Back on the Bitumen.....

After many kms we're having a smooth ride again.  We reached the sealed road about an hour after we left Tomato Island on our way back to the Stewart Highway.  The highway is named after the explorer John McDouall Stewart and it runs from Darwin in the Northern Territory to Port Augusta in South Australia, effectively bisecting the country from North to South.  Our first stop back on the highway is Mataranka.

This area was made famous by Mrs Jeannie Gunn in her book "We of the Never Never" about life on Elsey Station.  The park in Mataranka has life sized figures of the Cheon the chinese cook, Bett Bett the "Little Black Princess" (another book by Jeannie Gunn), Jeannie and Aeneas Gunn, and a stockman.









At Mataranka we stayed at the Mataranka Cabins and Camping Caravan Park which is near Bitter Springs.  The water at the springs is 34C - just like a warm bath.  We hired floating "noodles" at the caravan park and headed for the springs.  Along with many others we climbed into the water and floated downstream with the current for about 200m.  We floated under the trees and spider webs which stretched across the river, to some steps where we got out and walked back to the pool.  A lovely way to spend the afternoon in the crystal clear waters.

Lunch at Mataranka was a "no-brainer" - mango smoothies at the Garden Courtyard Cafe.  We were entertained by the blue faced honeyeaters that couldn't wait for us to finish before tucking into the jam left over from our scones.






After a couple of days at Mataranka we drove the 110km north to Katherine where we've booked into the Low Level Big4 Caravan Park for a week.  We've been able to completely stock up with groceries and fresh produce.  Our fridge and cupboards were pretty empty after our few weeks in such remote areas. We've also been able get a new CB aerial for our car.  This one is heavy duty so it should withstand the corrugated roads.

This morning we drove out to Nitmiluk (Katherine Gorge) where we had coffee overlooking the river and trees filled with roosting fruit bats.  The visitor centre has a good interpretive section with plenty of information about the geology, indigenous and white settlement of the area.  The Nitmiluk National Park is jointly managed by the NT Parks and Wildlife Department and the local Jawoyn people.  We've booked into the Three Gorge Cruise on Tuesday morning.

On our way back we stopped off at the Katherine Museum which has exhibits in 4 buildings and which is very informative.  A well as the usual rusty farm machinery and memorabilia, there's an old Overland Telegraph building, the telegraph linked Adelaide and Darwin in 1872.  There's a building dedicated to Dr Clyde Fenton, with his gypsy moth plane as the centrepiece.  Around the walls is a chronological frieze with plenty of historical information.  At the museum Cherryl was able to buy a copy of the book "Kings in Grass Castles" by Mary Durack.  It's about white settlement in the gulf savannah and is out of print so we were pleased to get a copy - we've been looking for it for a while.  It will be good to read a hard copy book for a change instead of an e-book.