Mataranka

From Daly Waters we resumed our journey north along the Stuart Highway with our next stop being Mataranka. The district is, of course know for it’s thermal springs. We chose to set up camp at the 12-mile yards campground in Elsey N.P. about 17Km out of town. Here it was peaceful and quiet on the banks of the Roper River. On our trips into town we visited the thermal springs (Mataranka) as well as Bitter Springs, which is more natural, less crowded and very attractive. Another interesting activity was at the Territory Manor where we witnessed the Barra feeding and saw a very large Barra caught by hand.

After 3 days at Mataranka we headed of to Katherine, the largest town we had seen for quite some time. Although Katherine has many attractions for visitors we concentrated on re-stocking the pantry, collecting mail and re-fuelling. ($1.24.9 per litre for diesel with a shopper docket). As our first night was Mother’s day Sue thought it would be nice to go out for dinner, so on the recommendation of the lady at the caravan park we went along to a Teahouse/restaurant about 3Km up the road. They had a Mother’s day special buffet dinner for just $20 per head for all you could eat. The food was outstanding with prawns, Barra and roast beef and vegies as well as a large selection of salads and Asian dishes, all finished off with a selection of deserts and tea and coffee. We also had a visit from Sue’s 2nd cousin Paul, who lives in Katherine, and it was great to catch up with him and also to absorb a little local knowledge. With us only spending a couple of days in Katherine we decided against doing anything of a tourist nature as we will be returning here after Darwin. You need to come back down to Katherine to pick up the Victoria Highway to head west towards the W.A border.