We enjoyed our breakfast along with the birds that were very keen to catch any crumbs that might fall from table; at least these weren’t attacking me!
We did contemplate staying another night; however we wanted to stop off in Mataranka to visit the thermal pools and then drive up through Katharine and Pine Creek and then head for Jabiru which would be about 400 kms, with stops for fuel and breaks it would take us at least 6-7 hours we estimated depending on the roads.
From Elsey Nat Park where we stayed in the Jalmurark camping ground we reached Mataranka very quickly as it was only up the Stuart Highway a few kms. It was just as we remembered it, nothing much changed from our other two visits from a few years ago. We walked down to the thermal pools and noticed that they had put awnings up over the walkways to stop the bats from messing all over you as you make your way through the tropical fruit trees. However there were no bats this time as they are only there from September to January when they arrive to breed.
We didn’t go into the pool this time but had a walk around the boardwalk through all the trees before walking back to the old homestead which also has quite a history. Before we left we checked out the building which was a reconstruction of another homestead that they built when they made the movie “We of the Never Never”
As we headed for our next stop, Pine Creek we were a bit concerned about an intermittent alarm the car was making. Strangely enough when I asked Beatrice to put her head down to see where it was coming from it stopped. We deduced it must be the car alarm being activated for some reason as it stopped when we put our hand up in front of the dash board. My, how boring this is, anyhow to cut a long story short we decided we would head for Darwin first and go to Jabiru on our way back. That way we will get the car serviced and everything checked out before we go into the national parks again where it would hard to get any mechanical help without incurring a huge expense.
What a long drive and not much to see except a long straight road ahead of us that never seemed to end. Again not much road kill, however we saw the remains of many shredded tyres on the road side. That’s something we don’t want to happen to us!
We stopped at the Cutta Cutta Caves just before Katherine for break and a read of all the info they had on display before setting off once again. We had to cover nearly 400 kms so we had to get a move on. We do cruise along at about 100 however so we can cover quite a distance as we don’t have to stop for traffic or slow down for corners etc s there aren’t that many, it’s just a straight road!
Through Pine Creek, Adelaide River and finally Darwin where after a couple of calls we managed to find a spot at the Howard Springs Big 4 caravan park where we arrived at about 5pmIt had been a long day.
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