south of Mataranka. We stopped briefly at Daly Waters for lunch and to have a look at the Daly Waters pub. We pushed on to Renner Springs where we decided to stop for the night as we didn't really want to keep driving for another hour and a half to Tennant Creek. The campground wasn't great but it wasn't quite as bad as Jabiru. If I'd known that Barrow Creek was only half an hour down the road, I probably would have pushed on and camped there as it was a much nicer campground (read more grass) and slightly further off the highway. There were a flock of domesticated geese at Renner Springs who were a little noisy but at least they were something interesting to look at.

---

Photos

Hand feeding the Barra
The barra are lightning fast when they grab the fish straight from the hand

Territory Manor campsite
Green, grassy sites - looks like a great place to stay

Peacock, Territory Manor
Sit back in the cafe and watch the world go by