We were all very excited to cross the NT boarder and be able to say we are now in a new State (or Territory). The first place we visited was Daly Waters. It was very interesting to walk around the little main street and read the history of the town. The memorabilia in the Daly Waters Pub was also very interesting to see. We then did the historic walk just outside of town where there was the Stuart Tree where John McDouall Stuart marked an ‘S’ in the tree to as part of his successful journey to cross Australia from North to the South coast, which later became the Stuart Highway. We also saw the Chinese Cemetery and the flying fox that was constructed to take passengers and supplies over the Daly River when it was flooded as the airport was on the other side of the river to the township. We then made our way to Mataranka. We found a great little camp called the Little Roper Stockyards. It came complete with cows, bulls, buffalos, pigs, chickens, reptiles, rabbits and a camp dog that would come and visit you! Needless to say, Emmalisa was in her element with all the animals! We soon realised they need to change the name to the Little Ripper Stockyards! Haydan thought it was hilarious that they don’t name the chickens because are constantly ‘changing’ (AKA – eaten) and one of the buffalos was called Edible Curry! In fact, Glen and Laura enjoyed the curry night where they cooked up a selection of curries, we even tried the Buffalo curry! The kids were not up for the curry night, but they were keen for the Johnny Cakes that they make every morning for ‘smoko’ at 8am. There are like a cross between a donut and a scone. They were delicious!
Our adventures around
Mataranka included seeing a World Champion Whip Cracker, Nathan ‘Whippy’ Griggs. His show was amazing, and he inspired the
kids to buy their own whips. After a few
practice sessions the kids are both now able to crack a whip! Which is much harder than it looks! While at
Mataranka we also enjoyed the Thermal Springs that were beautiful and warm
without being too hot. We enjoyed a
relaxing swim at the Mataranka Thermal Pool and enjoyed floating down the stream of
Bitter Springs. The kids even saw a
turtle in the water at Bitter Springs.
Back at the camp we enjoyed being able to have a good campfire and cook
some food over the coals. We made an
amazing chocolate chip damper as well as savoury damper rolls for lunch. We loved our stay at Mataranka but it was
time to move on.
Our next stop was at
Edith Falls. This was a beautiful place
to swim and enjoy the water that was no where near as cold as what we were
swimming in in Queensland. There was a
bit of a walk in on some pretty rocky terrain and unfortunately for Emmalisa
she slipped on some rocks getting out of the swimming hole and hurt her
knee. Glen had to piggyback her some of
the way back, but she walked a lot of the way by her self like the tough little
cookie she is! The next day her knee was feeling better, there was just a nice
bruise!
We are now looking
forward to a week in Darwin!
No comments:
Post a Comment