Now at Katherine after some lovely hot springs!

Howdy!

Well, we had the car serviced in Alice…turns out the oil filter hadn’t been replaced properly at the last service which is why we had been losing oil. Alls back OK now.
We enjoyed having time to actually catch our breath in Alice after all the long drives and busy days. We went out for a nice lunch and did some grocery shopping, washing, updated our banking etc etc.

We then set off again..heading north. We planned to go past Tennant Creek (500kms from alice) to Daly Waters so we could have dinner in the famous pub there (oldest operating in the NT)..which has a beef and barra bbq every night.

So we were driving along, having passed Tennant Creek and been in the car quite some time (its sometimes not possible to sit on 100 with the van on, due to wind resistance, fuel consumption etc) when Adam asked me where Elliot was, as all the signs kept giving kms distances to there. I said, “Oh it’s a far way before Daly Waters”… Now at that stage by my rough calculations (I hadn’t really examined the map at all on this particular day for some reason which is very unlike me!! I usually study it in depth), we should have been about 100 ks from Daly Waters. It was however, still 150 kms to Elliot!! And a futher 400 odd kms to Daly waters!!!!!

We decided to push on anyway- and after 10 hours in the car we made it to Daly Waters by about 6.30 pm…having covered 910 kms in a day.

We showered and went to the pub…we were late for the bbq dinner and it was crowded, but we still got a meal- it was delicious, and lots of food! They had entertainment on , country singers etc and the pub has lots of interesting memorabilia and trinkets etc that have been left by tourists from across the world, so a good place to see, even if it did take us literally all day to get there!

Today we allowed ourselves a bit of a sleep in, before continuing on…only 170kms though thank goodness (our bodies and backs have had enough of the car for now!). We are now at Mataranka, south of Katherine. This area is where the movie "We of the Never Never" was filmed, and the story was based on local characters.
There are lovely thermal springs here, where you can swim amongs a setting of lush palms etc. Plus some nice walks along the river. So that’s how we’ll spend this afternoon. We are going to stay here tomorrow too and do some other walks and visit some other hot springs- Bitter Springs- which were recommended to us by a friend who has already travelled through this area.

The weather is all of the sudden hot again, now that we are much further north again. After the chilly nights and mild days of the centre this is a big change. It’s probably about 28 or so today- the nights still cool though, but certainly not as cold as Alice was!
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Hi again…just arrived in Katherine after a couple of lovely days at the Mataranka Homestead…the hot springs were great…even better were the Bitter Hot Springs…so so clear…we drifted down the warm creek with our masks and snorkels…it was an eerie world below us with little fish and turtles and weed etc, and due to the high mineral content the water was a beautiful emerald green/blue. And of course the warm 32 degree water was nice (although we were pretty hot – the outside temp was about the same!).

At night we went to the bistro at the homestead and listened to their entertainment (a good singer)…nice and relaxing.

We also played scrabble. I am reluctant to report that Adam beat me- only by a few points, but still! We’ve been scoring a bit like tennis…that game meant Adam took out the first tournament!! Having won the first “set” 2-0 and then taking the second 2-1. I need to pick my act up! I used to be the reigning Scrabble champ… sigh….of course Adam is quite pleased with himself.

It’s hot and sunny again today- about 31 degrees. We are feeling the heat after the cooler days in the centre. Off to Katherine Gorge tomorrow- we have booked a canoe for a half day.

Love and hugs… Emma & Adam