We were up early and headed for Mataranka, Hot Springs and a lovely shaded caravan a park await us!Its about 170km up the road so arrive around lunch time and get setup in a lovely caravan site called Bitter Springs Resort. Its just a few hundred metres from the town(which has a few houses a small supermarket and a pub) but its so lovely.
Its set among bush and you pick your own spot, its all dirt track and we find a lovely wee corner where we have palm trees around three sides of us. Tommy backs the van in and we get setup. We had asked where the springs are and the lady at reception says its walking distance so we have some lunch, then a wee nana nap with the airconditioning on as its 31dg and we need to get acclimatised to the heat! When we wake up its time to get our bathers on and our noodles & towels and we are off to the springs. First we drive to town to get some bread & milk and find the supermarket is a smelly expensive one! don't buy bread as its only frozen and around $4 for a sandwich loaf! I will bake my own I think! The pub doesn't look good either as loads of Aboriginal hanging around the front looking very drunk in the middle of the day. A few Police cars out front too!
Its set among bush and you pick your own spot, its all dirt track and we find a lovely wee corner where we have palm trees around three sides of us. Tommy backs the van in and we get setup. We had asked where the springs are and the lady at reception says its walking distance so we have some lunch, then a wee nana nap with the airconditioning on as its 31dg and we need to get acclimatised to the heat! When we wake up its time to get our bathers on and our noodles & towels and we are off to the springs. First we drive to town to get some bread & milk and find the supermarket is a smelly expensive one! don't buy bread as its only frozen and around $4 for a sandwich loaf! I will bake my own I think! The pub doesn't look good either as loads of Aboriginal hanging around the front looking very drunk in the middle of the day. A few Police cars out front too!
We drive straight to the Springs just so we know where it is and get out and walk down to the springs. Its a dirt path into a wooded area with Palm trees and tropical bushes and ferns around, lovely and cool and lots of birds singing in the trees. It suddenly opens up and to the left of us there is a decked area over the water and we take a look at the signage there. It tells us about the bird life and fish and warns there could be salt water crocodiles but not to worry! We make our way further down to the open space and you can hear laughter and chatting and then we see some seating and concrete steps leading to the water. we set our clothes down and take a few timid steps to the waters edge. There are probably 20 people in the water all with their noodles to allow them to float down. We chat to a few of them and they say the current of the river carries you down to a bridge where you need to get out as its too shallow and narrow after that. You can walk back up and hop in again. We put our toes in and its a lovely warm feeling just like a hot bath! The water is crystal clear... you can see right to the bottom. The bottom is sandy in places with beautiful coloured rock here and there, logs have fallen in and create underground steps or ledges to stand on but mostly you feel the pull of the current sending you downstream, so we tuck our noodles under our arms and let the current do its job. We amble our way downstream looking at the plant life on the banks and some of the green algie the hot water creates all around the edge, but someone tells us its actually a form of grass. It does look a bit yucky but you don't get near it as the banks are quite wide and the amount of people using the stream keeps it right to the edge. We hold hands and chat to people floating beside us its so relaxing. It takes around 20 minutes to get to the bottom bridge and we have to hang onto the steps to stop ourselves being swept past. We climb up the slimey steps up onto the bridge, only to find we have to walk back along a sandy and very stoney path with no shoes on! Oops, now someone tells us that its best to tie your thongs onto your noodle for just this senario! Thats what we will be doing next time! So we half walk half run "Ohing" and "Ouching" back along the path(luckily its quite a short walk as the stream meanders and the path is straight back) to where we got in. We decide we are not equipped for another trip down the stream tonight and its getting late but vow to be back tomorrow early. We head back to the car and back to the van. We have some cheese n biscuits and a wee glass of wine or two and Tommy calls his Dad while I just relax. We decide that we will go down to the other resort for tea and get in the car and drive probably about 15 minutes to Mataranka Springs Homestead Resort. Its too dark by now to see the springs here so we just go into the main dining and entertaining area and order some dinner. Its pretty basic and the building really needs a bit of TLC but we had a nice burger n chips meal and there is a guy playing the guitar, Didgerydoo and singing who is pretty good. We are told there is a Whip cracking guy on next and don't think we will stay but he starts s we are finishing our drinks and we find him really entertaining! Great tricks and got some good jokes and he is pretty witty! All in all a good wee night. Home by 9.30pm and bed!
Next morning we just chillaxed and then put our bathers on, took our old thongs and noodles down for another few trips down the hot springs. Awesome! We drifted down 3 times and had to get out as I had wrinkly fingers! Before we had come out I had peeled and chopped veggies and added meat and stock to our slow cooker to make a stew, when we got back I prepared and cooked a damper on the Webber and we had a lovely home cooked meal! Plenty for tomorrow to! We sat outside just listening to the birds and animals around us until the mozzies drove us inside. Watched 3 Days to Kill movie... really enjoyed it and then to bed.
Up early and down to Mataranka Homestead Springs. We drove the 15 minutes and this time we could see more of the place in the daylight. As we came in we noticed the real old homestead at the carpark. It had been used in an old movie and book by Jeannie Gunn's "We of the Never Never", was shot around Mataranka and at Pine Creek in the early 80's. A replica of the old Elsey Homestead was erected for the film and is still here at Mataranka Homestead, reminding us of those early days. Photos below
Next morning we just chillaxed and then put our bathers on, took our old thongs and noodles down for another few trips down the hot springs. Awesome! We drifted down 3 times and had to get out as I had wrinkly fingers! Before we had come out I had peeled and chopped veggies and added meat and stock to our slow cooker to make a stew, when we got back I prepared and cooked a damper on the Webber and we had a lovely home cooked meal! Plenty for tomorrow to! We sat outside just listening to the birds and animals around us until the mozzies drove us inside. Watched 3 Days to Kill movie... really enjoyed it and then to bed.
Up early and down to Mataranka Homestead Springs. We drove the 15 minutes and this time we could see more of the place in the daylight. As we came in we noticed the real old homestead at the carpark. It had been used in an old movie and book by Jeannie Gunn's "We of the Never Never", was shot around Mataranka and at Pine Creek in the early 80's. A replica of the old Elsey Homestead was erected for the film and is still here at Mataranka Homestead, reminding us of those early days. Photos below
Then we walked down through the caravan park, and through a wonderful palm forrest over a man made walkway to get to the springs. Its not as authentic as Bitter Springs as they have actually damed off a piece of the river to create a swimmimg pool, and concreted the edges to form the pool with some concrete steps and seats around the edge just under the water for you to sit on. Its still wonderful and warm and very relaxing, only thing is its packed and lots of kids thinking its a pool jumping in and screaming. Definetly not as relaxing as Bitter Springs. It was mostly the Grey nomads there!
We were in the pools chatting to a few people for over an hour and we decided we would get out and have a walk down some tracks we had saw on the way in. We took a track to Rainbow waterhole, no wonder its called that, it was wonderful! Just a small waterhole which looked like the source of the springs with bubbles gurgling up and rainbows of colour across the water... amazing! Then we walked further along and saw a sign for Stevies waterhole and it said it was 1 km along the track. We walked for about half an hour and thought we may be lost when the path opened out and we saw the sign saying Stevies Waterhole. The sign also had some information about fish and animals you should be able to see in the river and that you should get in with snorkel and mask and discover the underwater marvels. We walked fiurther down to the waters edge and found some steps leading into the waterhole, our feet were pretty dusty from walking the track so we went down to the first step to dip our feet into clean them but it was a tad cold for swimming. We stayed there watching the water and seeing if we could spot any fish jumping but no luck. We walked up the path again only to find anothe sign on the opposite side of the track saying "No swimming Crocodiles live in these waters!" OMG! we couldnt beleive it we had been there, right on the edge of the water! Contemplating getting in! We walked back and had some lunch at the homestead before heading back to the van. Tommy had a nap and I sat in the sun reading. When Tommy woke he said lets jump on the bikes and head down to the springs down the road for another wee swim so got our bathers on, bikes ready and just about to take off when a womans voice shouts "Tommy!" Its Carron & Pete! They have just pulled in today to the same caravan site as us! We chat and then we promise to go over to their van tonight for drinks after dinner! Had a nice cycle down to the springs and have a few floats down the stream and back for dinner. Lovely night catching up with Carron, Pete and their friends around their van.
We were in the pools chatting to a few people for over an hour and we decided we would get out and have a walk down some tracks we had saw on the way in. We took a track to Rainbow waterhole, no wonder its called that, it was wonderful! Just a small waterhole which looked like the source of the springs with bubbles gurgling up and rainbows of colour across the water... amazing! Then we walked further along and saw a sign for Stevies waterhole and it said it was 1 km along the track. We walked for about half an hour and thought we may be lost when the path opened out and we saw the sign saying Stevies Waterhole. The sign also had some information about fish and animals you should be able to see in the river and that you should get in with snorkel and mask and discover the underwater marvels. We walked fiurther down to the waters edge and found some steps leading into the waterhole, our feet were pretty dusty from walking the track so we went down to the first step to dip our feet into clean them but it was a tad cold for swimming. We stayed there watching the water and seeing if we could spot any fish jumping but no luck. We walked up the path again only to find anothe sign on the opposite side of the track saying "No swimming Crocodiles live in these waters!" OMG! we couldnt beleive it we had been there, right on the edge of the water! Contemplating getting in! We walked back and had some lunch at the homestead before heading back to the van. Tommy had a nap and I sat in the sun reading. When Tommy woke he said lets jump on the bikes and head down to the springs down the road for another wee swim so got our bathers on, bikes ready and just about to take off when a womans voice shouts "Tommy!" Its Carron & Pete! They have just pulled in today to the same caravan site as us! We chat and then we promise to go over to their van tonight for drinks after dinner! Had a nice cycle down to the springs and have a few floats down the stream and back for dinner. Lovely night catching up with Carron, Pete and their friends around their van.