Well after leaving Mt Isa – with new tyres, we finally headed off to the Northern Territory via the Barkley Highway. This is undoubtedly the most boring highway in Australia, miles and miles of straight road through some very dry and non-inspiring county.

We stayed over night at the Barkley Station and some other place in the NT that was just an off-road camp before reaching Mataranka and Bitter Springs. We stayed at the caravan park at Bitter Springs and enjoyed four days of just wallowing around in the springs and not much of anything else. The change in both weather and land features was quite noticeable after leaving the Simpson desert behind. No more wide open planes and  more trees. The other big difference was the roads – why is it the every state has better roads than Queensland?

The main spring in the area is Mattaranka with some 30.5 million liters of water coming from the spring daily. This area is a little more “touristy” than Bitter Springs, but both are quite beautiful in their own way. Once you get in the water (a comfortable 28-30 degree Celsius) it is very hard to drag yourself out.

Both Peter and I preferred Bitter Springs and the more natural setting, not to mention it was pretty awesome just floating down the waterways – very peaceful and relaxing.

The Roper River and the Little Roper River are here at Mataranka. Everyone seemed quite confidant that the crocs never wander over into the springs. The Roper River swimming areas do have croc traps everywhere though – reassuring to know if they are there, they just might get caught before they eat someone!

Mataranka is also famous as the site of Elsey Station made famous by the novel We of the Never Never by Jeannie Gunn. It is an account of the author’s experiences in 1902 at Elsey Station and a replica of the station that was used to make the movie can be seen at Matakanka.

It was hard to pack up and keep heading north towards Darwin. I in particular was concerned about the heat in Darwin, but so far the nights are still quite pleasant. It only took a day to reach Darwin and we are camped up with friends who live about 40kms south of Darwin, a bit of a drive to town, but accommodation, even caravan parks are expensive here due to a large number of workers because of the gas pipeline.

Peter states work on Monday with a company called Mining Maintenance and Construction and I have an interview on Tuesday and hopefully (or maybe not), will start work shortly as well. I think we will need the money to get the van air-conditioned if we stay.

I will do another post in a week or so with pics of Darwin and hopefully some fish! The pics in this post are all from the Hot Springs at Mataranka and Bitter Springs, and a few of the Roper River – enjoy.

Elsey Station replica

Mataranka

Roper River

Croc trap makes you feel safe

Bitter Springs

Swimming in Bitter Spring